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The Field Notes section chronicles our adventures at home and abroad in this daily online journal. We have compiled an Archive of past years which you are welcomed to access at the bottom of this page by clicking HERE. As the seasons sometimes pull us in multiple directions for extended spans of time, please understand if updates are not daily (or even weekly if on long adventures but be rest assured―we'll catch you up as soon as we return!
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12/28/07 Friday A swirling mobile of magpies, ravens, bald and golden eagles spins loosely above the grassy meadow north and east along Eagle Creek. Realizing that another bison must have been harvested, I drove a little further than usual before hopping out to hike so that pups would not go strait for a mouthful of bison entrails... and luckily they didn't. Overcast rules the sky and temperatures hover in the low teens. Birds are in the trees, birds in the air, young birds, older birds, birds on rocks and in the grass. Eagles sit aspen-top looking; beaks dotted with dry blood; their postures take on that of hunkered sentinels cloaked in plumed trench coats. Heads of the watchers, eagles and ravens alike demurely turn to watch the upright creature in green and the two collared black wolves walk the roadway. We're sticking closer to the road lately as a friends yellow lab was killed not far from town on Monday, on a route that we commonly take our pups for walks, in a snare set for coyotes. It sounds like the snare was legally set ~80' off the roadway, though it lacked a tag identifying the owner as required by law. 12/27/07 Thursday The bull elk known to the townsfolk of Mammoth as "Moose" - named so because of his unusually massive antlers, along with a few other bulls of the Mammoth Hot springs area, has been hanging out in the Gardiner area.... This is the bull that I sculpted from life last September for the piece "Intermission" that is currently in the Society of Animal Artists and Coors Art Exhibit and Sale shows. As the pups and I walked down for our morning fetch session "Moose" was grazing in the church yard all by his lonesome... what a great look at him, and those two broken points near the end of his right antler beam make him unmistakable. We politely left him lots of space as we threw and fetched our toys on the other side of the yard. He looked up at times, but contented himself more with the labors of survival in winter... i.e. paw the snow, expose some grass, eat, paw some more snow...etc. etc. 12/23/07 Sunday - 12/25/07 Wednesday - Merry Christmas to all! We escaped to the wilds of Silvergate and Cooke City Montana for Christmas time. We stayed at Pine Edge cabins and had dinner with friends Shauna Baron and Missy Miculka the first evening. Our drive through the northern range of Yellowstone to Silvergate was delayed for a few minutes as we stopped to watch the Druid Peak wolf pack feeding on a bison carcass north of the road... actually, they were feeding on it when we drove home as well... this is when the image below was taken through our spotting scope. Jenny, Shauna and I skied the Bannoch Trail with the pups and then stashed them in the truck so we could go for the 3.5 mile ski in the park along the Barronett Trail. The next day Jenny and I took the pups up the Republic Creek Trail out of Cooke City AFTER we called home to wish everyone a Merry Christmas from a pay phone in Cooke. We were delighted to take our friends Phil and Patty Washburn and Barb and Lou Lanwermeyer, and their families, up on an offer to have Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner with them during their stay at the Lamar Valley Buffalo Ranch.... THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!
Druid wolf pups feeding on a dead bison (top), Jenny and Shauna Baron skiing Barronett ski trail (middle, left), Jasper and Casey wading through the deep powder snow along the Republic Creek trail (middle, right) and the view westward down the busy main street of Cooke City, MT (bottom). 12/22/07 Saturday Today is the second anniversary of my dad's passing. This has been a wonderful year and one that we have greatly enjoyed... I'm sure he's been shining down on us. I am also certain that he would have loved to have been on the ground for my first successful elk hunt earlier this month. It did feel like both he and my grandfather were there to share in the experience in other ways. It is also the day after the winter solstice... the day following the longest night of the year, and demarcating the progressive lengthening of days from her until June. I called my mother to chat on this special day as the sun rose through a lens of clouds over Mt. Everts to the east and graced Electric Peak to our west in a wash of pink illumination. 12/20/07 Friday Today was spent finishing up some odds and ends including some last reference/study sketches of the bull elk's skull and nose cartilages... endlessly fascinating! For the full account of the hunt all the way through readying the meat for the freezer, scroll down to December 5th.
Pencil studies of elk skull and nose cartilage 12/19/07 Wednesday I spent the better part of today amid the highly unglamorous, yet incredibly interesting task of dissecting the head of the elk I got earlier in the month. It had been frozen stiff up until I placed it in the studio overnight to thaw for this work... the dogs loved the prospect of having their very own elk head inside the house... What intrigued me most were the muscles of the face and ear of the elk. There were no less than 12 muscles controlling the movement and expression of the elk ear which is remarkable when one considers the range of expression of the human mouth for example - which has 14 muscles controlling it! We by comparison have 6 major ear muscles which, if you're good, can manage to get a bit of a wiggle out of your ears... a mere shadow of the range of motion, mood, intentions and health shown by an elk and other members of the deer family. 12/16/07 Sunday We went skiing up at Eagle Creek amid a nice batch of new snow!
Jenny and the pups and a closer-up of a happy skier :) 12/15/07 Saturday Went for a great ski in the Park with the Schuerr family along the Blacktail Drive... we were really impressed with the "Chariot" kid sled, actually this sled for two youngins converts into a great jogging stroller and bike trailer... who knew.. I was so impressed with how easily it pulled through the snow with Issak and Jasper in tow!
Clockwise from top left: Lynelle Schuerr, August Schuerr, Jenny, Issak and Jasper Schuerr and me and the boys. 12/13/07 Thursday Its chilly out, has been for a few days. We're getting a dusting of more snow - it's not much for accumulation but it obscures our views of Sepulcher and Electric Peaks to the south. The dogs and I just went for a run out along the Old Yellowstone Road. I particularly enjoy when, despite jogging with two 'wolves,' that the mule deer bedded in the Arch Park and pronghorn on the flats along the road stay bedded or continue grazing - thankfully, this is the usual case, otherwise we'd need to run elsewhere less disruptive... and less enjoyable. There were bison tracks coming up the Jardine Road past the end of our street... must have been the same bunch of 5 bison that I saw from the front window crossing the bridge over the Yellowstone River in town this morning... stopping traffic in all sorts of unusual ways. Sadly, this may be a rough winter for our bison and elk and we hope that another 'round-up' and destruction of the Park bison will not be in store as in 2005/2006 where 1016 were done away with. 12/12/07 Wednesday Public meeting proceeded tonight with the Alltel Company in the community center in Gardiner regarding a new cell phone tower. They had proposed putting a 150' cell phone tower along White Lane to cover Gardiner and Rt. 89. Needless to say they got a lot of comments... in fact, more then they have ever gotten on any other project. The packed house at the Community center was overwhelmingly against the original proposal because of historic status, aesthetic impacts to our viewshed. Alltel put on a very informative series of slides with alternate sites around town including using a 50' pole and most approved of by the citizenry, the use of an existing building in town where a "tower" or "pole" would be completely concealed within, or along side a building without projecting above. It was nice to know that there were other options to the seemingly ubiquitous, and in my mind, obnoxious, "Eiffel Tower" structures, including things such as a flag pole... yes, a flag pole can be replace with another flag pole of comparable height that also serves as a cell tower... go figure. Glad that our townspeople were heard. So, until the next cellular provider comes through with another bright idea, we won't be marred with another trapping of 'every town USA' here in Gardiner... luckily there are better ways to meet everyone's needs. ********************************************************************************************* 12/5/07 Wednesday Harvested my very first elk today. This is something I relay with a slight bit of reservation in that many of you who read the Field Notes may, or may not approve of hunting. I have chosen to do so because this is part of who we are and marks part of the passage of our seasons. We hunt to feed ourselves, with the major emphasis upon knowing where our food comes from and what has gone into it... is it hormones and 'mystery' meal of bone or feedlot corn? Quite to the contrary, when we have a meal from foods obtained around our home, we taste the mountains, the greenery, clean air... nothing added. It is my personal philosophy that everyone who chooses to eat meat, or wears leather, fur, etc., should participate in the harvest and/or butchering of an animal at least once in their life as a way to bring our consciousness back around to the very acts that sustained our predecessors, and most importantly to comprehend what our consumer dollars are truly paying for.
