This site is dedicated to wildlife and landscape photography.
This site is dedicated to wildlife and landscape photography.
Two Cheetahs Rest
These two cheetahs were resting under a tree along the border with Kenya. It’s often hot in Tanzania and a good place to look for cheetahs and lions is under trees. For a larger version of this image, go to my portfolio.
Yellow-bellied marmots are one of the largest rodents in Yellowstone. They are about 20 t0 28 inches in length and weigh from 3.5 to 11 pounds. They are found at all elevations in the park and hibernate for up to eight months a year at the higher elevations.
A colony consists of one male, several females and young of the year. They breed shortly after emerging from hibernation. Their calls include a loud whistle and a scream when predators are nearby. They are preyed upon by eagles, coyotes and grizzlies. The preceding info is based on the Park Service’s 2005 edition of “Yellowstone Resources & Issues.”
Marmots can be found throughout the park. Look for rocky areas with grass nearby. One good spot is the rock outcropping across from the Sedge Bay picnic area. A couple of years ago I was photographing them there when they started screaming about something behind them. They were a little above me so I couldn’t see what they were agitated about. They took cover in the rocks. I picked up my gear and turned to go back to my truck which was parked on the road’s shoulder about 50 feet away. As I did so a black wolf disappeared into some cover about 40 feet from me. He had apparently walked between me and my truck. A guy pulled up and asked if I saw the white wolf above the rock outcropping. That was the wolf the marmots were screaming about. I said “no,” but I spotted it shortly thereafter. It was going in the opposite direction of the black wolf. For a link to that blog click here.
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.
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.)
I almost always see red foxes in Yellowstone, but I’ve never gotten a good photo of one until this year. When it rains it pours. This year I saw and photographed several, including this vixen and her two kits.
I’ve read that red foxes usually produce four to seven kits. Thus, these two may be what’s left of a larger litter. I was fortunate to be able to observe them for a while. One kit was very outgoing and the other was very shy.
Seeing baby animals is why I like to visit Yellowstone in the spring. Bear cubs and bison calves will be the first thing you’ll see in May. Elk calves, bighorn lambs and pronghorn fawns start to appear the first week in June. Deer fawns appear later in June.
I was looking at some of my fox photos from the trip and this one looked different. I just did some checking and now realize this fox seems to be a gray fox. Red foxes have very distinctive black stockings. This one doesn’t have them. Plus its trunk is mostly gray.
I haven’t ever gone through Grand Teton on my way to or from Yellowstone, but I was leaning toward doing that on the way home this year when someone in Yellowstone told me of a spot to photograph a great gray owl. That was all I needed to hear to make up my mind. I didn’t find the owl, but this grizzly cub made up for it.
It is one of three cubs born to famous #399 a year and a half ago. 399 has become famous because of her habit of living with her cubs close to roads and humans. Some believe she does this because boars are less likely to frequent such areas and thus the likelihood of a boar killing her cubs is lessened. The downside to this is that her cubs can pick up the same habit and bears that are comfortable near humans and roads is not a good thing. This cub is spending a lot of time close to the road at the intersection with Pilgrim Creek.
It’s not normal for a grizzly sow to give her cubs the boot at one year of age, but that’s what 399 does. NPS says 399 was abandoned by her mom at that age and thus to 399 that’s what a mom does, I guess. This cub’s chances of survival would seem to be lessened somewhat without the extra year of protection and education mom could provide.
When I’m in Yellowstone in May I usually see a few mountain bluebirds and I usually try to get a decent photo of one. I haven’t had much success until this year. I’ve had some incredible opportunities this time. I don’t know why this year has been different, but the number of bluebirds I’ve seen this year is much, much higher than I’ve seen before.
I photographed this male while waiting for the mother pronghorn just inside the north entrance (Roosevelt Arch) to come back to her young and feed and move them.
I photographed this female at the same time.
Mom finally showed up and fed and moved her babies. She hid them far from each other. I think that is to increase the odds of fawn survival. When she finished feeding and hiding them I went back to the bluebirds.
I like and enjoy seeing all wild birds. Okay, I’ll admit that I like some more than others. Take today’s photo for example. It’s not a bald eagle. It’s not a peregrine falcon. It’s not a great gray owl. It’s a red-winged blackbird. Still, I was happy to have the opportunity it gave me to photograph it and to try to create an attractive image.
