Went out into the park this morning and found it to be nearly as quiet as it had been two days before. Seems odd, how many quiet days that we have had this year. Too many. And today there were very few bison to be seen. Very little of anything. I saw one coyote on Round Prairie and that was about all. I do know that the Junction Buttes were seen but can’t not tell you how many because I did not walk up the hill in my wet hair while it was only 24 degrees. Uh huh! And, later, they saw wolves on the Blacktail but they appeared to be far out and I decided not to check it out. A friend, Kevin S., said that he saw 2 blacks and one grey on the Blacktail this morning.
And, so, I headed home with thoughts of getting a lot of things done. And then I decided to at least check for some big horn rut action, and perhaps some waxwings. Down in Gardiner Canyon one small ram had quite a nice group of gals but none of them wanted to play and so they were standing on ledges that jutted out from a steep rock while the ram tried to figure out how to get to them. I can only assume that none of the girls were ready, otherwise some bigger boys, like the ones in the photo above, would have been hanging around.
And, so, the big horn rut has officially begun. Dress warm as a very cold winter storm is on its way, make some hot chocolate, pop some corn and come out and play in Yellowstone.
As you can see, many of the girls had their own ledge and were not going to move. The ram, in the background, is chasing one up the rocks but he soon loses her.
I never see rams there in the summer. What a treat!