Pencil studies of the bull elk's face for use in a current sculpture-in-progress. I relay the tale of the hunt and ensuing duties here in short with significant details added for those who don't hunt to have a sense of what it is like to go through the entire process from tracking ones quarry to butchering/packaging meat for the freezer, and for those who do hunt, an interesting window into this particular outing on the western side of Paradise Valley in Montana. 6:30am - Left the house in Gardiner before light heading north on Rt. 89 to an area along the west side of Paradise Valley (south of Livingston, MT). 7:26am - the earliest time of the day one can legally shoot at game on this particular day of the year 7:30am - I closed the door on the truck, put my binoculars around my neck and hoisted my rifle and daypack (containing warm clothing, food, rope, water, a small spotting scope and tripod, plastic garbage bags, first aid kit, extra knife and sharpening tool, head lamp, etc.). Clothing for a day of hunting on foot, in my case, is quite modest: hiking boots, long-johns and wool pants, a few shirts beneath an outer shirt of wool, light cloth gloves, my usual wide-brimmed hat AND as always, an orange vest (as required by law, and common sense). 8:30am - While hiking along a sparsely traveled hiking trail I crossed a pair of elk tracks about 1/2 mile from the trailhead. This was the only, remotely fresh, elk sign I had seen up to this point in the morning. It was clearly fresh as the elks hooves where breaking through the thin crust on top of the snow. Previous days had been warm enough that the surface of the snow melted - only to freeze back to solid during the chilly nights. Also confirming the freshness was the fact that these tracks were on top of a set of hunter's boot tracks from the previous morning ~24 hours ago. Though the crumbled snow and ice within each track had frozen to the bottom of the track itself and the bull's urine (it was evident that this was a bull because of the large size of the track and the 'directed' pattern of the urine into the snow), was also frozen hard - BUT- this was pretty fresh considering. My day was set... following these tracks to wherever they took me... For the next 2 hours I followed the bull's trail - snow blanketed the entire route ranging in depths from ankle deep to above my knees... which is especially nice when the latter manages to find its way down into your boots. Whether I found this elk or not was irrelevant; this day was spectacular. Overcast skies and intermittent snow flurries broke out into bluebird weather. It was cool enough for moderately heavy clothing but still pleasant enough for bare hands. The bull's tracks crossed a few small drainages then up, up and up almost 800' into the steep country to the north. I was hoping to come upon a freshly abandoned elk bed (meaning I would be on the current days tracks and sign) but he kept on going. Periodically I would leave his tracks and walk to the downwind side and make a loop through likely terrain that he maybe bedded or feeding in. Alas, the tracks continued on and I followed 'in step,' quite literally - the crusty snow was noisy, but by stretching my own gait, I could place my feet into his tracks and therefore minimize some of the crunching. I must say, by walking in his tracks, I gained an even greater appreciation for his sure-footedness, strength in steep ascents, and overall size (as the distance between consecutive tracks, while an animal is walking, is proportional to the actual size of the animal itself). It wasn't long before I needed to take off some of my layers of clothing so I wouldn't drench everything in sweat. Things began to look promising when I knelt down and picked up an elk pellet - instead of being hard as a marble like all those before it (indicating it was old enough to have frozen solid) this one easily compressed between my fingers... fresh, within the last couple hours. Added to this was the presence of at lease one other elk's tracks - so I may be walking towards more than one elk ahead. Slowing down even more, I would walk 3-4 steps at a time then pause for 5-15 minutes and use my binoculars to scan each and every nook and cranny for signs of elk, but not for whole elk - pieces of elk: a flickering ear, glint of light from an antler, passage of a leg through a window in the brush, that sun-bleached tan color of elk fur against snow... then another couple steps and scan everything all over again. With my peripheral vision open is wide as possible, the step, stop, step, stop continued until all of a sudden a massive pair of antlers, and the large bull elk beneath them, rose from its bed only 70 yards away! A tree between us obstructed any sort of shot. As alert as the elk was, it still wasn't sure what was going on, or where this disturbance was... a crosswind was blowing upslope and it kept him from identifying me. After a few seconds - that lasted an eternity, the bull slipped away from me in a slow trot and behind a slight knoll - at which point I ran to the high point between us. There standing on the other side of a patch of some blown-down timber, only 90yds away, were two bull elk. 10:24am - I steadied the gun against the side of a tree and fired. The two bulls ran together for ~60 yards but the shot proved true. One bull departed alone. 11:00am - Waiting since the time of taking the shot, I now departed to recover the downed elk. The bull went down within sight of where I had shot, some 200 yards away, but I stayed back out of thoughts of safety and respect. From the point of first encounter (with his tracks), the bull's trail led over 1.5 miles to this point; and now this massive animal's form lay before me - still as the logs beside him. As is customary, I made sure that the elk had in fact expired with a touch of my rifle barrel to his eye - this was met without response... then I just sat down for a few minutes. Running my hands over his coat I was struck by silvery glint of his khaki and gold-tinted coat. His ribs were raised as was the ridge on his shoulder blade... the long season of fighting and mating had taken its toll on this old bull, he had hardly any body fat on him before the hardest part of winter had yet to begin. The bull's antlers and head were enormous, yet the fur and features of his face and nose were soft and supple. I stood in awe of this animal, so fine, built to endure, perfect in all the ways these mountains demanded of him. Like beholding the beauty and perfection of a falcon, its plumes so crafted and divine, this elk seemed untouchable in an ethereal sort of way.
Photo of the bull elk where he ultimately fell (left) and skeleton - completely cleaned of meat - sorry ravens..., with quarters and gear all ready to be packed out following two full hours of field dressing/butchering.
Sadly, time for admiration and giving thanks is forced into the ephemeral realm... by bears. Grizzly bears have learned to go towards the sound of a rifle shot... because they know there will be a meal there. Being that I was alone with ~600 lbs of fresh elk, the need to remove all the meat as soon as possible... at the very least, get it all away from the kill site before any large scavengers could show up. 11:30-1:30pm - I tried to drag the elk downhill after removing the entrails. I had never harvested anything so large and I was more curious about the weight/difficulty of manipulating it than I was determined to move the bull intact. This endeavor ended a few seconds later, after a mere 30' drag downhill. This resting spot now assumed by the elk would be the field butchering site. With the skin still on, I removed the inside tenderloins (two muscles about as long and big around as the large end of a baseball bat that lie inside the body cavity and up against the spine and near the pelvis), then the hind quarters and shoulders after detaching the hooves at the wrist and ankle joints. Peeling back the skin, the next job was removing the back-straps which I chose to keep, in one piece, that section of meat running along the top of the back (otherwise known as the prime rib or t-bone cuts of meat) all the way through the meat of the neck at the base of the skull. With both sided of the elk taken apart this way I then sliced out all of the meat between the ribs. In the process of removing the rib meat I found 4 or 5 broken, and re-healed ribs on the animal's left side; apparently, the bull must have had taken a hard fall or a injury in a fight to sustain that level of damage resulting in the large, swollen knobs on the lower sections of those ribs that I saw. With the butchering all of the meat had been removed, leaving only a clean skeleton with only a few hamburger patties-worth of meat left behind. 2pm - The elk meat was now ready for transport from the butchering/kill site. The shoulder and a hindquarter from each sided were tied together with rope to be drug on the ground behind (thank goodness for snow!) and the back-straps/neck meat and inside tender loins were placed in 2 large plastic bags. With the head and all my gear this would amount to 3 loads that would have to be taken down the mountain in stages. Two of those loads consisted of one bag of meat in my day pack and a shoulder/hindquarter drug behind (the weights, determined later, of the various items was: shoulder #1 = 69 lbs, hindquarter #1 = 67 lbs and bag of meat #1 = 45 lbs for a total load weight of 181 lbs, shoulder #2 = 68 lbs, hindquarter #2 = 87 lbs and bag of meat #2 = 42 lbs for a total load weight of 197 lbs), and then the bulls head/antlers (which weighed 50 lbs, I had considered leaving the head in the woods but this was my first elk and since I was working on a bull elk sculpture, this would make for very timely reference material) and my gun, clothing etcetera, as the third... and the only way to go was downhill... wherever that led. (the total weight of elk moved down the mountain was 378 lbs.) 4:45pm - It is getting dark and I finally made it out to bottom of the drainage I was descending. As luck would have it, the route came out right at the truck; this was good since I had with little energy to spare... I dropped to my knees, allowing the elk's head/rack to fall off my shoulders and rolled out of my backpack. Most of the elk meat and quarters were still in the woods further up the trail and I would have to come back later and retrieve the rest of it... preferably with some help. Outside of my gun and other gear, I managed to bring out 95 lbs of this massive animal on my back (this included the head and a bag of back strap/neck/inside tenderloin meat and amounted to carrying out ~60% of my own body weight in that last leg of the hike out). After backing the truck up to the pile of trappings and loading, I took off my soaked hiking boots and socks, wool pants and coat and drove out into the valley headed for home - and called Jenny, as soon as cell reception allowed, to tell her I was still alive and one my way back.
12/6/07 Thursday Our good friend Shaun Miculka helped me retrieve the last of the elk with the aid of some plastic sleds... what a god-sent... on both accounts - Shaun AND those 2 sleds. The latter made it easier to move those heavy loads with greater ease on small up-hills than it was to drag those elk quarters downhill! In fact, there were points that the sleds threatened to run us over on the down hill portions and our energies turned towards braking the runaway loads. We were also glad that we lashed the elk pieces down to the sleds with rope as they really wanted to twist and roll at times and it surely saved us a lot of time that may have been spent putting the loads back into the sleds. We began walking into the woods at 11:45am and were out and on our way back home at 1pm!
A quick memory sketch of how the elk quarters were lashed to the sleds for removal from the field.
12/8/07 Saturday With the help of our good friends Rebecca Kreklau and Tom Torma, and 8 hours of labor, we took all 378 lbs of elk and reduced it to 220 lbs of boneless, packaged meat including: 49 lbs of stew meat, 5 lbs of rib meat, 22 lbs of roasts, 37 lbs of steaks, 69 lbs of elk burger, 20 lbs of back strap steaks and 18 lbs of fajita strips.
Two very hopeful pups looking longingly up at Rebecca, who holds two elk bones (left) and Jenny pictured with the final yield of all our efforts - packaged elk meat ready for freezer and distribution to those friends that helped us procure and process it (right).
********************************************************************************************* 12/1/07 Saturday Our first ski of the year!!!! Jenny, I and the dogs went up to Jardine to ski the road up to Timber Camp... beautiful fluffy white... enough that you have no fear of that nasty sound of stones on ski. We had 3" of snow at the house and 6-7" up in Jardine. The dogs went nuts! This was the best day of their lives... racing back and forth and taking turns assuming that crouched 'come get me' position while the other raced headlong towards. 11/27/07 Tuesday Its a winter wonderland today in Gardiner... at least for a little bit. I had time before the snow began falling to go for a well-needed jog with the dogs this morning. A weather front has been building over the last two days - changing the clear blue skies to clouded veils of overcast air. Mom and I were going to travel over to Cody today to see the Buffalo Bill museum - she hasn't been able to visit it yet- but we decided that having to drive all the way up toward Billings and around (given that Cooke Pass east of Cooke City is too snowed in to get over to Chief Joseph Hwy.) would be just a little too much driving. Sooo, here we are, enjoying another relaxing day of working at home enjoying the snow and conversations of the magpies outside. 11/25/07 Sunday Gave a lecture out at the Lamar Valley Buffalo Ranch for one of the classes going on out there. Mom went with me and it took both of us to get out there and back as driving in the dark in Yellowstone, especially in winter, is especially risky with all the wildlife on the roads. Whereas the trip from Mammoth to Lamar would have produced very few, if any elk between the months of July and August, there were literally hundreds of elk in bands on, crossing, and beside the road. The full moon was out and intermittently veiled by clouds giving the whole valley an ethereal glow. 11/24/07 Saturday Kyle and Joy Sims came down from Bozeman today to watch the bighorn sheep... the main portion of the breeding season is in full swing right now. We had at least four females in estrus... needless to say, they were very popular with the boys. My ;mom is in town until Wednesday and she had a good time out with the Sims' and myself from about 11am-5pm. Things have been chilly - down into the single digits and even less with a little bit of wind (which was blowing for a bit from the east) but this seems to bother the sheep little. We were hoping for some intense head-knocking by the rams but there was seemingly little of it. I'm guessing that with the abundance of females in season, the need for combat was much reduced. I took some photos through the scope, made some sketches and shot a little video as well.
