Wild Memories Photography Tours

Wow, simply another incredible day in Yellowstone.  Many people are able to plan their days but that never works for me and so I just go with the flow and see what the day brings my way.  This was one of those days when it couldn’t have been much better.

Started off with a gorgeous male yearling from the Junction Buttes, out in Lamar Valley chewing on bones from the bison carcass.  When I say gorgeous, this guy has it going on.

Then came across a courting black bear couple, a small black female and a large cinnamon boar.  That guy sure gets around and you should have seen the look of love in his eyes.

Afterwards I stopped by Floating Island and discovered that the Sandhills have at least one baby – colt – chick, whatever you want to call it.  The reeds are tall and so I could barely see the youngster and it looks like mom might still be sitting on the other egg.

Then I took a drive on Blacktail Plateau, which yielded nothing but a pretty drive.

I then entered Slough Creek and haven’t left – what a delightful, quiet day we have had along the creek.

We were watching the badger den with the two babies (everything is a baby from now on) and saw the kits for a second before someone came along to tell me that there was a black bear with two coy hanging down the road.  We made the decision to go look for the bear and so abandoned the badgers.

Well, I did not think that the black bear sighting would manifest into other things and become several hours of standing and waiting.

The black bears were down by the river and walked into the forest and so we all went down to a clearing to watch for the bears.  The cubs played in a tree in front of us and I saw mom just briefly.  After waiting for several minutes I told a friend that I thought that the bear was doubling back and so we decided to head that way ourselves.

We got across the field and started up the hill where we thought that we might see her when I looked behind me and there she was, coming out of the forest.  Yep, she doubled back and I really thought that she intended to get across the road because some folks said she was blocked earlier.  We had the perfect alleyway for her to cross the meadow and road, which she eventually did.

But, when she started across the meadow she stopped and looked at me and I got the distinct feeling that she wanted to come my way but I was blocking her.  There really was little I could do and she had plenty of room and so I stayed put and the little family continued past but not without looking wistfully in my direction several times.

I was getting ready to move when suddenly my friend rushed up beside me and started shooting in the opposite direction.  I had been standing in front of the cutest little pronghorn fawn!  All thoughts of the bears vanished as I turned my camera at the fawn.  What a dream moment!  To stumble, accidentally, across a bedded fawn was an amazing feeling.  I have seen them out in the distance but never dared to approach for fear of scaring them into danger but this just happened and the fawn wasn’t sure about us but wasn’t running in a panic.

The bears kind of lingered near us but across the road and the rest of the photographers were focused on them, never knowing what cuteness was in front of us and we decided for the fawn’s safety it was best not to let the masses know.  Although we did let a couple of friends in on the secret and ended up having a great time with the youngster.

The fawn stood up a couple of times and stretched its legs but also looked like it could barely control those long appendages.

The fawn was quite timid and shaky for awhile and we all backed up to give it plenty of space but were worried about leaving without knowing where the bear was hanging out.

Quite honestly I felt like we had saved the fawn’s life twice already, by unknowingly being in the bear’s way, and since it is the one that belongs to the pronghorn couple that I have been watching, it was already special to me.  I have been watching two fawns, this one and the one belonging to the injured mom and as of today both are fine.

Some folks left to follow the bear or return to the badger but myself and Sam decided to hang out and capture the mom and fawn together.  It was a long wait and we had word that the bears might be headed back our way so we were watching for them also.  Luckily, the bears never returned but mom eventually came and got her youngster.

I am sure that mom had no idea how close she came to losing her precious youngster but she sure was happy to reunite.  And, she did not want to hang with us too terribly long, even though we had moved back as far as we could to give them plenty of room.

Those long legs operated just fine as the fawn ran through the sage.

We left and returned to the badgers but I never saw them come out again before feeling like I needed to edit and post.  Although, I did see the cutest little Killdeer baby, chick, whatever you want to call it.

And, now I am going to head to the campground and a wash rag.  It was a bit dusty and warm along Slough Creek but not as bad as it can get.

We ducked the crowds and had plenty of action!