Tuesday, May 21, 2024 My last day here in the park. I'm leaving for home tomorrow and expect to get there around noon on Thursday. It's been a pretty good year. Lots of wolves and bears and a few other unexpected things like the coyote cubs.
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Monday, May 20, 2024 Still chilly and wet. I think the warmest I saw today was 49F, with occasional rain and snow showers. Saw the pups again. Getting pictures or video is really tough. The distance is about 1.5 miles and, when the light is good, which means sunny, the air is turbulent. Later, I went to find bear cubs. I found this: Which led me to this: No cubs, but at least a bear.
Sunday, May 19,2024 Puppies! Finally the wolf pups came out of the den today. Twice, 3 pups were seen. 2 blacks and 1 gray. I didn't get pictures because the thermal distortion made it tough just to see at times. And, we we struggling to make sure we were seeing pups and not shadows. But, in the end, we agreed that there had been 3. The weather was a very mixed bag. We had sun, wind, rain and snow. It got sorta warm and cold enough for me to get back into my winter gear.
Saturday, May 18, 2024 Still no wolf pups, sort of. I arrived at the den site about an hour too late this morning and missed some drama between 2 of the female adults and a pup. Apparently, one female took a pup away from the den and the alpha female took it back after a bit of a skirmish. There was some extra cuteness today. I was driving in and, just past the Wraith Falls trailhead were lots of cars stopped. I asked what they were seeing and one man shouted “3 wolf pups!” and a woman said “3 coyote pups”. The guy responded that they were wolf pups. I was skeptical of his claim. If they were wolf pups, there would be a den near and wolves would have been seen a lot in the area. That hadn't happened. In addition, the road is sort of a boundary between 2 different packs' territories. They put their den in the middle of their territory, not on the edge. Either way, I parked and got this picture: They are coyotes.
Friday, May 17, 2024 Windy! It was windy all day. Not cold, but not really warm, either. Because of the wind, I didn't have much enthusiasm for watching the wolves. At the den, it's become a waiting game. We sit and watch nothing until a wolf brings food. Then, 3 or 4 wolves pop up out of the grass and there are greetings and wagging tails and running around for 5 or 10 minutes. Then everybody lays down and disappears in the grass again. I call it waiting for pizza delivery. Because of this, I haven't been spending much time there. But, we are expecting the pups to begin emerging from this den any day now, so I think I'm going to be spending much more timer there for the rest of the trip.
Thursday May 16, 2014 We got to watch a bison being harassed by 9 or 10 wolves today. They were apparently after the bison's calf and she was guarding it vigorously. This is a very edited version of the video I recorded. This is 1 minute of the original 10 minutes. At time 0:25, you can clearly see the calf and at 0:41, you can see wolves trying to drag it away. I think in all the melee, she stepped on it and killed it because after that point, you never see it again.
May 15, 2024 Today, I went down south to see waterfalls and geysers and ducks. The ducks are Harlequin ducks, seemingly found in one small place on the Yellowstone River. They are there every year at this time: Before that, I went to see the falls of the Yellowstone, It was foggy, but cleared enough for me to get this video: Finally, I went to the geyser basins and watched Old Faithful about a thousand of my closest friends:
Tuesday, May 14, 2024 A chilly and rainy day. Not much today. It rained well into the afternoon, and I'm a bit tired today. I did see 2 moose near Floating Island Lake. They have been in the area for a couple of weeks, now, but today was the first time I got pictures: It's thought that these are a mother and 2 year old calf
Monday, May 13, 2024 More coyote pup stuff. Apparently, the adults decided to move from their den. We saw them carry 6 of the pups off until we lost sight of them below the hillside: We don't know why they are moving. They could have been disturbed or it may just be a normal thing that they move dens. Earlier, there was a coyote on the other side of the valley yipping for about a half hour. Then, we saw a wolf in the general area of the yipping coyote. It was feeding on an old carcass and then went away from the coyote den. I haven't found anybody with enough coyote knowledge to explain what was going on.
Sunday, May 12,2024 Not much new for the last 3 days. The routine is pretty much the same – get up early, go out to the Lamar Valley or Slough Creek road and see what's happening. A little difference is I've found the coyote den where you can see the pups: And I tried to see the Northern Lights on Saturday night, with little luck. It seems the peak was at around 10:30 and, where I was, the entire northern sky was clouded in. We did see a few streaks, but that was it.
Thursday, May 9, 2024 Much better weather today. Still a bit chilly – in the 40s, but them sun was in and out. The snow did make for some nice scenery We had the Mollies in the Lamar Valley. Nobody knows why they are there. The Mollies are a pack whose territory is Pelican Valley, just north of the lake. It's maybe 20 miles from the Lamar Valley. They should be getting food for their pups, but instead are hanging around the Lamar. We also don't know why the Junction Butte wolves let them stay. The Lamar Valley is the Junction's territory and they outnumber the Mollies by 2-1. It's all a mystery. They do make for good viewing, though.
Tuesday, May 7, 2024 As bad weather is coming. It's cold and windy. So much so that I went back to camp early. I stopped in Gardiner for a shower and ice. I did manage to get this video of the bears feeding on a carcass at Blacktail Ponds. They have been there ever since I got here and are causing a perpetual traffic jam.
Sunday, May 5, 2024 Another quiet day at the den. Mainly, we're waiting for pups to emerge, but it may be another week before that happens. We had a few comings and goings, but mostly just watching wolves sleep of we saw them at all. Bad weather is predicted for the next 2 days, but it is supposed to be mainly south of us. As much as 18 inches of snow in the Tetons, but just wind and rain here.
Saturday, May 4, 2024 A bit of adventure at the wolf dens today. The Junction Butte pack has 2 dens close together and viewable from the road up above Slough Creek. This year, 907, the alpha female, is using the lower den while a second female is using the upper one. Today, the 907 left her den, went to the upper den and, after greeting the wolf there, went in. A few minutes later, she came out carrying something very small and dark. She took it down and went into her den still carrying it. A minute or so later, the wolf from the upper den came running down about 2/3 the way to the lower den, stopped and then ran back to her den. We are still puzzling what that is about. We are sure there are puppies in both dens because of the behavior of all the wolves in the pack. We think 907 was carrying a very new pup – less than a week old, but we don't know why. Later, there was a black bear near the road back at Slough Creek.
Friday, May 3, 2024 Finally some action. For at least 2 years, now, there has been a family of grizzly bears living in the general area of the Junction Butte wolf pack dens. It is the mother and 2 cubs – now 3 years old. This is unusual for grizzlies as they usually stay with the mother for 2 years before venturing off on their own. Today, a fourth bear appeared. It was a large male. Male bears will kill the cubs of a female to cause them to go into estrus and be receptive to mating. He followed them around for quite a while, with the 3 constantly moving away from him. He never got close enough to do any harm, but it was interesting to see the “chase”. Here's a short video of the 3 moving away and looking behind them: Later, I went out to Warm Springs trailhead for lunch. It's quiet and sheltered from the wind. When I got there, a fox appeared and approached each car looking for food. Nobody gave it any.