Bighorn rams on cliff in Park (left) and sketch of a bighorn ram in action (right). 11/23/07 Saturday Tom Torma and I went out to the Rock Creek area north of Gardiner to try to fill his deer tag before the hunting season ends on Sunday... needless to say we were jinxed from the start when a sizable mule deer buck greeted us right near our planned starting point of the hunt. The only catch was that the deer was about 60 yards over the line on private property - and completely safe; where upon the deer watched us and leisurely grazed away. We watched, admired and hunted our tails off in other areas to no avail... so it goes - this is why its called hunting and not shooting. 11/21/07 Thursday Happy Turkey Day! My mom is in town from New York (no not the city...) and we had a wonderful feast at our friend Rebecca Kreklau's 11/17-11/20/07 Sunday -Wednesday Jenny and I traveled over to Moscow, ID so she could meet with her Graduate School advisor. While they were deep in the throws of data analysis, I went over to Washington State University's Veterinary School Anatomy museum/lab to draw. I also drove past the captive bighorn sheep facility where I had sculpted these same sheep as lambs 1 year ago... look how they've grown!
Bighorn sheep skull studies from WSU anatomy lab.
Bighorns in captive sheep research facility at WSU in 2006, along with a clay model 'in progress' (left) and in 2007 (right). 11/17/07 Saturday Spent the bulk of today watching/obtaining reference material on bighorn sheep in Yellowstone with Kyle Sims from 10:30-5:30pm... save a lunch break back at Jenny's and my place (lunch was turkey sandwiches with banana bread and granola bars compliments of Joy Sims... thanks for making me a sandwich too Joy!). We had the good fortune of finding a band of ~45 sheep - a mix of rams, lambs and ewes and stayed with them to see a wonderful array of behaviors, BUT the head butting and other signs of the breeding season were still yet to come. We'll have to give it another week or so to see if the action picks up. The main rut for bighorn sheep in 'these parts' is usually between Thanksgiving and the first of December...
Bighorn sheep and a view down the Yellowstone River Valley. 11/16/07 Friday Had the great opportunity to visit our friend Charlotte at her home on the upper Shields River. She and her husband Jeffery have put a wonderful portion of open land under conservation easement in view of 7 mountain ranges. As we walked the open fields of their home, sun danced across the land in 'spotlight' shafts of illumination against muted values of moody, overcast vistas. After a superb lunch of greens and crab meat soup Charlotte and I went down to the studio of their painter friends Clyde and Carol Aspevig. This was the first time I had met the Aspevigs, but like many, I had known their artwork well in advance (see www.ClydeAspevig.com). Most recently, Clyde was listed as one of the contemporary Masters of Western Art by Art of the West Magazine for his extraordinary landscape paintings. They have done very well and are at the point in their careers where they can balance work with travel, family, philanthropy and most anything that piques their passions! Though Charlotte had to leave and greet incoming guests, Clyde and Carol invited me over to the house where visited at length on any number of topics on into the early evening. What a joy to have been able to visit with Charlotte, Jeffery, Clyde and Carol... thank you all for such a fantastic day! 11/13/07 Tuesday Took a walk out to the carcass of that Slough Creek Pack wolf pup that was killed by the Druid Pack the other day. I had to ford the Lamar with my neoprene waders amid the howling wind and snow to get to the remains of the black male pup. I took a radio with me so that I had some form of communication with the Yellowstone Association base at the Lamar Buffalo Ranch... anytime you go waltzing out to an animal carcass by yourself in a place where there are black bears and grizzlies trying to fatten up for winter, you want to have some way of getting help when the bear spray fizzles out and the threat remains. And this particular location where the wolf carcass was located put me right at the base of a hill with minimal visibility to the south. Took some pictures of the wolf and made my series of 50 measurements (for artwork anatomy reference) and GOT THE HECK OUT OF THERE! All in all, I was only in there for about 40 minutes, which is about as fast as I can accurately take them.
Carcass of a Slough Creek Pack pup (left) that I was able to take some anatomy reference measurements from - it was killed by the Druid Peak pack of wolves a couple days prior. An image of the hind foot pads of the pup are shown above and right. 11/12/07 Monday Catching up on office stuff this morning... cool out; thermometer reads 44F but it has been unseasonably warm this fall. Some snow fell yesterday afternoon still sticks to the side of Sepulcher and Electric peaks at about 6000'. I take a short break at lunch time and put up the spotting scope on the deck. There are 10 bighorn sheep in view on the McMinn Bench area around the "narrows" between Gardiner and Mammoth Hot Springs; three of them are very large rams. Jenny and I went out in the Park for two hours in the evening and were lucky enough to drop in to a scene at Soda Butte Creek where the Druid wolf pack had a kill in the drainage. Just as we stepped out of the truck a grizzly came bounding down out of the timber and flushed a bunch of the wolves up from their beds (where most had been contently chewing on bones). The bear came in and ran back and forth until it located the kill... all the while being harasses by the 15 wolves in attendance. Back and forth they went until finally the bear got a leg-of-elk and darted back off to the timber to the south. 11/11/07 Sunday Helped friends butcher a mule deer that another friend gave to them. I was going to keep the pelvis, tail bones and one set of leg bones to clean up, for anatomical studies, and as payment for my 'services' but the fellow who field dressed it cut through the pubis bone and the tail bones were detached... not good... alas... there will be more available I'm sure.
Sketch of our Jasper pup from this evening. 11/10/07 Saturday Pretty amazing day in the wolf world today. I went out to Lamar to sketch bison calves and cows for a current piece that I'm working on. Turns out that, as I was working, I noticed a lot of wolf howling on both sides of the road/valley. A friend stopped by to inform me that the Druid and Slough Creek wolf packs had just clashed this morning a little bit before I got there! The Druids assailed the Sloughs when they caught them on a bull elk carcass south the the Institute. Apparently some of the pups did not realize the severity of the situation and stayed at the carcass. A chase ensued and a black Sough pup is now thought to be dead. As our friend Laurie described it, it was "like when they kill a coyote"... all of the Druids gather 'round in a circle, everyone grabs a hold and pulls/shakes until the life is gone. For most of the day the wolves howled and we watched the alpha female of the Slough pack, wolf 380F (sketch below), as she tried to rally and get the remaining 5 pups that were on that side of the road back across to the north of the Lamar River and the road and into safer country with rest of their pack. The pups were clueless but it was very apparent that 380 was very on edge - snapping her head towards any stray sound and any and all howls she could detect. Toward afternoon an amazing thing occurred... the Druids settled down, the Sloughs sifted back into their lair and we started taking stock of the wolves visible - principally the Druids in the area south and east of the Buffalo Ranch. As folks began taking counts of grays and black wolves, I happened to spot 2 grays and 1 black further east... assuming that these were part of the Druid count. So things go, two of the wolves were BUT ONE GRAY WOLVES APPEARED TO BE AN OUTSIDER, A NON-DRUID WOLF that had sifted in among their ranks. We watched as this mystery wolf mingled among the bedded Druid pack and tried to make friends. He, it was determined a male, would walk up cowering with his tail between his legs and visit each druid wolf several times. a few times he was pinned by the alpha and beta males but was not beaten up. At another juncture, the pack chased this outsider towards the southern tree line of the valley... we thought perhaps to beat him up (their body language did not suggest they were in the killing mood now) but he soon reappeared unscathed. When I had to leave, the mystery fellow with the dark 'bib' of fur on his chest was still alternately bedding by himself and approaching the Druids one by one. The action of this day was unusual and intense. Rick McIntyre, who now has been watching wolves in Yellowstone for over 3700 days, ranks this as one of the most amazing. It is pretty amazing that a pack would kill a foreign wolf on sight in the morning and then allow another to join their ranks that same afternoon... I guess they were all done killing... wolves are as curious in their ways as we are I suppose...
Sketches of Slough Creek pack Alpha female 380 (above, left) and the mystery male wolf that joined the Druid pack the same afternoon (above, right). 11/9/07 Friday Jenny was good enough to watch the dogs while I took a morning trek into the park. I shot straight out to Lamar as the Druid wolf pack has been visible for the last few days. In fact, they made a kill right at the Confluence of the Lamar and Soda Butte Creek two mornings ago.. so close that friend John Kerr recommended to observers that they stand behind their cars to avoid spooking the wolves; the kill was immediately on the other side of the River. This morning we spotted 16 of the Druid wolves at their old rendezvous site. They had made a kill near the foothill across the valley not terribly far from the southern margin of the Valley. I made several sketches of the wolves as they moved about with full bellies and revisited the carcass between naps. While watching the wolves from the foothill north of the road near the exclosure, a mixed herd of bison crossed the Lamar in the slanted morning light. The early morning sun made for some of the most delicious illumination; the bison as a result, appeared tinted with caramel and burnt sienna. If the image couldn't be any more sublime, the hers stepped into and through the glimmer glass of Lamar River splashing, wading a cacophony of sound arose to match the visual magic. The herd talked incessantly with grunts, groans, huffs and half-bellows - it was almost like a soundtrack out of Jurassic Park; blend into this the sound of the water and rocks rolling over one another under the hooves and you have a sliver of the ambiance...
