It was a pretty cool morning, literally and figuratively. Someone said that they had a temperature of 17 degrees – no wonder I was cold!
Everyone was at Slough Creek and so I stopped to talked to a couple of friends and find out if they were seeing anything. Nothing! We were standing there talking when we noticed some elk running, way off. Kevin looked through his scope and, yep, there were wolves. And the day began. We ended up with 6 grays, including 911, 907 and 994 (a male yearling, gray) and definitely two blacks, although I am pretty sure there was a third one early on, which would have been 890. No breakfast this morning.
But the cool thing is that 969 is in the den at Slough! Everyone’s wishes came true and we get to watch the process, which was pretty fascinating. Some of the pups went into the den and came back out. We never saw 969 this morning. And, the family was generally just hanging out, except for the light gray pup, male, and he went wandering, most likely trying to get to mom. He is a beauty, a combination of 911’s face and 970’s stocky body, with interesting markings. He couldn’t make it across the road and so we watched him off and on for a while – he had quite the following as he was the only game in town. And the yearling found himself an old carcass, probably a cat kill, and extracted a big chunk of meat.
907 is not in a den yet but definitely pregnant, so anytime now.
The big mystery is 970. The plane got her at her old den site on Tuesday and it does not appear that any of the Junctions have been over there to visit mama, let along feed her. Instead they are all gathered at the Slough den with 969. Makes us wonder what is going on with 970 and if the pack has abandoned her in favor of the nice girls. Would not think that would be the case but it does appear that she has been on her own since going into the den. Time will tell. I’m hoping nothing happens to her pups because if they do I would fear for 969 and 907’s pups. The pack has a chance to be mighty big if everyone gets along.
Literally, nothing else going on today. A black bear at Phantom Lake, an early morning grizzly at Slough and a different, late afternoon grizzly in the same area. The big sighting was a cougar at Crystal, just wandering about. Turns out that there have been several cougar sightings in the area lately. I did not hear any rumors from down south.
Around mid-afternoon, I took a hike up to Specimen Ridge, all of the way to the top. Wow, it really was spectacular and I liked being up there looking down on the Yellowstone River and Little America.
After my hike I checked on the wolves again and they were being seen near the den area but traveling east. Sounded like they were headed towards Lamar, last I heard.
No word at all on the Lamars. The Prospects were seen near the den forest, just briefly.
That is all of the news fit to print today. We had fun. Has not been many photo ops for awhile but the park has been a great time.
