Wild Memories Photography Tours

Had a terribly exciting day in Yellowstone when my biggest wildlife sighting was this mouse/vole in the tree.  I am thinking it is a vole that was hiding from the Great Grey owl that was somewhere in the area, ever elusive to me.

Melba found the owl and Josh and I were already near the top of Dunraven when he got the text.  I followed him because he is always following me and because he thought that Melba had an owl.  She had been behind me but disappeared and so my suspicions were already on the alert.

Apparently the owl flew right over Melba leaving feathers in her hair, and she lost track of the thing.

We wandered in the forest, hoping but no go.  And then eagle eye Josh spotted this little critter going into the crack of the tree and then peeking out at us.  And so we entertained ourselves for awhile, with photographing the mouse/vole, until it got brave and went down the tree into the grass.

Melba kept thinking that she saw wings in the forest but we saw nothing.

The mouse sighting was after a trip down the river and lake, looking for bears and wolves, finding trouble instead.  When trying to get through a bison jam a guy decided to block me, forcing me to try and pull in behind him but the guy behind him moved forward to block me as well.  I eased in just a tad and turned to look at the guy behind me when my foot slipped from the break and the car went forward about 12″ and bumped the car in front.  Well, mayhem followed.  The guy looked at his car and then shook my hand to signify that all was well but the wife had been waiting for that bison jam experience her whole life and I had ruined it.  We had been in the bison jam for 15 minutes by the time we got through and it had been going on for more than an hour.  Anyway, they reported it to one ranger and then another ranger.   I waited for the ranger to catch up with me and gave my statement, which varied from what happened, right down to the part where we shook hands.  So, who knows what will happen.  Wish I had stayed home or gone out the East entrance as planned.

But then I would have missed the critter in the tree.

I then drove all of the way out to Soda Butte Valley and took a walk around the Pebble Creek campground, just to stretch my legs before looking for wolves on Round Prairie.  Could not find the animals and so headed home, still early.

But, I found a Rosie jam and decided to stay even though there was no light to shoot.

The jam was fairly calm and people came and went quickly, quite happy to get a good look at some black bears and cubs.

I stayed in the car, for the most part, and shot from the sun roof.  Which meant that I could not see the cubs.  Well, I saw them eventually and took shots even though it was too dark. I won’t bother you with those but here is one of Rosie.

Because there were no rangers on the scene, the bears were able to peacefully reach some water and get a drink.  And then they meandered around, eating and eating.  No more cub playtime, this is serious business – to stuff themselves before going into hibernation.  It was nice to see the bears not be harassed for a change.

The light was stunning on the Blacktail and I took a few shots but can’t get to them right now so this is it for today.