Sketches of Druid wolves moving through the sage back to the carcass, and feeding, from this morning.. notice the gray wolf portrait in the middle licking her chops. 11/6/07 Tuesday
11/1/07 Thursday Day is slipping away into night over the town of Gardiner. Random stars and planets come through the veil of night. Jenny and I relax in the hot tub and make objects out of the clouds building over Electric Peak. At once the up-thrust creates a dog's head, then spaceship, a turtle, a fish - a sculpin to be exact, a snowmobile, a coyote... and one it goes following a day of running errands in Bozeman and a trip to the foundry. Stopped by our friend Aaron Scheurr's place to see him, Lynell nad the boys, as well as some of the new works he came home with after painting in the deserts of the southwest.... great stuff Aaron! He did several dazzling sunsets and aspen stands in oil and pastel.
As an aside, friends Hugh and Nancy Grove sent this great photo of the 'neighbors' - a flock of wild turkeys coming by to see the new wolf ("Valley Vigil" - Yellowstone's Druid Peak Pack alpha female #42F) in town. 10/23/07 Tuesday Working at home in the office and studio today. I've been laboring over the details of a new elk piece and just yesterday began the full size version of a composition depicting a herd of bison moving through deep snow... very exciting, and nice to have ones hands back in clay after being preoccupied with other things for so long. The house remodel project held the future of my current studio space in limbo for much of the summer, but for now, it will remain where it has and I've dove into these new projects with zeal. ¶Walked the pups separately this morning so we could work on our fetching skills, the dogs that is - my jaws get tired after the first few :), and spotted a muley buck with a doe leading him around... the deer rut is approaching soon. 10/15/07 - 10/22/07 Trip to the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State visit with Batemans on Salt Spring Isl., British Columbia.
Sunset panorama looking west from deck of our ferry bound for Port Townsend and the Olympic Peninsula.
On the lookout for new birds and sketching the double-crested and pelagic cormorants (above, left) sunning atop mats of floating bull kelp (above, right). Note the renderings of the two species of cormorant heads and of one of the bull kept stalks above that or the cormorants - they have a uniquely tapering stem that enlarges up to a ball-like float from which long, lanceolate leaves project.
"Camp necessity" with the door open to the bedroom/living room/kitchen/mud room and jungle room (above, left), Jenny at the bottom of a 300' tall Sitka spruce (above, middle) and a phone boot with a moss toupee (above, right). The gurgle and roll of the Hoh River (pronounced hoe - like the gardening tool) lulls us to sleep. We are camping out in the back of our Nissan pickup in Olympic National Park - this is our third night out. It has been a long day of utterly outstanding adventures... and yes, I managed to spoil it by turning on this darn computer. Night comes early at this time of year and the campfire we used to make our supper fades in the intermittent rains... it is a rain forest after all. Our evening dining consisted of kukus, green peppers, cheese, avocados and sunflower seeds all rolled into one 'heated bucket', and dubbed kukus "lala" after my fathers use of the term regarding a jumbled, mysterious turkey dish served him in the hospital a few years back. We soon find that "camp necessity" isn't necessarily watertight at the rainforest poignantly indicates where all of our leaks reside. With the tightening of a few bolts that hold the roof racks in place we've manage to seal off most of the water... AND can enjoy the precip serenade and hiking amid the ancient spruce, hemlock and fir trees with less fear of finding a kiddy-pool-on-wheels when we return.
Panorama from behind the log jams at Second Beach near La Push on the Pacific Coast.
Partners in crime at Second Beach... amid the break in the clouds an rain! Perhaps one of the greatest highlights of the trip, and one might say, my life, was getting to visit with Robert and Birgit Bateman on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. Bob and Birgit were kind enough to invite us up a year or so ago and this was the first opportunity we had to take them up on their offer. This was quite special considering their very busy schedules and the fact that Bob had been my hero since I was a boy. While Birgit readied dinner Bob took Jenny and I on a brief tour of the land and gardens around there new home. Once back inside, Bob took Jenny and I into the studio for the "art show," as he called it. He positioned the two of us in chairs in front of the easel and placed a series of about 12 paintings, in various stages of completion, for our review. What a delight! What amazingly warm hosts the two of them were - both very soft spoken, engaging, and with deep convictions for family, work and life. We enjoyed a wonderful meal and conversation which carried over into their living room before and open fire. Prior to departing, there was one, and only one item that I wished Bob to sign for me - a calendar given to me by my mother when I was 12 years old. This one little calendar was responsible for me falling in love with Bob's art and opening my eyes to the fact that there were people in this world that had managed to intertwine the wonderful worlds of art and nature. This was also the first place that I ever recorded my own nature observations. As luck would have it, the painting on the cover of my calendar was a painting done for Birgit's parents.. and the original just happened to be at their home while a print of it was made for her mother. Jenny snapped my picture with the calendar and original (below).
Jenny and I easel-side with one of Bob Bateman's works in progress (above, top), myself with my Bateman "Naturalist's Dairy" calendar and Bob's original painting used for its cover (above, left) and pre-dawn glow from the Bateman home, taken from down at the pond, before our morning departure (above, right). 10/8/07 Monday Walked the pups up at Eagle Creek this morning and afternoon. In the am we scared up a great blue heron from on of the beaver ponds where upon it was dive-bombed by a sharp-shinned hawk... I think the hawk realized that the heron was a bit out of its league about halfway into the approach, then pealed off and went back to its perch in the dead aspen tree. Fragrant aspen leaves perfume the upper portion of the creek drainage though this is not what the dogs were smelling... apparently there was a carcass along the drainage on our normal walking path, and as we approached, a coyote darted out of the brush. With bear spray in hand... and ready to use it, I took the dogs by the collars and walked them far enough beyond, and around the carcass so that none of us would get into trouble; still never figured out what it was. (as a sided note, there were two more instances of bears and people getting into trouble this last week, one of them ending up in a dead black bear and orphaned cubs, so we take the bear spray on most walks this time of year) The air is cool, mountains of the south are tipped in snow and northward slopes retain some of the white stuff that fell in the last few days; they reflect the cool blue color of the heavens in afternoon. Mule deer are dropping down in elevation considering the snowfall... more than I have seen in this area since the spring. Friends said that elk were streaming down from the high-country by the hundreds following the snows. 10/4/07-10/7/07 Thursday - Sunday: Studying Moose in Grand Teton Park Kyle Sims picked me up at the house at around 10am. Weather forecasts were for snow and nastiness... alas, the lure of observing moose in the wild was enough of a draw that weather was further down on the lists of concerns. We have been planning this trip for some time AND, this, the first week of October, should put us right in the midst of the mating season for this largest member of the deer family. Grant Teton Park was to be the place since many of the moose in Yellowstone have disappeared following the lasting effects of the forest fires of 1988 which burned much of their habitat in Yellowstone.
View of the Tetons in heavy overcast skies along the north end of Jackson Lake.
Good morning Tetons! Awake bright and early, well, sort of - the alarm didn't go off, but we did manage to get out and get the best of the morning light and the wakeup of our elk friends from the evening before. With a few shots of the landscape and some elk thrown in for good measure, Kyle and I made for the area we hoped to find our moose bulls. We were not to be disappointed as we spotted 2 bulls on the drive in near Moose, WY and then another bull near Willow Flats that we ultimately named "Trident" because of the two cuts in his right ear that made it look like a mitten with both separate thumb and pinky finger. He was kind enough to bed down for us which allowed for some nice sketching and photography. Moose very cooperative this way I've found; they will travel along, stop, and as if caught in mid-stride, hold this pose for several minutes at a time in some cases - then, all at once they've made up their mind and take off like they were shot out of a gun for parts unknown.
Sketches of the "Trident" moose from life.
Here the "Trident" bull is doing that posing maneuver (above and left) and what a moose wallow looks like (above and right) with my watch in the image for scale - the bulls paw this out and urinate in it... which drives the girls crazy as they then almost duke it out to be the one who gets to lay in it. I waited a good while after the last female left this 'hot spot' before attempting a photo.
Each of the following mornings found us scanning from the hills over Willow Flats for signs of moose. Kyle is pictured above with the trusty spotting scope. Additionally, there was an amazing array of colors visible, from the rich reds of the willows to the ochre and gold of the cottonwoods and aspen to the greens of the sage and striking blues of the receding mountain ridges in the distance, this all made for an impeccable experience.
Pencil studies (from life) made of a bull moose we were calling "Shovels" - due to the broad, outward-canted palms of brow tines (left) and a couple of a few females (right) that we observed. One this day (October 6th) were lucky enough to spot 7 different bull moose chasing the ladies around, as well as several cows and a few calves.
Cloud masses build over the Teton Mountains and the reflective sliver of Jackson Lake show to the west... in spite of this ominous posturing by the weather, it proved to be relatively benign... thank goodness. Snow was called for in each day of the forecast, even for amounts between 2" and 8" of the white stuff, but, it never materialized - the closest it got was a light dusting on the flats surrounding Jackson Lake Lodge.
Just before reaching home we encountered a big pile of cars in Swan Lake Flats, just south of Mammoth Hot Springs in the Park. Turns out this young grizz was coming to the road with the intent to cross... as usual, the traffic kept blocking her and pushed her all the way to where we were... a distance of about 1/4 mile. Though unfortunate for her, the situation did offer Kyle the chance for some of his first good photos of a wild grizz. We went out and checked her tracks after she managed to run the gauntlet and cross the highway just a little south of the pullout we were in. 9/26/07 Wednesday A day sketching at home...
This is one of my studies of Michelangelo's drawings depicting the resurrection of Christ (left) and another of his study for Adam on the Sistine Chapel (right). 9/25/07 Tuesday Autumn is setting in for sure. Hiking the dogs this morning, I had no thoughts of leaving the red and black checked wool shirt behind. The rabbit brush blooms have begun fading from goldenrod yellow to something more closely matching the cured grasses and the drying blooms of sage brush. I can even start to feel the dogs coats beginning to thicken as we have been watching those of the bison do for some weeks now. Snow, albeit scant, has stuck to the tops of the peaks such as Electric to our south... keep it coming I say! 9/24/07 Monday I had the great fortune of getting to spend some time with friends from the Yellowstone Association Lou and Barb Lanwermeyer and Patti and Phil Washburn, along with their son Andrew. The group made an executive decision to go fishing out at Slough Creek for the day. With a quick stop at the Tower Ranger Station in the Park, I got a fishing permit... Barb was kind enough to let me borrow her rod and reel. With only a few folks out and about in this part of the Park, we had this section of creek almost all to ourselves. Though the chill that had moved into the air may have put the fish down from heavy feeding we, meaning the 'boys', gave the angling a try, the 'girls' went for a short hike in the area. Despite being tough fishing we carried on for a few hours and Lou did manage to land a decent rainbow trout, Phil and Andrew had some hits and I managed to land 2 fish. All around the us the signs of autumn shined; aspen gold, alabaster of snow on the peak of Cuttoff Mountain, coyotes serenading us from the surrounding hills, rose bushes awash with color. We also found some great wolf and coyote tracks in the sand along the Creek... it never ceases to amaze me- the size that these wolf tracks are.
