Grizzly from Slough Creek

Not to be undone by Facebook which has posted this movie poorly - here is a great vid of ALL the vids Walt took with his new camera and his new extender (it changes his 500mm to a 1000mm lens)!

Fun to be bored in Yellowstone

We're waiting for the holiday weekend crowds to thin out, so we're sitting around resting and Walt gets bored, particularly now that he has a new toy.

A lovely smiling doe!  Course life is pretty nice on the lawn at Mammoth Hot Springs

And a chilling young buck on the lawn.

 A lovely Western Wood-Pewee.

A great close-up of the normally skittish

And a great shot of the very far away golden eagles near Slough Creek.  Most of the crowd there (looking at two dots on a far away hill who were bears) didn't even know they couple was nesting down the road, but I'm sure if they did the couple are nervous wrecks by now!

It's at times like these with the crowd there, I appreciate the rangers.  They do the best they can to help keep the animals from having a nervous breakdown who are just trying to raise their little offspring. 

Pure cuteness

Sometimes you run across something so cute it's hard to call it anything else.  This morning we ran into a vixen and her kits, and they were nothing but energy and she was nothing but on guard.  The whole thing was, well, just plain ole cute!

Amidst the cacophony of photography shutter clicking, is the sneaking anguish that card space is running short.  This is the horror of every photographer in the middle of cuteness playing out right in front of you and BOOM - your card is full!!!

Timing is everything.

You hear that a lot in photography and especially when you photographing nature and natural phenomenon.  You have to be there at the right time and you have to accomplish everything just right - get your lighting set up and f-stop and shutter speed, and I feel sometimes like I'm learning how to photograph all over again.

But then you have a great turnout, and it's all worth it.

This is a fairly common event if you're in Yellowstone and you know about light and natural phenomenon, but there is a rainbow on the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River that you can see at a certain time a certain time of year.  The sun is at the correct angle, the falls mist is at just the right angle and the location at Artist's Point is at just the right angle and everything comes together.

Click either one of the photos to see them larger, because they really did come out well.

As if the color of the Yellowstone Canyon isn't enough, this beautiful rainbow makes it almost fake looking.

This is interesting to watch this time cause I knew what was going to happen, but you get the purple (or rather the violet) color first, then the others fill in till you get all of the Roy G Biv (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet) spectrum, and nothing colors better than nature.

First Sun Shinny Day

And what a hit:

 This is a beautiful Blue Heron in mating plumage, which you can see on the back of the bird.  Doesn't show much while flying, but it's really beautiful.

There's an Osprey nest closer to where we are staying, but on a visit on the Madison River, this was a blast to see one so close.

 An old fav location is an old Golden Eagle's nest on Slough Creek, and it's back in operation...both parents were on the nest today.

Finally here's the female (or so I think it is) doing a little nesting.  The black figure to the right is not a bird, but a black splotch on the rock which looks like a bird, and makes it really easy for me to find the nest location!!!

First full day at Yellowstone

Today was our first full day in the park, and it did not disappoint.  We haven't seen coyotes in a while, and this little guy crossed our path early this morning.

 

Then we found this wonderful osprey nest on the Lamar River.  Osprey love to fish (and they are very good at it) so this is like setting up house next door to the restaurant.  They are such wonderful parents, but maybe a little intensive in their next building?...oh well, we all have issues!!!

Finally, one of the deep dark secrets of our trips to Yellowstone is that Claire seemed to bring a "bear jinx" everytime she showed up.  IOW, bears were every where, except when Claire comes to YNP, the bears go hiding.  Although the first group was (in Walt's exact estimation, "A long way away!") in the distance, they were still bears.

 Then 2 hours later we saw a black sow with a black cup & cinnamon cup just like the "long way away" family.  That was about 6 to 7 miles in 2 hours.  The rangers then informed us that a black & cinnamon cup in the same family isn't all that rare, so it was probably another family - at least I'm counting it that way....so far that makes the total for the first day 6 bears!!!

Finally just outside Mammoth (from Mammoth to Lava Creek) was this pair a cinnamon mom and black cup!  However not all of them were cooperative.  These two just didn't want to have a Kodak moment!  I can't understand why!!!

 

And finally, there's nothing like a great dust wallow - if you're a bison that is!!!  You can almost see the satisfaction. This time of hear the bison are rubbing up against anything and everything to shed their winter coat, and a good dirt wallow is just what feels good!

The thing about spring in Yellowstone....

....is that everyone and I mean EVERYONE is out.  However there are many rainy days, but even the rainy days are pretty.....

Our view out the back window of the RV.