This site is dedicated to wildlife and landscape photography.
This site is dedicated to wildlife and landscape photography.
This is the only grizzly so far that has been close enough to photograph on this trip to Yellowstone. It’s a young bear and when I look at its eyes it seems sad.
Those aren’t insects flying around the bear. It’s snow. We’ve had rain, hail and snow the past couple of days. That’s not unusual this time of year.
There’s no time to cull photos. This is the first one I saw that looked OK.
When people think of the wildlife in Yellowstone they think of wolves, bears, especially grizzlies, and elk. But there are lots of other critters. You can probably think of many others, but you may not put the sandhill crane on your list. Yet there are quite a few to be seen there. This crane was with a couple of others near Blacktail Pond. One other large bird I’m used to seeing here is the trumpeter swan. However, I haven’t seen any this trip and don’t recall if I saw any in my other recent trips.
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.
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.
There was a very good article in the San Francisco Chronicle last Friday about Marin County, California, and its approach to dealing with coyotes and sheep ranching. (Marin County is the county you enter when you drive north across the Golden Gate Bridge.) The article, written by Peter Fimrite, and entitled “Dogs Keeping Coyotes at Bay,” can be found here.
Most counties in the United States that have any sheep ranching in them have agreements with the Department of Agriculture’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service for “Wildlife Services.” APHIS’ Wildlife Services (“WS”) unit has, as one of its purposes, the trapping, poisoning and shooting of wild animals that are considered to be a problem for someone.
In the late ’90s Marin County terminated its relationship with APHIS. I remember reading an article in the Marin Independent Journal in the early to mid ’90s which summarized WS’ activities in Marin for the previous year. It listed the number of coyotes killed. There were a few things about the article that struck me. First, I knew of WS, but was surprised that it even operated in Marin, a bedroom community of San Francisco. Second, I was surprised at the number of coyotes killed. Third, I was shocked that a large number of bobcats and badgers were also killed due to the non-selective nature of baited steel traps and poisoned meat. (I was also surprised that there were even any badgers in Marin. Fast forward. Last year I photographed several in Point Reyes National Seashore.) Thinking about it now, I assume the numbers were conservative because animals that die from poisoning aren’t always found and the same is even more true for animals that feed on the carcasses of poisoned animals and die even farther from the bait site.
As the article points out, things came to a head in 1996. WS was killing a lot of coyotes, but sheep losses seemed to be unaffected. WS proposed stepping up killing methods by adding collars for sheep which would be filled with the poison Compound 1080. Some residents decided it was time to do something. They were led by Camila Fox, now head of Project Coyote. The State Legislature was convinced to ban steel traps and poison collars. By the end of the ’90s the wildlife advocates convinced the County to end its relationship with WS. The County decided to spend the money it used to pay to WS to instead pay for guard dogs, llamas, specialized fences, night corrals and lambing sheds and to pay the ranchers for any sheep losses. The program has been an overwhelming success. The county spends less than it paid WS and the sheep losses are much lower than in the WS days. Not only do these measures greatly reduce sheep losses, but coyotes reproduce at lower levels when the Alpha males and females live normal-length lives as pack leaders, unlike when they are killed and packs break up and many more coyotes begin reproducing. This is basic wildlife ecology, but it is ignored by WS.
In 2005 APHIS/WS completed a study of its activities in California entitled “Wildlife Services in California: Economic Assessments of Benefits and Costs.” A copy of the report can be found here. I’m not sure why the report was written, but it seems to me to have been written to justify its mission and methods, especially in light of Marin County’s success using non-lethal methods and at lower cost.
A word about the coyote photo. I photographed it in Point Reyes National Seashore a couple of days before the San Francisco Chronicle article was published. The coyote was smaller than usual. It may have been a yearling, but I would assume a yearling would be about the size as its parents by now. It also seemed totally unfazed by me in my car. When I see and attempt to photograph coyotes in the open ranching areas of the Seashore they always get out of sight fast. The same is true for bobcats and badgers (and wildlife in general). I don’t know why it stayed fairly close while I photographed it. Perhaps it had spent time in areas with lots of hikers before moving into the ranching area.
I went out to Point Reyes yesterday, something I haven’t been doing too much of this year compared to last year. The forecast said there would be fog, but thankfully it was a no-show. Moreover, the light was fantastic thanks to lots of clouds varying from almost pure white to very dark. The sun shined through in spots on occasion. I didn’t see much in the way of wildlife; just the usual ho-hum critters (quail, songbirds, hawks, elk and deer) plus one coyote just before sunset. I had lunch with a friend who said he saw four bobcats before our lunch. Another friend told me he saw two badgers there yesterday. I’m beginning to wonder if I’m losing my touch in spotting wildlife because I haven’t been spending much time looking for them this year.
I was feeling uneasy all day because I only brought my wildlife gear and I sensed there would be some good landscape opportunities at sunset given the good light and the clouds. Shooting landscape photos with telephoto lenses is, needless to say, limiting. One thing I’ve been meaning to photograph is Black Mountain, which is a large coastal hill/mountain completely covered in grass. It is very green this time of year. I’ve also heard it referred to as Elephant Mountain. I made a mental note to stop in Inverness on my way home to see how it looked. I knew it was one landscape scene I could photograph using a telephoto lens. This is how it looked when I arrived in Inverness. The green grass of Black Mountain has been turned to gold by the setting sun. The water in the foreground is Tomales Bay. The green hills in the midground are not part of Black Mountain. I don’t know why it’s called Black Mountain.
As I stood there in Inverness, I looked at the rest of the east horizon and saw a nice looking ridge well north of Black Mountain that was also bathed in the last light of the day. I don’t know the name for it, assuming there is one. There are two large structures at the top of it, unfortunately.
I was somewhat lucky yesterday which counterbalanced my poor planning in not bringing some landscape lenses. I was lucky in the sense that I made it to Inverness with about 5 minutes to spare before the sun’s golden light left these mountain tops.
I was out at Point Reyes a couple of days ago. Everything is nice and green. It’s been that way for a while, but recent heavy rains will ensure that things stay that way for a while longer. This cow elk looks to be in good health. She has shed most of her light gray winter coat and is now mostly showing her darker, reddish summer coat. I saw one cow which seemed to be suffering from some health problem involving her digestive tract. I’ve seen other elk with the same apparent problem. I assume it’s Johne’s disease which causes severe diarrhea, usually (always?) resulting in death. The disease has been a problem for the Point Reyes elk since the early days of their reintroduction to the Tomales Peninsula. Virtually all ruminants, including the deer, cattle and goats in the Seashore, are susceptible to the disease. Johne’s disease occurs throughout the world. For more information click here.
The bulls are sporting new antlers. This bull is part of the Tomales herd. The Limantour herd seems to start new antler growth earlier than the Tomales herd. In fact, it seems to start everything earlier than the Tomales herd. I’ve heard elk calving has started and I’d bet that it started with the Limantour herd. Newborn are kept hidden by their mothers for a while after birth, but the early-birth ones should start appearing with their mothers soon if they haven’t already.
