YELLOWSTONE'S WILD WORLD

The rest of the story from yesterday.  So much happened, with all of those wolves, I needed to do the day in two parts.

Rick told me that the Lamar Canyons were visible on a ridge and that there had been a grizzly in the area.

“Is there a carcass?”  I asked.

“We think so,” he said.  “But we haven’t been able to locate one.”

I proceeded on out to Lamar and found some folks watching a grizzly well out in the sagebrush and so I watch him go there and there, and around in circles.

Bored, I turned my attention to a golden eagle that looked to be feeding on something in the river.  Just as I got set up the eagle flew over to the river bank where another eagle sat.  And, then a moment later flew back to the white thing in the river, during which I tried to get flight, butt shots but they did not turn out.

I am not sure what happened next with the eagle – it seems that it landed on the shore and a raven flew in.  It was all kind of confusing but with nothing else going on, I decided to try and capture some bird shots.

But, just then something caught my attention across the river and I swung around to look.  Here came the grizzly charging in!  It was all so quick and I was beginning to get a clue that there was interesting food in the vicinity.  The bear ran down into the river and swam across to the white thing, which ended up being the guts of an animal.

Now, I am thinking that I can’t believe this is happening right in front of me and what luck! Well, yes, it was a great event to witness quite close, maybe 125 yards or so, but guess I was too excited because most of the shots did not turn out.  But, just to get one of the grizzly in the golden water with its reflection was priceless.

The grizzly picked up the guts and took off running and swimming back across the river with them, spilling them along the way.  Rick said that he could see the gut trail across the gravel bar this morning.  The funny part came when the bear ran straight up the vertical river bank and tried to get the guts over the edge.

He did struggle to make it up that last little bit and it wasn’t until then that I realized just how vertical the bank was.

The bear disappeared with the guts and I went back to photographing birds, though nothing was turning out well.  Kind of funny because the photos I had taken earlier, before arriving were all perfect.  You win some and you lose some and I was still winning because this was phenomenal wildlife watching.

It was maybe 15 minutes later I looked up just in time to see the bear coming back down the river bank.  What was odd was that during his first trip over he barely gave me a glance but this time he was watching me closely.  At first I figured that he was fine but when he came charging down the river bank at me, staring me down, I realized that he was telling me to get lost.  Even at over 100 yards to have a grizzly running in your direction is intense.  I picked up my gear and went backwards as quickly as possible, without running, and he was satisfied and stopped at the carcass, which I could not see.  He grabbed the skeleton and took off running, dropping it somewhere along the way before he went back across the river and up the bank.

Without a mouthful it was much easier but still amazing.  I watched him a little while, from my car by this time, before going on.  No one else knew that there had been a carcass there next to the river and very few knew that the grizzly was around.  Kind of strange to have the crowds gone and the park virtually empty, except for those who are watching wolves.

Well, you know most of the rest of my day, seeing the Cougar Pack again, along with the 8 Mile alpha female and a black yearling male that had dispersed early, 910.  We don’t know what she was doing with, or very near the Cougar Pack, and don’t know where her mate might be.  He was not one of the 47 wolves seen yesterday and no wolves have been reported killed in the hunt.  Though, we do suspect that the 8 Mile pack has been heavily hunted out in Tom Miner basin where 7 wolves have been killed in the no quota hunt and 2 have been killed for threat to property.  So, the wolf packs are in the air right now and there could be a lot more upheaval.  This hunt season could be a lot more harmful than we thought.

Anyway, I went down Old Yellowstone Trail, which I seldom do, and found this doe near some pronghorn and elk.  She was just pretty to my eyes.  Their rut is sort of getting started but not much yet.

Further down I found pronghorn everywhere and so just decided to take a few shots.

This next shot cracked me up and made my day.

Have a good night.