Shot of Cutoff Mountain topped in snow (left), a rainbow trout captured (& released) during our time on the Creek (center) and Barb, in purple coat, and Patti (right). 9/23/07 Sunday Today was spent with our friends Brian Makare and Claire Campbell hiking in a place that we've been wanting to explore for some time... a secret place that is a corridor of travel for bears, wolves and all other wildlife making their way between some of the major drainages of Yellowstone Park. A fantastic mix of sun and ominous skies marked the day's hiking adventure. And yes, we did have a few bouts of rain which made us draw out our foul weather coats and duck under some canopies of spruce and Douglas fir. To augment the dramatic skies, the ground cover color, particularly the reds in the wild geranium leaves were astounding - blood red, in fact. We did end up finding some of the major 'hidden highways' that the wildlife use in this area, which, in some cases the trails looked like human hiking paths... and, if there was any doubt as to the frequency of their use, we ran into a young moose and a coyote while making our traverse.
Amazing skies spangled with light and dark to the north and a group shot (including left to right, Jenny, myself, Brian and Claire)... forgot to take a photo of some of that amazing 'wild geranium' red... 9/21/07 Friday I had to do do some office work but Brian went back to fish the hole we did yesterday and ended up calling his trip short when he spotted a gorgeous grizzly right in the water where we had forded the river the day before. He erred on the the side of safety and stayed up high and took some pictures... I'll have to have him send a few to include here.
Here is one of the shots that Brian took of that bear that was in the spot we were fishing the day before. 9/20/07 Thursday Blustery winds today, esp. in the afternoon, cool and calm in the morning. Friend Brian Makare and I walked the pups up at Eagle Creek doing a nice big loop through the hills to the west. The beaver have been hard at work bolstering their dam for the coming winter. Their mud and twig, waddle and daub impoundment looks to be in good shape with a few new trails through the grasses to freshly cut aspen sprouts. just before lunch word came that a fellow in town had harvested a black bear up in Beatie Gulch this morning. Brian and I went over to check it out - we met Jenny there, and I brought along my 'road-kill kit' in order to take some measurements of the animals anatomy. It was a well proportioned, albeit very thin male black bear of about 20 years of age (according to Jim Halfpenny). After lunch with Jenny, Brian, Claire and some other board of trustee member of the Yellowstone Association, Brian and I went fishing up on the upper Gardiner River. It was very windy to the point of putting down those really tight, rippled waves on the river's surface. We did manage to catch a few small brookies but the scent of willow leaves curing, the color of aspens, changing ground cover made this a very successful outing indeed. 9/19/07 Wednesday Today was yet again a day of conflict for the elk of Mammoth Hot Springs. Kyle Sims and I spent the better part of the day in the Mammoth area checking up on the 'big three' bull elk; those being #6, #10 and "Moose". The elk bull we call "Moose" and bull elk #6 had a drawn out session of sizing one another up in the sage flats in the center of town. We thought a fight might be imminent but the two merely parallel walked for about 200 yards toward the Hotel, then back, then across the road, twice, and then came to within 30 yards in the sage between the main road to Lamar and Officer's row. Each time people, including the group we were in, would scatter to the shouts of rangers and elk patrol volunteers. Kyle and I retreated to the our truck, Kyle in the cab, I on top, with video camera in hand, in hopes of getting footage of what would be a fantastic bout of combat between these two goliaths. Both massive bull mangled sage brush and postured but, no face-off ever came. For the remainder of the day bull #6 and "Moose" bugled at each other but in the end it was "Moose" that won the day with the sheer power of his display. I had noticed that #6 was still favoring the right front leg that was broken in a fight with bull elk #10 two or three years ago. It is healed but still is quite swollen down toward his hoof... perhaps this is partly what eroded a bit of his confidence in the face of possible contact with "Moose". Bull #6 fumed, bugled and tore up the sod with his antlers for the remainder of the time there, yet he remained alone, or with only a few cows - "Moose" is the keep of the great harem this year. A decisive 8/31/07 Friday Jenny, her dad, John and I went down to the Tumbleweed bookstore for breakfast. The radio station KMMS the Moose from of Bozeman was broadcasting live from the store and were actively promoting the Yellowstone Music Festival that Jenny coordinates each year. This will be the 4th year of the Festival and the Michelle and Mary from the station were delighted to be here in town. Light rain is falling as we munch down our breakfast bagels. John went back to the house and Jenny and I walked the puppy monsters up at Eagle Creek before carrying on with our office-based day in preparation for the music fest. among other things. 8/27/07 Monday - Wednesday 8/29/07 "Wolves of Yellowstone Class" at the Lamar Valley Buffalo Ranch in Yellowstone Park.
Views from high above of Lamar Valley looking west. From this wonderful perch above the traffic of Lamar's paved road, we had a full morning of just being... watching for wolves of course, but also see what ever else we could discover. Bull bison continued to bellow around the Valley floor despite the peak of the breeding season having passed. We spotted the first bull elk of the year starting to shed his antler velvet. Alison, who has been working as a ranger in Mammoth, noted that they has spotted a bull elk in Mammoth Hot Springs on ~August 15th that has started to shed the velvety cover to his antlers. Sandhill cranes have been calling on and off and now have been seen staging... flying in grouped formations on their way to gather more friends for the migration south. A northern harrier or two could be spotted here and there with their bright white rump patches shining out from the depths of the browns of the tail and body around them. Then, from down the Valley came a single cow elk... running across the river bends and meadow expanses with seeming reckless intent... she was being pursued. Through our spotting scopes this was clear, even before we saw the lone black wolf on her trail, it was clear she was running for her life as her mouth was wide open, ringed in frothy saliva and her tongue lolling about. The wolf was about 1/4 mile behind her running almost as fast as she was. It was quite a scene as part of the group was following the wolf and part of the group was tracking the progress of the elk. For several minutes it was a play by play commentary from the wolf's point of view, then the elks, then the wolf's again. As so often happens, the wolf was unsuccessful... the elk kept running in and out of the water as she encountered bends in the Lamar having covered about 2 miles from where the chase first started (this info coming from friends who spotted the initiation of the chase further down the Valley) and then disappeared over the ridge along the south and west end of Lamar Valley. The wolf soon lagged behind and lost her trail and she soon meandered around and departed for the east were the chase began and the rest of her pack rested. This amazing scene was only surpassed by watching the pups on the last day with their elder 113 and the entire pageantry of behaviors tied to the return of the rest of the pack and feeding of the pups following a 2 day absence of the other adults while on the hunt.
8/26/07 Sunday Cool once again, temps in the low 50s as indicated by the thermometer in the kitchen. I'll be heading back out into Lamar Valley this evening to teach another wolf ecology class for the Yellowstone Association Institute. Warm light graces the face of Electric Peak and only a few clouds dangle in the western sky. It should prove to be another wonderful, early autumn day. 8/25/07 Saturday Jenny and I walked the dogs in one or our favorite areas up along Eagle Creek a few miles from the house on the Gallatin National Forest. We walked and chatted, periodically heeling the dogs up and giving them hand signals as training preparation for the upland bird hunting season to come. Leaves of Arrow-leafed Balsamroot crackled and cracked along with the sounds of dry grasses as the dogs' legs passed through them. Grasshoppers added to the medley with "click, click, clack, clacks" of their multi-colored wings as the four of us rousted them from their perches. Following old game trails and hunters paths we stopped above a dried pond basin bordered with aspens. As we sat, so did the dogs and Jenny and I just talked about whatever came natural. At once she said "look!" Over my left shoulder came the in-flight form of a young Cooper's hawk. Flying straight at us at a height of ~6-8 feet it was dive-bombed by a smaller bird when about 20' out... a robin? It all happened so fast as the smaller bird dove, the hawk rolled, splaying its tail and wings and swinging its sickle-like talons at this foe. The small bird exited without haste the hawk crossed our airspace scarcely out of arms reach and ramped its way up the air column to come, effortlessly, to rest on an aspen limb only 15 yards away.` Some neat news: I picked up the mail today up in Mammoth and found the Newsletter for the Coors Western Art Exhibit and Sale in the box. As I drew it out, there on the cover were 3 images of art by artists in the show (coming up in January 2008 in Denver, CO); one of them being "Intermission," my sculpture of the bedded bull elk sculpted from life last September not 100' feet from the point where I stood at the post office box.
