Tag: elk calf

Black-tailed Deer

Blacktail Doe and Fawns, Point Reyes National Seashore

Look for fawns throughout the Seashore.
It’s Fawn Time!

Now is a great time to be at Point Reyes.  There are lots of elk calves to see and some deer fawns as well.  I mentioned in an earlier post that I think the heavy winter rains helped increase elk births. I think the same can be said for deer and most other critters.

One thing that I am always amazed at is how fast people drive in the Seashore as they rush to get to some particular location to start enjoying nature.  If they would slow down and scan the fields they would see all kinds of nature’s creations, such as coyotes, bobcats, badgers, elk, deer etc.  Plus, less wildlife would be killed by vehicles.   As Glenn Frey used to sing, “take it easy.”

Grizzly Bear

Grizzly Bear, Yellowstone National Park

A mother grizzly bear walks through the south end of Swan Lake Flat.
A mother grizzly walks through sage.

A well-known place in Yellowstone to look for grizzlies is a large open area called Swan Lake Flat.  It is especially good for seeing grizzly sows with cubs.  I have often seen grizzlies there, but they have always been too far away for good photos.

In May 2015 I got lucky.  I was approaching the flat from the south when I saw a flash of brown out of the corner of my eye.  I stopped and saw a mother grizzly with two two year old cubs walking parallel to the road about 75 yards away.   Unfortunately, they were heading in the opposite direction.  By the time I got the car turned around they had disappeared into some trees.  I drove to a spot that looked like it would be a good place to wait for them and got ready.

As luck would have it, after a minute or two I noticed that there was a very young elk calf between me and where I hoped the bears would pass.  It was standing in a little clump of trees.  Hmm.  Bears love elk calves.  In fact, grizzlies and black bears kill about 50% of the calf crop each year.  What if they see/smell the calf and charge toward it (and me)?  That’s as far as I got in my thinking when the bears came into view.  They didn’t detect the calf and kept going.  The calf got to live another day and I got my photo.

 

Tule Elk

Elk Calf; Point Reyes National Seashore

This elk calf spent over an hour by itself exploring a stock pond near Pierce Point Ranch.
A young elk calf wades into a stock pond near Pierce Point Ranch.

I was out at Point Reyes yesterday and it was the first time this year I saw elk calves in the elk reserve/enclosure at Tomales Point.   I saw elk calves at Drakes Beach about a month ago.  The elk in the reserve seem to be about a month behind the Drakes Beach herd in mating and giving birth.

It seemed like there were more cows with calves than I’ve seen in years.  If true,  it could be because of the heavy winter rains.  I’ll be interested in seeing if the elk count shows more calves this year.

I saw this little guy wade into the pond.  I watched him for about an hour and I finally left.  His mom came to the pond a few times.  She called and seemed to want him to follow her, but he ignored her.  He roamed all over the pond; drinking water occasionally.

If you look closely you can see a lump on the bridge of his nose.  A cyst?  I don’t know.  Hopefully, it’s nothing serious.

Hawk

Osprey, Yellowstone National Park

Photo of an osprey taking flight above the Gardner River Canyon.
Ready for Takeoff!

It’s hard to write a blog while visiting Yellowstone in the spring because there is light until 9:00 p.m. and it takes an hour to get back to Gardiner where I’m staying.  Then there is dinner and downloading images.  I’m writing this while my car gets an oil change.

When people visit Yellowstone they’re looking for mammals, especially bears and wolves and they large herbivores they prey on.  But the park has a lot of interesting smaller animals, including birds.  I found this osprey in the Gardner River Canyon.  I’ve checked on four active nests in and around the park.  No eggs have hatched yet.  I haven’t seen any nests near the Gardner River.

Birthing among the mammals is well underway.  I’ve seen a few baby pronghorn.  Yesterday was the third day in a row that I’ve seen and photographed an elk calf in its first day of life.  I stopped at the Mammoth Visitor Center yesterday and there was an elk calf being born right next to the building on the lawn.  It stood up 45 minutes after being born.  I’m looking forward to seeing my first bighorn lambs of the year.

