Calendar Pics from Yellowstone

The calendar that I put together each year is like a compilation of the best pictures that Michelle and I took during that year. The only rule is that the picture had to be taken in the year prior to when the calendar was created, although Michelle also has an unofficial rule prohibiting me from including a lot of bugs. Since we usually spend our vacation each year out shooting pics it stands to reason that quite a few pics in the calendar come from vacation shots. In 2009 we traveled to Yellowstone in the spring and 5 of the 14 calendar pics were taken during the trip.

The osprey is fascinating bird. These diurnal raptors were at one time called a fishing hawk however they are not a member of the hawk family. The osprey is in a family by itself mostly because of their unique feet. Osprey have 4 toes which are all an equal length, the toes of other raptors differ in length. They are also the only raptor, other then owls whose outside toe is reversible, allowing it to face forward or back. We photographed this osprey near its nest outside of West Yellowstone.

For the past two calendars, 2009 and 2010, we have featured a picture of an American kestrel. It is possible that it is the same kestrel as we have photographed it in nearly the same location in the Lamar Valley each year. These kestrel pics are some of the best kestrel pics that we have taken mostly due to the natural surrounding in the background, most of the other kestrel pics that I have taken are when they are on electrical lines.

Pretty much every year that we have gone to Yellowstone in the spring we have been fortunate enough to be able to get good pics of grizzly bear. When we have gone to Yellowstone in the fall we have never spotted any grizzly so if you are looking to photograph grizzly in Yellowstone I recommend that you visit in the spring time. We photographed this fellow digging up ground squirrels for breakfast along the road to Mammoth.

The other real cool thing about Yellowstone in the spring is the opportunity, if you are patient and lucky, to get a view of all of the new life. We have photographed red fox in Yellowstone several times over the years but we had always hoped to spot a den so that we could get pictures of the pups. This year, thanks to a tip from another photographer, we got our wish. We took a half a day to travel out to the east entrance where a mother fox had set up her den under the stairs of an old building. Because of their proximity to humans they did not seem to mind people much, even pesky photographers, which was good for us but probably not so good for them.

The other new baby pics in the 2010 calendar were of a badger with kits. We waited a total of about six hours to get the shots, Michelle was smart and stayed in the car reading while I sat out in the middle of a field in the Lamar Valley with a bunch of other photographers, but it was certainly worth the wait. She had four kits that she finally brought out of the den for us all to see. Unfortunately I never was able to get a good shot of all four kits facing the camera so I decided on this one with mom and one of the kids.

Wordless Wednesday: Red Fox Pup

Red Fox

As the wolf population has increased in Yellowstone over the years so has the population of its smaller cousin the red fox. This is probably due to the fact that the wolves will often kill coyotes in the area because they compete for some of the same prey as the wolves. Because of the decreased coyote population the fox have been much more successful, coyotes kill fox for the same reason that wolves kill coyote.

Over the years we have photographed red fox on many of our trips to Yellowstone but this year we got a real treat. For the first time we got to photograph a fox den with pups. We got word from some other photographers about a den that was located just outside the east entrance of the park. So we decided to head over and see what we could find.

The east entrance is a long drive, around 40 miles from the Grand Loop, which is why we don't usually head out that way but we decided that it would be worth the trip if we could find the den. The information that we got was sketchy. Other then it was outside the east entrance the only other info we got was that the den was by an old building and near a tee pee.

We passed out of the east entrance and all that we spotted was a small cabin style resort with a restaurant and gift shop so we continued down the road. After we went about 10 miles we decided to turn back. I decided to try and stop at the gift shop because I noticed that it had the words tee pee in the name. As we were pulling in I noticed a guy setting up a camera and tripod near one of the buildings. So we headed over that way and while we were parking we spotted mom.

I grabbed my camera, jumped out of the car and began taking her picture. With in about 10 minutes the head of a little pup popped out between the stairs of the building in which she was standing near. The pup was followed by three other pups who came out and began to explore and play while mom stood guard. They did not seem to mind us there taking pics, they must have been habituated to people which is a problem with wildlife in Yellowstone, and only stopped their play when a horse near by neighed which started them. After about 15 to 20 minutes mom decided that it was time to hunt so she disappeared around the building. The pups new that play time was over so the slinked back under the stairs to the protection of their den. Since it was it was getting late and we were on the opposite side of the park we decided that it was time to head back to our hotel but we left very excited to have had this marvelous opportunity.

First Bird of 2008

With the beginning of the new year a lot of people have been posting what was the first bird that they saw or heard in 2008 on the MOU list server. Most of them have seen some of our more colorful Minnesota winter birds like cardinals, robins, and goldfinch. I was not so lucky. The first bird that I spotted yesterday was a crow. Not much of a surprise there since we have a lot of crows around during the winter months. The first bird that I photographed in 2008 was this pair of eagles that I found on the river near Alma, Wisconsin.
After I checked out Alma for a bit I headed back up to the cities. Typically I take the MN side of the river but this time I opted for a bit of change and drove up the Wisconsin side. While I was heading north I spotted a red fox running on the side of the road near Pepin, WI.
I pulled over to the side of the road and snapped a few shots. I was not sure what he was at first so unfortunately I was only able to get a couple of pics of him running into the woods. It was still pretty cool. I also spotted an American goldfinch near Pepin.

I continued north up the Wisconsin side of the river until I got to Prescott, WI. There I stopped and looked for the barrow's goldeneye and harlequin duck that have been reported hanging around there. Unfortunately I was not able to spot either of them just a lot of Canada geese, mallards, common mergansers, and common goldeneye.There were also a couple of coots hanging around, including this one which was having a hard time holding on to its breakfast.The windchill was brutally cold so I had to make frequent trips to the truck to thaw out my fingers. After about an hour of freezing my butt off I decided to move on. I had planned to stop at Carpenter Nature Center since it is right down the road from Prescott and Point Douglas. Unfortunately due to the holiday Carpenter was closed. I was getting hungry so I decided to head home.

Yellowstone day 4: Who let the dogs out!

Day three in Yellowstone was pretty much a wash. It snowed most of the day. With very poor lighting it was difficult to take any pictures. So we decided to pack it in early that day and hope that Wednesday, day four, would be better. Wednesday morning the weather was better so we decided to head back to the Tower/Lamar Valley area. When we got close to tower we noticed a few cars parked along the road so we decided to stop and take a look. The reason for the traffic was a black bear in the woods a short way from the road.

After foraging in the woods for a bit the bear headed towards the road. I could tell from my experience around Yellowstone bears that the bear was looking to cross the road. Unfortunately there were no rangers around at the moment and there were quite a few people blocking his path trying to get pictures with their little cameras. I did not want to see the bear get in any trouble so I asked the people to make a path for the bear to cross and surprisingly people listened.
I got a couple of good close ups as the bear crossed. Fortunately I have a descent lens so I do not have to be right on top of the bear to get a good shot.
A few minutes later it became obvious why the bear was itching to cross the road. After the bear moved of into the back country we continued on to the Tower visitor area. When we were there we heard about a coyote den that was in a good location back the way that we had come. So we decided to head back and check it out. On the way we noticed a couple of cars parked in the exit to the Blacktail Plateau trail. We stopped and were rewarded with some more pictures of a red fox. The fox crossed the road and quickly disappeared on the other side so we continued back to where the coyote den was supposed to be. The location of the den was right off of the Forces of the Northern Range Self-guiding Trail. When we got there we saw that the parking lot was pretty full. We had noticed that there were many cars in the lot on our way out but we had thought that it was a tour group or something. The den was located off the back of the boardwalk which was currently filled with photographers, most with huge lenses. We had seen coyote dens on past Yellowstone trips but none had ever been so close and accessible. We spent most of the rest of the day shooting the very cute pups.

After several hours and a couple of 8gb cards the pups finally got tired and decided to sleep. We took their lead and headed back to our hotel.

