Summer 2019

Sunday, May 5, 2019 Mammoth Campground, Yellowstone It's time to chase wolves and bears again. I plan to be here until Memorial Day weekend, so I'll try to get these out every 3 or 4 days. I drove up yesterday and got settled in the campground this morning. Then, I went out to see what was happening. The Junction Butte wolf pack have pups in the same den as last year. They haven't come out of the den, yet, but they are expected any day now. They were born between 1 and 2 weeks ago. There has been activity around the den, so we know there are pups. Further down, in the Lamar Valley was a bison carcass near the road. I got 2 videos – one of a pair of grizzlies feeding on it, a mother and her 2-year old cub. And just a few hundred feet away was a wolf, waiting it's turn: Later, I saw 4 moose, another grizzly bear and, back at the den later, 6 more wolves. Not a bad first day.

May 18, 2019 I'm home.  The weather got cold and wet, as predicted, so I decided I'd seen enough. I'm updating the posts with the videos and I found these. 

Thursday, May 15, 2019 Without pups in the Junction Butte pack den, wolves are hard to find now. You need a carcass to attract them. There is one in Little America that had a single wolf on it this morning, but a grizzly bear seems to own it and spent most of the day sleeping on it. I saw lots of distant bears and a few coyotes. Then at the east end of the Lamar Valley at a turnout called “Hitching Post”, because that's where the outfitters park their horse trailers, I saw this: That's a lot of cars. Looking out beyond the turnout, was this: That's a lot of photographers with big lenses. I parked and walked over to see what they were photographing and got this: A bedded down fox. When there are no wolves and the bears are a long way off and the bighorns and bison are ugly while shedding their winter coats, a fox will have to do. It did give me a 3-dog day – wolf, coyote and fox. The weather is supposed to t...

Wednesday, May 15, 2019 The tripod I use for my spotting scope finally died yesterday. It's a heavy steel tripod with a push-button type operation to extend and retract the legs. One of the legs will not retract. This has happened before and, after taking it apart at home, I was able to fix it, but parts had broken and it didn't extend automatically any more. You had to pull it out. Now it won't go back in. So, after more than 20 years of service, I decided it's time to replace it. They make a new version of this same tripod, so today I drove to Bozeman to see if any camera stores had one. No good. Nobody has it, so I'll have to order it when I get home. I have another tripod I can use until then. It's not as well suited for this job - it's a lot lighter, so it's not as steady and it has a bigger mounting plate that interferes with the gear head - but it works. In the meantime, I saw this moose early before I left:

Sunday, May 12, 2019 Mammoth Campground, Yellowstone This was an amazing day. I saw things I had read and heard about, but never seen. It starts with a bison carcass in the Lamar Valley. All morning we saw wolves on it: Then, all afternoon, we had a wolf that was trying to cross the road to get to the carcass, but was always blocked by cars. He passed within 100 yards of us several times: Finally, there was the orphan bison calf. We believe that the dead bison had a calf, and it was wandering up and down the valley, alone. Bison will not adopt orphans, so this calf was doomed. It couldn't eat grass, so it would either starve or be eaten by wolves or bears. It tuned out to be the latter – wolves. By 8:00 pm, I was ready to go back to camp, but my job this evening was to stay and report what happened. So I stayed. The wolf that had been trying to cross the road all day finally made it. He went to the carcass and fed for a while, an...

Saturday, May 11, 2019 Mammoth Campground, Yellowstone I've been trying to get fast enough internet to upload the videos for a few days, now. The best place in town with public internet fast enough is the Pharmacy, but they recently remodeled and don't have their wifi working yet. I'll keep trying, and, will try the hotel I use in winter. Maybe they'll let me buy some time during the day when no guests are there.

Friday, May 10, 2019 Mammoth Campground, Yellowstone Another day. They opened the road to Tower Fall today. It's just 2.5 miles, but it's got several things to see. The first is bears. Lots and lots of black bears. I saw 7 in the first drive up it today. There is a peregrine falcon nest in the area, too. This year, they've moved back across the canyon from the overlook, making pictures and video easier.  This one had just chased an interloper from the nest and was still squawking: Finally, a visit to Yellowstone is not complete without a bison jam. This one has the added entertainment of being on the bridge:

Thursday, May 9, 2019 Mammoth Campground, Yellowstone Another chilly and blustery day. At least it's dry. Went out this morning to see if anything was happening at the wolf den and nobody was in the area looking. That means there were no wolves to be seen. More indication that there are no pups alive in the den. Further out was a bison carcass that wolves and bears have been feeding on. Here's a short video of the aftermath of a grizzly taking it from the wolves. It's shaky because it was very windy and about 1.5 miles away: The wolves just go sulking off. I also got a quick picture of a coyote along the road:

Wednesday, May 8, 2019 Mammoth Campground, Yellowstone A very crazy day with the wolves, but, unfortunately, no pictures. Apparently all the pups in this den have either died, been killed or carried away. Nobody is quite sure of the fates of several. 2 we know are dead. One we watched get buried by one of the female wolves. Another was eaten by this same wolf, which is done with dead pups. 2 were carried down into a gully by one of the male wolves and were never seen again. These 2 are also presumed to be dead. 3 more were carried off into a forest by the same female that buried the one. These we don't know their fate. There is lots of specuation, and the experts are baffled as well as us casual watchers. Was it revenge by the female for getting beaten badly by the other females? Was something else happening and she was taking her pups away for safety? Were they sick? Nobody knows. It's likely we'll never know exactly what or why this ...

Tuesday, May 7, 2019 Mammoth Campground, Yellowstone An even colder, wetter day. It snowed off and on all morning so there was really no visibility. I stayed in camp most of the day.

Monday, May 6, 2019 Mammoth Campground, Yellowstone It was very gray when I got up and out this morning. The bison carcass in the Lamar had one bear on it and a bunch of photographers: I went to see if the moose were still there, but no luck, so the rest of the day was at the wolf den and back at camp. We had a few comings and goings, a bison stuck it's head in the opening, only to be met with a yearling wolf rushing out. But, no pups. On the way back to camp in the evening, I got a good picture of a grizzly. It was only 100 yards from the road in really good light: