Yellowstone is alive with blooming wildflowers and new born babies of all types. Life is exciting and uncertain!
Tonight I discovered two more black bear coy! That makes 8 that I know of in about a 5 mile radius, which is pretty amazing. The two black cubs that I saw tonight were big and healthy – making Rosie’s cubs look even smaller. Speaking of Rosie – well.. People are crowding her cubs and she is getting upset – not happy right now. I heard that one mom was taking her children up to pet the cubs. Pretty much sounds like child abuse to me.
Anyway, yes, there are babies everywhere and I have been on a quest to capture them, which is running me ragged. I am seeing the babies but not getting the photo ops that I am looking for. In other words I am in a slump and it probably has to do with re-defining myself as a photographer. One thing about slumps, they always come and they always go away. Tomorrow is a new day and I plan to spend the entire day out in the park looking for those magical moments.
The other thing is that I have had to take some time off lately – getting ready for camping and doing errands. This has been a busy spring and I still have a lot to do around the new home. Well, now that will have to wait because I will be camping. Yay. Probably be one place or another for the next 6 weeks.
The past several days I have been focused on the pronghorn, elk and big horn babies and have gotten shots but not what I am looking for.
But, I have been having a blast watching the ladies of Mammoth! Those gals carry themselves differently than the other elk in the park – with an air of confidence. They are bound and determined to keep their calves safe and are doing a good job. The last two nights I saw the calves in little nurseries – not great settings but nice to see them. And, I saw two calves rearing up against each other with one of the dorms as a backdrop. Great action, terrible photo op – I just watched.
The other thing that is going on is that the moms are having to say goodbye to last year’s calves and it seems like the young guys are the ones hanging on. I have seen the moms getting pretty nasty with their yearlings, telling them in no uncertain terms that it is time to go. They don’t want to leave and I am sure that they are unhappy with those squealing youngsters getting all of that fresh milk.
I am amazed at how much elk management has to take place throughout the year in Mammoth. That one herd is there to stay and would probably be fine if the visitors would leave them alone. I saw one calf and its mother resting comfortably on the lawn until a man walked right up to the calf for a picture. So, they have rangers, resource management and Xanterra employees out there guarding the animals.
Yellowstone, alive with the sounds of the babies calling.
Beautiful stories and shots Deby!
I cannot believe that more visitors are not injured by all of the animal mothers out there! Putting children by the cubs for pictures? Are you just kidding me??? Some people are so stupid!
I wonder how much the park spends every year protecting elk, bears, etc. from humans? It has to be a bunch!
I feel bad for the yearlings now but I saw 2 bison yearlings getting milk from one bison cow the other day. She didn’t seem to care at all.
People go animal crazy. I am in the park with my family and we happened to see the grizzly south of Mammoth before the road construction. People park right in the road. I was driving with my daughter past the area to find a place to park so I could safely get some photos. I had to go around the guy parked on the road in front of me and told a guy that was parked on the in the south bound traffic lane to move his car, “You can’t park here.” He told me he wasn’t parked. I said you are out of your vehicle taking pictures in the middle of the road with your family in the car (with the engine still running) and there isn’t anyone in the driver seat. He again told me “I’m not parked.” A ranger showed up and started to manage the “grizzly jam.” My daughter and I were able to park, set up tripod and get some good photos plus video. A few kind folks wanted to look through my camera lens to look at the grizzly and I had no problem with that. One other lady took a photo with her phone of the back of my camera screen of a profile of the grizzly. Well we are exploring more of Yellowstone and Grand Tetons. Love your photos of the young elk. They are beautiful.