Newsletter announcing the upcoming Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale with an image of "Intermission," the bull elk I sculpted from life in Mammoth, YNP, on the cover. Events for the Show begin on January 5th, 2008. Other artists work on the mailer include "Ready to Work," by Karmel Timmons, "Hopi Vision," by Roseta Santiago and "Belly Up," by Sophy Brown. 8/23/07 Thursday - last day of the "Wolves of Yellowstone" class at the Lamar Valley Buffalo Ranch Up and at 'em at 6am. We drove up to Antelope Creek as to try for another look at the Agate Creek wolf Pack in that area north of Mt. Washburn. Lamar is filled with fog on account of the rain received last evening. The wolves did not disappoint, though it was only the pups this morning... all 9 of them (7 grays and 2 black ones). Apparently the adults have gone hunting and for even the researchers, their presence is unknown. So it is the pups that we watch playing king of the hill on a boulder down in the flats along the creek. They chase one another, roll, wrestle, chase, tease, bounding with high tails or tucked, depending on who was the chaser, or the chasee... all the things you'd expect from a set of care-free pups awaiting the return of the pack with groceries. At a few points they made attempts to locate the rest of their clan with group 'puppy howls' that were fun to watch - these young heads raised sky-ward, the sound delaying after the image in the scope made the projection. These were the first glimpses we had of the wolves themselves as they howled. We finished the class today by having the Lane Adamson and John Crumley of the Madison Valley Ranchlands Group come speak to the group about living with wolves. It is always a treat to have these gentlemen come to a program like this as they are able to bring an element to the class that I never could, and arguably one that no student of wolves should ever go home without being exposed to. We had a wonderful lunch with John and Lane at the Roosevelt Lodge and a 3 hour discussion as the capstone to the class. 8/22/07 Wednesday - second of three days of the "Wolves of Yellowstone" class at the Lamar Valley Buffalo Ranch With a climb up onto the hills on the north side of Lamar Valley the class and I had the opportunity to watch the Slough Creek wolf pack deliver breakfast to the pups. This pack is making a rebound after taking some hard hits with the parvovirus outbreak of 2005 (that left only 8 of 49 pups born in this part of the Park alive) and then having their den besieged by a rogue group of 12 unidentified wolves (resulting in the loss of all of their pups) in 2006. The pack now has 13 puppies and the adults were more than dutiful as they returned from the Amethyst Creek drainage where they had killed a bison during the first hours of our class yesterday... we were in 'class' in the Buffalo Ranch Bunkhouse as the kill took place strait across the Valley from us, ie. we didn't see happen. As the adults returned from the bison kill, the lounging, care-free pups spring to action and shortcut the returning 'grocers'. We had the unique opportunity to watch the alpha female and alpha male of the pack, along with a few other adults, regurgitate breakfast for the little ones. The feeding frenzy could only be compared to a brief interlude with a school of piranhas... that lasted mere seconds and was over. In the afternoon the Agate Creek wolf pack came into view up near Mt. Washburn and in the few hours before nightfall, we hopped into our white Institute bus to see what we could observe. There in the flats of Antelope Creek were 18 of the Agate wolves including 113 - the oldest wolf in the Park at 11 years and 4 months old. An added treat for the class was an evening presentation of one of Bob Landis' new films on Yellowstone wildlife - shown by Bob himself on his fantastic high definition projector/screen.
Group watching the Slough Creek wolf pack and their pups in Lamar Valley. 8/21/07 Tuesday - first of three days of the "Wolves of Yellowstone" class at the Lamar Valley Buffalo Ranch We covered the evolution and history of wolves today along with a hike to the Rose Creek acclimation pen. Before we could even finish our first lecture indoors word came that the Slough Creek wolf pack has just killed a bison across the Valley from us in the Amethyst Creek drainage. We got out spotting scopes out in time to see 4 of the pack members, including the alpha male, on their way back to feed the pups. 8/20/07 Monday Headed out to the Lamar Valley Buffalo Ranch to begin teaching the Wolves of Yellowstone Class... and was gifted with an amazing Lamar sunset...
Sunset over Lamar Valley this evening. 8/16/07 Thursday Spent the day watching bison with artist-friend from Bozeman, Kyle Sims. Kyle and I were both interested in watching/filming/photographing bison in the heat of combat. We were lucky enough to see about a half-dozen fights that we could get some footage or shots of. I did see a few more in the distance through the spotting scope. The rut will be over soon so it was imperative that we get our reference material now. Ground squirrels are nearly completely gone... hibernating until next spring...
Clockwise: View from Lamar Valley to the Absaroka Mountains to the east with bison in the mid-distance, Kyle Sims watches over a bison herd for signs of unrest, bull bison with cowbirds on his back tending a female.
Another amazing Lamar sunset. 8/15/07 Wednesday The air is beginning to cool somewhat. At 05:30 when I awoke there was, if not a slight chill, a distinct coolness that the air of July and early August have been lacking. Portending of milder temperatures, less fires and the promise of fall, I hope this continues... and we may have to add another blanket to the bed if we continue opening up the house each evening.
A little voice told Jeff and Wendy Brown's girls Becca and Sarah that I "had clay" with me at the Ranch... before you knew it we were deep in the throws of creation...Sarah and Becca Brown with their clay creations on the back porch of the Lamar Valley Buffalo Ranch. If you can't quite tell, Sara is displaying her cat family of 'ever-shrinking' kittens (left) and Sarah & Becca show off the full 'spread' of our insect tea party complete with the flower table, tiny teacups, a locust, a grumpy lady bug, bumble bee and dragonfly, oh, and let us not forget the "uninvited guest," the Stella the bat on the left (right).
Smokey sunset in Lamar Valley taken at the Buffalo Ranch. 8/14/07 Tuesday Made a trip to the foundry today with the dogs. Took a few waxes up of the bedded elk piece, ran errands and visited artist friends Aaron Schuerr and Kyle Sims. Aaron has a nice piece of the Pine Creek Lake area going and some beautiful pleine aire pieces and Kyle has been working on a few of bison, mountain goats and a wolf pack... wonderful work indeed. ¶ Smoke fills the valleys. Fires to the west are dumping smoke into the skies in large amounts; the air reeks of campfire smell. I can only see the tops of the mountains to the east as we drive up Paradise Valley.
Work is coming along on our new deck too! 8/13/07 Monday Office day... pulled waxes for tomorrows foundry run, emailed, wrote letters, ran dogs, etc... the less-than-glamorous end of art and life in Gardiner. 7/26/07 Thursday It finally rained in Gardiner. The Owl fire in the north-west corner of Yellowstone has been shrouding the entire valley in a fine, smoky haze. Yesterday afternoon and this afternoon we had first rain showers in a long, long while. The striking scent of sage, disturbed dust, and cured grasses - the fragrance of the grass reminds me very much of that from the hay bales in open fields of home that had been doused with a passing rain. 7/12 - 7/21/07 - Alaska Trip 2007 - Jenny and I went up to Juneau to visit our friend Don McDougal where he works as a bear viewing ranger out on Admiralty Island about 30 miles south of Juneau. Day 1 - July 12, Thursday After proofing a bronze at the foundry in Bozeman, we hopped our flight to Seattle and on to Juneau. With smiles stretched across our faces the entire flight, we finally hit town in the middle of the night (mind you this is a very short period of time in Alaska in the summer.... only about 4 hours actually). Loading ourselves and our gear into Don's brand new (to him) Ford Econoline we followed the scribbled directions through the rain to his rental on the shores of Lynn Canal... not a man-made canal but a naturally carved one along the inland passage. Day 2 - July 13, Friday It is hard to believe that man now has the ability to transport him/or herself thousands of miles away from home in the span of a few hours. It is in this sort of time/space warp that we awoke in the comfy bed of Don's rental - still not knowing what it or anything else looked like in the daylight, we rose to the sound of chortling bald eagles, gulls, and ocean waves. I sat up, peeked out the window and there in the tree not 40' from the window pane is a juvenile bald eagle perched on the limb of a tree slightly below eye level.
The bald eagle perched on limb of tree outside the bay window of Don's place (left) and the view of the back of house - note the snazzy brown Econoline parked on the left. Day 3 - July 14, Saturday This is the day we are to fly out to Admiralty Island to meet Don (he is on duty when we arrived) for our first day viewing the brown bears of Pack Creek. We race through the rain and the fog into the Juneau airport to meet Jacques, of Tal Air, for our floatplane charter to Pack Creek. When we pile into the airport laden with gear precisely at 8am, the man behind the counter at the Tal Air desk says, "You're here to meet Jacques? It's all fogged in... who knows when he'll get here," in a tone that said to us "duh... you idiot tourists... when you can't see, you can't fly a plane." Oh, yeah... we knew that... Guess we all take our turn at playing the tourist don't we. So, with time to kill, we visited the Mendenhall Glacier visitor center, walked out to the viewpoint of the glacier with a whole herd of folks who just got off the tour boat... what hustle and bustle - far too much for such a serene place... A few hours later the skies cleared and Jacques arrived to shuttle us to our rendezvous with Don at Pack Creek. This was to be Jenny's first small-craft flight!
Jenny and Jacques pause for a photo while loading gear into his pontoon-equipped Cessna (left) and the cute girl sitting up front smiles back before we get clearance for takeoff.
Shots out the window of the Cessna to Pack Creek: Rivers & meadows with Mendenhall glacier in background (left), Jenny looking out over the Islands of the Gastineau Channel (center) and our first glimpse of the Pack Creek bear viewing area.
Jenny and Don gather up our gear from the beach (left) and once the gear was stowed away... we were off for the bear viewing spit compliments of Don's skill at that outboard-equipped Boston Whaler (center). Just in case you were wondering at the accommodations, we were snug as a bug - and DRY, in these wall tents with the added protection of plastic tarpaulins strung overhead to keep out the ever-present rain (right). We didn't mind the rain one bit however, despite many locals trying to apologize for it... we're coming from the heat of a drought-stricken land... Keep it coming! The more the merrier as far as we're concerned. Day 4 - 6 -July 15-17, Sunday, Monday & Tuesday
Our destination!- The "viewing spit" at Pack Creek, as seen on a sunny day (a less than common thing in itself in SE Alaska)! The Creek flows from left to right (unless the tide is coming in) and the estuary and ocean environment is to the right.
Jenny and Don (left) and other visitors as seen on approach to the viewing spit. The viewing area amounts to a small area of approximately ten by thirty feet... this is the only place we, and any other people, are allowed to sit and watch for bears. This helps define the "people place" as separate from the "bear's place," the latter of which amounts to the entirety of Admiralty Island. AND... Bears there were... we probably had 6-10 different bears in view each day; some were sub-adults, some adults and a few mothers with cubs. Below is a sequence of photos (compliments of Don, we shot video of this particular encounter) recording this sow and cub-of-the-year's efforts at fishing amid the newly arriving chum salmon.
A failed 'go' at a fish upstream of us... then a repositioning...
