This site is dedicated to wildlife and landscape photography.
This site is dedicated to wildlife and landscape photography.
This is one of only three wolves that remain in the Lamar Valley. At one time there were over 30 wolves in the Lamar. Wolf numbers are down throughout the park due to various factors such as wolves killing other wolves and humans shooting wolves when they move outside park boundaries.
Yellowstone has 200 to 300 pronghorns. They only exist in the Park in its northern range. They spend winters in the Gardiner Basin and some, but not all, migrate from there to spend summers at higher elevations in the Park as far as the Lamar Valley.
One way to see them is to drive the Old Yellowstone Trail in the Gardiner Basin. Start at the Park’s Roosevelt Arch and drive north around the west side of the Gardiner school and then continue on the gravel road until you get to the boat launch just before the bridge that crosses the Yellowstone River. At that point you can either turn around and head back the way you came or you can cross the bridge, get on Highway 89, and drive at highway speed back to Gardiner. Pronghorn are here year round. Note to photographers: For most of this route the land looks to be in bad shape vegetation-wise, but gets better at the north end. By the way, when you get back to the Roosevelt Arch look for pronghorn in that half mile or so between the Arch and the entrance booth.
The other option is to head for the Lamar Valley and look for them any place between Mammoth and the Lamar Valley that has open terrain. I usually take a detour and drive the road to the Slough Creek Campground because I often see a few pronghorn there. By the time you get to the confluence where Soda Butte Creek joins the Lamar River you will have covered about all the pronghorn habitat that can be seen from a vehicle. The area from Mammoth to the Lamar Valley is summer range only.
Two years ago this month I started this blog with a trip to Yellowstone. It seems fitting that I am in Yellowstone now. This is my favorite time to be in Yellowstone. I saw 14 black bears today, not counting repeats. Four were spring cubs. No grizzlies yet though.
Unfortunately, my laptop is has something wrong with it. Not a good sign and not a good time for this to happen.
Below is a photo of what is probably Yellowstone’s most famous area from a wildlife standpoint. The photo shows a small part of the west end of the Lamar Valley. The valley is sometimes referred to as America’s Serengeti because of the sweeping vistas showing large numbers of wildlife. Numerous bison are visible. There may be some smaller animals in there as well. The valley has been the best place to spot wolves among other things.
Hopefully, this laptop will remain alive until my trip ends.
I put a “Season’s Greetings” at the end of the elk post yesterday. After I posted it I decided I needed to come up with something more “Christmas-like” and I removed the holiday greeting. Here’s what I came up with.
I photographed this wolf in the Lamar Valley in February of 2008. I’m not sure, but it may have been #302M, also known as “Casanova,” who died in October of 2009. He was the star of Bob Landis’ film, “In the Valley of the Wolves.”
Happy Holidays.
This bull was one of many I saw yesterday in the Lamar Valley. It rained on and off which wetted down the hair on his face and made his eyes more visible.
A Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday season to all!
Have you ever seen something in nature that struck you as odd? In May of 2009 I saw something that I thought was very odd. I was driving into Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley from the west and off to my right not far from the Lamar River I saw a large nest atop a dead tree. My first thought was that it was probably an osprey nest or maybe a bald eagle nest. I slowed down and pulled over. I could see there was something in the nest, but it was too far to see what it was exactly. I decided to grab my big lens and tripod and hike closer to the nest. After a bit I stopped. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It looked like a Canada goose. I looked through my lens. It was a Canada goose.
This was a new one for me. Canada geese nest on the ground, usually in wetlands. What was this one doing up in a raptor’s nest? Maybe it had learned the hard way that eggs laid on the ground in the Lamar Valley don’t last long. I checked every day for over a week and there was always a goose in the nest. There had to be eggs there. Will the eggs fare better in a raptor’s nest at the top of a tall tree? Maybe. Maybe not. Furthermore, to the best of my knowledge, Canada geese don’t feed their young like birds of prey do. The goslings will have to get down to the ground and to the river soon after they hatch. I know some waterfowl species like wood ducks nest in tree cavities and the young drop down to the ground, but this is a very tall tree and the branches extend well away from the trunk, especially in the lower portion of the tree outside the framing of the image. Finally, how will they walk across all those branches with their webbed feet?
When I returned to Yellowstone in May of this year I looked to the nest as I entered Lamar Valley. There was a bird in it again. This time it was an osprey.
I’ve often wondered what happened to the offspring of the Canada geese. Did the eggs survive to hatching? If so, did the goslings make it safely down the tree and to the river? I guess I’ll never know.