Day 1: We arrive in Yellowstone.

While this is a mostly birding website I enjoy all nature and wildlife and you can not go to Yellowstone and only take pictures of birds. So here are some of the mammals that we were able to photograph on our trip.

We left for Yellowstone on Saturday morning. That day we drove across Minnesota and North Dakota and stopped for the night in Glendive, MT. Sunday morning we continued on and arrived at Yellowstone around 2pm. We immediately set out across the upper loop to the Tower and Lamar Valley area. We decided to check out the Tower area first and as we passed the Roosevelt Junction we came across a red fox in a small meadow. We had seen a fox in the same area last year and we guessed that this was the same one. After a pit stop at the tower visitor center we headed out to Lamar Valley. As we crossed the Yellowstone River we saw a lot of cars stopped at the side of the road. Since we had seen big horn sheep in this area in past years we stopped to see what everyone was looking at. We were not disappointed. In the field next to the road was a large ram and his harem.

We got some good shots as they came close and then crossed the road. Lamar was pretty quiet so we headed back to Tower and got our first bear sighting of the trip.
By this time it was getting pretty late, my blood sugar was getting low and the hotel was still a couple hours away so we headed back across the park to West Yellowstone. On the way back we came across a large elk grazing and stopped for a couple of pictures. It is cool to see them when the antlers are covered in velvet. He still even had some of his winter coat.

Even though it was a good first day we were still a little disappointed. The past 2 times that we had come in the spring we had been fortunate and had spotted grizzly bears on the first day. This year we did not and unfortunately it was a portent that this year we would not be as extremely lucky as we had been in the past.

Spring migration bird walks at Wood Lake Nature Center

Spring is a great time here in Minnesota. After several months of cold and snow and gray cloudy days, it is great to see things come back to life. It is also a fun time for birding, with a lot of migrants coming through. For the past couple weeks I have spent my Thursday evenings at Wood Lake Nature Center, attending their spring migration bird walks. This has been a lot of fun. Having started birding and photography some time ago I am usually pretty good at finding subjects on my own, but sometimes it is fun to share the experience with a group of people. While I was waiting for the walk to start I noticed this cardinal at the feeders by the visitor center. As I walked over he decided to move to a safer perch but he was obviously used to humans. Cardinals are pretty common in this area.

There were also quite a few barn swallows buzzing around the visitors center also. They have been building nests on the buildings. I think this pair was trying to get the 10 day weather forecast.On the May 3rd walk the naturalist mentioned that the Baltimore Orioles had been spotted migrating through and with in minutes we spotted a couple. They were in pretty dense foliage in the trees so the picture was not as clear as I would have liked it. Another new migrant that we saw on the may 3rd walk were some green heron. Unfortunately they were flying through a forested part of the park and I was not able to get a picture. On both walks that I have participated in we have seen a lot of the common marsh birds, such as mallard, canadian geese, wood ducks, common grackle, and red-winged blackbirds.

This female wood duck had a great reflection.

This blackbird was puffed up as he sang. Their song is a warning to other males to stay away from their territory. Can you imagine how much better the world would be if people settled their disputes this way? Instead of sending soldiers to Iraq we could send the Mormon Tabernacle Choir or maybe Pearl Jam, just not Janet Jackson, we wouldn't want to start an international incident.
On the April 26th walk we were pretty excited to see a yellow-headed blackbird. These are not very common in our area since we are on the very edge of their range. I have photographed yellow-heads before but this was the first one that I have seen in Minnesota.

We were also excited that week to catch a glimpse of a red fox. He caught a glimpse of us first though, and I don't think he was too excited about seeing 15 birders wondering around. The naturalist showed us a possible fox den, from a distance, and told us that it was about time for the pups to be born. I will be checking back and try to get a shot of the pups.

All in all these walks were a lot of fun. There is still at least 1 walk left on May 10th. The walks cost $5 and begins at 6:00pm. For more information check out their web site http://www.woodlakenaturecenter.org/