...over the gravel bars, through the waves of fog, and the growing cub stays in tow...
Mom spots a fish and charges downstream to within ~50 yds of us - all the while one can hear here powerful strides through the water and the bawling of the cub as it shadows her movements on shore.
SUCCESS!! This was the first time we've ever seen a bear catch a fish like this... and it was so close that we could hear the bears chewing their meal after mom landed supper. The shot to the right is mid-meal as shot through our spotting scope. We had several more opportunities to see bears chase and catch fish that we got a few on film and made sketches in our notebooks.
The view looking up Pack Creek toward unnamed peaks in the background and unnamed bears in the fore (left), Don and I seated on the log at the viewing spit waiting for bears (center) and myself set up with sculpting stand, spotting scope, clay and field umbrella... latter keeps the clay (and me) from getting too warm and too wet (right).
Beyond the beaches of the Inland Passage are some of the most amazing temperate rainforests in the world. The earth is like a sponge, trees are like green, furry columns in a rain cathedral, skunk cabbage and Devil's club leaves grow to several feet in length and with the tangled compliments of ferns, shrubs, saplings and Sitka spruce trunks, "it's like trying to walk through a wicker chair," the vegetation is so thick in places, according to Don. We stay on the trail leading to the viewing tower further upstream on Pack Creek... the bears have not problems with wicker chairs... their trails and sign are everywhere.
An ancient Sitka spruce lays prostrate with roots upended and Jenny for scale (left), two happy campers high in the viewing tower (center) and Jenny on approach (right)
Later in the afternoon on our second-to last evening, Don took us to what they call the "Keebler Elf Tree" a few miles up the cove from Pack Creek. This ancient Sitka spruce, for some odd reason, has multiple dominant trunks i.e. instead of one primary leader at the top, this behemoth has about twelve separate 'trunks'. Luckily it was odd enough and possibly beyond the reach of some of the early water-based logging operations, that it was left for us to enjoy. Don and I helped each other up onto the first 'arm' for a couple photos... compliments of Jenny. Just below and out of view of this photo is a line of offset oval depressions... a bear trail... used for so long and in the same footprints that their feet have worn holes into the rich, humic soil.
One of our last mornings offered some time for a leisurely canoe ride around Windfall Island at low tide. It is an aquatic jungle of bull kelp, Fucus, sea anemones (left) and all sorts of animal life... including this dungeoness crab that we found along the mid-tide line... actually, just its shell - they molt out of their shells just like snakes out of their skin (center right and me holding another, right). This was a welcomed slice of serenity before hopping back on our float plane trip back to Juneau. Oh, and another shot of that pretty girl I got to take the trip with :) (second from left). Day 7 - 10 -July 18-21, Wednesday through Saturday Jacques was a few minutes off of our planned meeting time for our return flight... which is what one must expect in the fickle climate of SE Alaska, and, this was of no issue for us as a little more time on Admiralty was something that we didn't mind having.
Back in Juneau I was interested in getting some reference material on the salmon that the bears on Admiralty were catching... chum, aka. dog salmon. SO, where else to go but the Juneau fish hatchery! Folks there were kind enough to net (right out of the fish ladder holding tank) and "bonk" this ~8lb male on the head for me to study (these, as many salmon do, die after breeding)... and Don and Jenny were kind enough to wait around as I photographed and measured and drew this fish on the back docks of the hatchery. What an amazing transformation these fish go through in preparation for their life-ending courtship; they go from silver to the green/gray/red markings shown above and for the males their heads, and especially their mouths contort into these wildly hooked gapes known as kipes. It is thought that only 2 eggs out of 2500 laid by a single female salmon will survive to adulthood to return to the spawning streams of their birth!
I made this sketch of the peaks surrounding the Mendenhall Glacier from the parking lot of the grocery store while Jenny darted in for some essentials/lunch.
While back in Juneau, Jenny and I took some time to explore and enjoy... including a whale watching trip in the Seymore Canal. Though there were orchas in the area, we had wonderful views of humpback whales. And not only that, but humpback whales that were bubble-net feeding. This is a wonderfully choreographed movement of whales where one will dive and begin blowing bubbles underneath a school of herring. The other whales simultaneously dive and rise as those bubbles from the first whale pushes the herring to the surface. At the exact moment that the fish surface... so do the whales. From our view this looks like a sprinkler head of herring and sea gulls and then the monumental rising of the whole group of whales... their mouths agape make the story of Jonah and the Whale not so unbelievable. It is said that they can consume up to 3000lbs of food per day... and get this, they expel only 7-8lbs out the other end, that's right, I didn't forget any zeros... only seven to eight pounds of waste!!! This makes their digestion among the most efficient in the animal world.
We were lucky enough to have part of the group come right by our boat. They rose, blew (which the air leaving their blow hole can reach speeds of over 200mph) and returned to the deep. A few minutes later one of the younger whales, apparently now that it had a full tummy, breeched the surface of the water, not once but seven times in a row. We were completely unprepared for this and got no photos but it did make this memory sketch (below).
Memory sketches of whale bubble-net feeding and the one that breeched the surface. One of our morning hikes in the Juneau area found us up along the Mendenhall Glacier. This glacier, like many has receded at an incredible rate. The toe of this glacier was not far from where Jenny and I were standing when the above, and left, picture was taken. Along the flank of the glacier we found this amazing ice cave of the most deep blue ice you can imagine... glacial blue ice.
Compression of the ice over years has forced out all of the air or isolated it into small segments of the core as seen in the image below. When separated from the greater body of ice, however, this glacial ice is as clear as a window pane.
Image shows what a 4x6" spot of glacial ice looks like up close.
A view looking back out of the ice cave to Jenny, near its entrance. It was a surreal sort of setting with the sound of running water and cold water dripping down ones back and neck from the cave walls above. When Don got off duty and also came back to Juneau we took two hikes with him; one out to Point Bridget and one up to Gastineau Peak on the way to Mt. Roberts. Images of the latter are shown below.
Shot of Don and I taken by Jenny that looks, as we are, to the snow-smattered flanks of Mt. Juneau. This is a lot of snow to have at this time of year. Juneau was pounded with snow and apparently the local ski resort received the highest amount of snow fall of any resort in the world this past season.... you can still ski it but they've stopped the lifts.
Jenny and I heading up to Gastineau (left) and Don having a bite to eat along the trail with Gastineau Channel in the background - this is the route that the cruise ships take upon coming to port in Juneau - two are visibly arriving along with the incoming tide (demarcated by the light-colored line nearer than the ships).
A hoary marmot! My first (photo taken by Don)
NOT hoary marmots! Actually, myself, Jenny and Don on Gastineau Peak.
Our farewell sunset over Lynn Canal and the Chilkat Mountains on the night before our return... ah what fun... wish we had another week... or a month! 6/30/07 Saturday - Sunday 7/1/07 ― Beartooth Wilderness Area Backpack.
The mighty anglers with their catches... pictured from left to right are: Rebecca 'the trout slayer' Kreklau, Tom 'the tantalizer' Torma, Jenny 'the damn dogs won't get this fish!' Golding and George 'the untangler' Bumann.
Our meal for the evening... a fine brace of brook trout ― smoked over the coals of white bark pine and cooked to perfection... the latter historically being a questionable achievement... and YES the biggest one was caught by Rebecca :) ...her first-ever fish on a fly. Most of them were well fed and had several terrestrial and aquatic insects in there bellies.
Following our fine meal, relaxation around the stoked fire is in order ― Jenny and I are snuggled in to the right of the frame (left) and a shot of Tom and Rebecca's tent with Lonesome Peak to the rear.
The 'gang' before departing to points more civilized (top)... and a little stick 'jousting' for the beasts.
The dogs wait patiently as Jenny and I dry off following a dip in this alpine lake... and was it damn cold (left), Tom and Rebecca lounge in the shade of a granite outcrop while we swim (center) and the pups show us the way along the trail on the return trip (right).
A look back at Beartooth Butte before leaving the trail... 6/23/07 Saturday - Hiking Mt. Everts in Yellowstone Park We left the puppy kids home and took off for a morning hike over the Mountain visible from Mammoth Hot Springs and out deck at home in Gardiner, MT.
Clockwise from top left: Jonmikel was kind enough to take us up to the upper trailhead at Blacktail Creek in his Jeep after leaving out truck at the Rescue Creek pullout, Jenny looking over points to the north from on top of Everts, a sulphur butterfly in grass, Jenny reclining in the shade of a Douglas fir tree, myself leading the charge with a shed elk antler and the 'lean on me' tree.
Clockwise from top left: A spider captures a Hayden's ringlet butterfly in its web and proceeds to encase it in silk, nearly finished in a matter of seconds, one would never know there is an entire butterfly ensconced in this silken sleeping bag, prickly pear cactus on McMinn bench, a pair of shed elk antlers found in this exact orientation... either they came off at the same moment or someone placed them as such, Jenny leading the way down the last stretch of trail to the bridge over the Gardiner River and the view down onto Mammoth Hot Springs and the travertine terraces (the white object in upper frame) from high up on Mt. Everts.
Shot of Jenny standing on cliff edge of Mt. Everts looking over Gardiner, MT and the Yellowstone River drainage; the light-colored streak on the mountain in the distance is the Devil's Slide. 6/16/07 Took a hike around the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone with a "Legacy for Learning" group from the Yellowstone Association.... here's just a few shots from that walk.
A shot of the lower falls of the Yellowstone and Canyon (left), the Falls up close (center) and sunlit wall of the Canyon (right).
A student on the program looks over the tinted expanse of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. 6/6/07 Wednesday - Gardiner, MT It has rained over night a little and continues to spit and sputter this morning. A nice change considering the high 70s-low 80F temps we've been having. Eagle Creek is verdant as ever with wild iris, sticky geranium and lupine blooming all around. Warbling vireos, a yellow-breasted chat and Lazuli bunting, among others, sounded off in the drizzly morning freshness. 6/4/07 Tuesday Heard my first night hawk of the year flying through the evening darkness as Jenny and I went to bed. 6/3/07 Tuesday Work started on our new deck and siding... we now had a nice open pit of sorts in the side yard where the low level of the deck will go. 5/31/07 Thursday - Saturday 6/2/07
Driving into our favorite campsite on the Refuge we found ourselves in the company of these, and several other pronghorn. Winging overhead were the long-limbed shapes of short-eared owls... what a treat! We jumped out of the truck before even getting the camping spot to watch these amazing birds cruise the marshlands for prey and mates.