Rocky Mountain Elk

Nervous Cow Elk, Yellowstone National Park

Photo of a cow elk.
“Nervous Nellie”

As I was driving from Mammoth to Tower shortly after sunrise one morning I spotted this lone cow elk looking at me.  She seemed very nervous.  She looks like she may be pregnant and I assume she was close to giving birth.  When cow elk are close to giving birth they go off by themselves for the birthing.    The calf is kept hidden for about a week.  The cow moves her calf (or calves) several times a day during that seven days and they stay motionless until their mom comes back to feed and move them.  Even so, predators find a lot of them.

The lighting was very bad for this photo.  You can see from the rim lighting around the elk’s body that the sun was coming from behind it.  The number one rule in outdoor photography is keep the sun at your back.  Well, you can’t always follow the rules in wildlife photography.  Elk aren’t models you can move around.  I did what I could at the time which was to compensate some by overexposing a bit and then compensated some more in Photoshop.  In the film days one could do, or attempt to do, the same thing in printing by dodging and burning, but the methods then were somewhat crude compared to what Photoshop allows one to do to mitigate exposure problems.   In this case I used the adjustment brush in Adobe Camera Raw to lighten the face and neck and then further refined the lighting/exposure using Shadows/Highlights and Curves.

Photo of underexposed elk.
Backlit Cow Elk

Here is what the image would have looked like, but for the adjustments described above in camera and Photoshop.  (The other difference from the top image is that I didn’t bother to crop this image.)

Black Bear, Grizzly Bear, Pronghorn

Yellowstone’s Bears Have Disappeared

Well, not really.  It’s just that they’re not grazing on grass as much any more and thus not as easy to see.  Elk (and pronghorn and bighorn) are giving birth and the word is out.  Grass was OK when meat wasn’t readily available, but now that meat is available the bears don’t have to settle for grass.  They need the protein to survive.  As I was driving from Mammoth to Gardiner yesterday there was a traffic jam mid-way due to a black bear kill of an elk calf.  This can be unsettling when you experience it, but that’s nature and let’s not forget most of us eat meat and it’s not much different, except we rely mostly on others to do our bidding.

Photo of pronghorn doe nursing fawn.
Mom and Baby

I don’t have any photos of elk calves yet, but I saw this female pronghorn and her twins close to the Roosevelt Arch the past couple of days.  I’ve gotten attached to them from photographing them.  I hope they survive the next four days or so until then can keep up with mom.

Uncategorized

Any Day in Yellowstone …

Photo of two black bear cubs.
“Put Yer Dukes Up.”

Any day in Yellowstone is a good day.  That is especially true in the spring.  In the six days I’ve been here I’ve seen numerous bears and several wolves.  Black bears are so numerous that I’ve stopped keeping track of sighting them.  I photographed the spring cubs above the first day.  I haven’t seen nearly as many grizzlies, but I’ve seen two sows with one cub each and a few other adults.  They tend to be much farther away than black bears.

It’s a little early for babies, other than bison calves and bear cubs, but a newborn elk calf was in hiding just inside the Roosevelt gate this afternoon.  I’ve been looking for them and bighorn lambs and pronghorn fawns.  News of the elk calf will get me looking for babies more intently.  The elk calves and pronghorn fawns stay hidden most of the time for the first week or so, but the bighorn lambs can keep up with their mothers the day of birth as well as the bison calves.  Deer fawns arrive about a month later.

I’ve had my eyes peeled for badgers, but haven’t seen any yet.  I was telling a guy that two days ago and he told me he photographed three of them earlier that day.  Needless to say,  I’m looking harder now.  I got really close to a sandhill crane today.  I’ve also been photographing a lot of marmots.    Like I said, any day is good in Yellowstone.