Sunset over Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge... this is what we came for... silence, solitude and the promise of amazing sunrises, sunsets and bird life.
The cute girl at the wheel of the truck (left), trouble in the form of two ferocious attack-Labs (center) & some killdeer eggs (right) that Jenny found near camp.
The artist, Jenny, hard at work on a sunset sketch in watercolor (left)... and her creation (right).
Sunrise as seen out the back window of the truck over Red Rock Lakes 5/30/07 Wednesday Ran the pups up at Eagle Creek this morning. The irises are blooming now and the lupine are approaching 'full force'. The corridor around the drainage remains a lush, verdant ribbon. Jasper flushed two Hungarian partridge as well. 5/23/07 A panorama shot from the deck looking over Gardiner/into Yellowstone... notice the snow on the peaks.
5/20/07 Saturday (Day 4 of 4 on REI backpacking trip) As often is the case, you hate to see a backpacking trip come to an end... but at the same time can't wait to inhale an extra greasy burger and fries and take a long hot shower. Hiking out brought many simple and awe inspiring joys. We got a really nice look at a bighorn sheep ewe (below right) and from the promontory along the Yellowstone River, just upstream of Bear Creek, we spotted some more ewes, only these had 2 newborn lambs with them... our first of the year!
Alas, all good things must come to an end, so here is the final group photo and one of Melissa and I prior to re-entering civilization. 5/19/07 Saturday (Day 3 of 4 on REI backpacking trip) Breakfast transitioned smoothly into a day of motion... this was our longest hike of the trip ~10 miles from our campsite along Little Cottonwood Creek to 1Y1 along the Yellowstone River in the Black Canyon.
Melissa at the helm in our backcountry kitchen. Today was a birding day and as we hiked along, I tallied the species that we heard or saw along the way; this amounted to 20 species and they included, in the order observed:
dark-eyed junco ruffed grouse mountain chickadee yellow-rumped warbler western wood peewee western tanager white-throated sparrow chipping sparrow American robin Clark's nutcracker Canada goose - with brand new chicks! spotted sandpiper common raven bald eagle American dipper common merganser pine siskin white-throated swift peregrine falcon - on a nest!
Sketch of 2 of our 4 REI dome tents against the fir forest behind before breaking camp this morning.
Along the trail we took a moment to enjoy some of the finer things... an obsidian arrow-head and the cool spray and cataract flow under this bridge crossing. 5/18/07 Friday (Day 2 of 4 on REI backpacking trip) Up nice and early to the sound of singing robins and a McGillivrey's warbler. Sunshine melted over the waking landscape, over us, our tents and a relaxed breakfast atmosphere. I made a few notes and a quick landscape sketch as well as a short study of a bull elk skull near our kitchen area.
Tents along the shores of Hellroaring Creek in the morning sun (left) and 'caught in the act' by Melissa while I was sketching the elk skull.
Study sketch of bull elk skull in the pile of antlers pictured above (left) and a quick landscape sketch looking over the lower portion of Hellroaring Creek to the southwest.
David taking a photo of a striking cluster of Arrow-leafed Balsamroot along the trail Flowers abound at this time of year, and with a steady supply of moisture, just get better and better. We observed the following species on the hike into came yesterday: sugar bowls blue bells strawberry wood lily arrow leafed balsam-root prairie smoke yellow violet serviceberry large flowered phlox chickweed larkspur Scenecio sp Lomatium sp. heart-leaved arnica spring beauty trout lily Bessaya sp dandelion Arabis nuttalii pucoon pussy-toes elk sedge bistort pasque flower shooting star Eriogonum sp. lupine - just short of blooming out death camas valerian Oregon grape
View from the stock bridge over the turbulent Hellroaring Creek (left), Debbie taking a photo before leaving the meadows north of Hellroaring (center) and part of the group hiking the trail past one of the ancient Douglas Fir trees (right).
We had a pretty interesting run-in with both this bison (left) and the black bear (right). Turned out that this big old bull bison was in the camping area when we arrived and as we sat down some distance away ― giving respect where respect is due ― we started our lunch a safe distance away when all of a sudden Debbie and Andrew said "bear!". Turns out this young black bear, who was initially spooked by us, ended up coming closer, closer, closer to the point where we gathered in formation with bear sprays in hand... we're talking 25-30yds away (after all the photos above were taken with my digital point-and-shoot)! Shortly thereafter the bear veered away from us and actually TOWARD the bison ― who very quickly got upset and charged out of the forest he was lounging in and once having retreated from the bear, started thrashing some willows to vent his frustration at the bear's apparent rudeness. The bear however, took it all in stride and mozzied on over to scratch its back on a tree as if in some mild attempt to show its cavalier impression of the tensions it just helped build... both in the bison and in US.
Pictured left to right; Melissa watching the bear through the scope before it came right on up to us, the group following the bear/bison episode, camp setup and water-gathering, and a shot of distant Electric Peak from the tent site.
View of Hellroaring Creek and Garnett Hill to the east from atop the rocky outcrop near camp (David (left) and Kevin pictured here also). 5/17/07 Thursday (Day 1 of 4 on REI backpacking trip) Heading out to lead a backpacking course for the outdoor company REI, with our good friend Melissa Pangraze from Driggs, ID, on a route taking us through the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone river. We met up in Mammoth Hot Springs and departed for the Hellroaring Trailhead. After a quick photo and some last minute pack packing, we were off for our first campsite along the shores of Hellroaring Creek.
The 'gang' before departing the Hellroaring Creek Trailhead. We were quite blessed with overcast skies as this hike out across the open expanse of the Hellroaring slopes can be a pressure cooker... especially with a pack on your back. Flowers are blooming all over the place and the Yellowstone River is flowing high and muddy. With all of this melting water dropping through the rocky constriction, we had a bird's eye view of the power of the flow railing against the confines of its ancient bedrock channel. Oh, and we also spotted what was my first sara orange-tip butterfly of the year!
Crossing the stock bridge over the Yellowstone River (left) and the group takes a short break near the bend of Hellroaring Creek before hiking the last leg of trail to our campsite. 5/16/07 Wednesday Today was Casey and "Puppy Dad's" day in the Park. Jasper went for a jog with his "Puppy Mom," so, it was off for the northern range and more studies of bison calves. We were working on more of the details on this buffalo calf sculpture started yesterday... seems the bison herd we chose as our subject had different ideas. In three different cases, the herd that I was watching came my way at either a trot, walk or run... WHOOOAAAA!!!! Into the truck I went! In one case the approach of this group of cows and a single calf came so fast that I had to leave the sculpture on the stand... and resigned to stand behind the closed door of the truck snapping photos as the whole group overtook my work and sniffed it over thoroughly before moving on... Casey added in a little "boof" as they passed one - I interpreted this to mean, "don't mess up my dad's sculpture!" Who knows she probably only really said... "boof!"
The first pass of the herd that ran me back into the truck... you can see the line of window in the lower portion of the frame (top left), Casey says her 'piece' from the passenger side of the vehicle (top right), the calf and cow group approaches for a second time, this time quick enough that I left the sculpture of the calf on the sculpting stand (visible just left of center on the bottom left image) and just to make sure the clay model was full representative of the calf, the herd surrounded my gear, gave it a good look and sniff, then moved on (bottom right)... these were all take from a distance of ~30 feet with my digital point and shoot camera. Long about 2pm, Casey and I headed home for lunch... one gets so involved with all the of things to see in spring that you forget about eating sometimes...
The season of RVs and increasing travel along the Park's roads is upon us; view westward of the Gallatin Mountains from Blacktail Plateau. 5/15/07 Tuesday Spent the day out with Jasper sculpting in the Park. Buffalo calves are everywhere.. I couldn't resist throwing together an armature of aluminum wire and modeling some clay onto it in the form of these delightful little characters. Several passers by noted that the color of this plasticine clay was jut a perfect match to the little calves I sought to portray.
Picture of the 'field assistant' and sculpting stand (left) and start on a bison calf in plasticine clay with herd in background at Junction Butte (right).
Shot of Lamar Valley to the east in morning. 5/12/07 - 5/13/07 Saturday & Sunday It's our anniversary... 6 great years and hopefully a whole many more to come! We drove up to the West Boulder River (north of Yellowstone Park) for a some car camping with the pups, dinner in the Dutch oven and a late afternoon hike amid spring wildflowers and drumming grouse.
Entering the West Boulder Area (top left)Jenny getting dinner fixings out of the truck (top center), view up stream on Boulder (top right), blooming glacier lily (middle left), budding/leafing on our morning hike (middle center) blooming virgin's bower (middle right) and trillium in bloom (bottom).
5/11/07 Friday Good friends Joe Dembeck and Natalie Jones just departed for their home in Maine after a very enjoyable visit with us here in Gardiner. We were sad to see them go but happy in that we have much more motivation to make a trip out to their home on the east coast. Things remain sunny today, as they have for the past several days, and the Yellowstone River is way up, almost at its maximum level it would guess based on the wet marks on the old pump house building just upstream of the bridge in Gardiner. 5/10/07 Thursday Down to Jackson we went today, partly for business, partly for some fun. Jenny, Joe, Natalie and I were all in attendance. This was also their first time seeing Grand Teton National Park as well, and, we all wanted to visit the Wildlife Art Museum to see the "New Acquisitions Show" before it was over. We stopped at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone on the way down... and what a rainbow in the spray of the lower falls!
View of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River from Grand View Point in the early morning light (left), Lower falls of the Yellowstone at near-peak flow (~60,000 gallons of water plunging over brink per second) with a wonderful rainbow in the spray at the bottom left of the image (center) and Jenny posing under the roots of one of my favorite trees in the Park; this lodgepole pine has endured years and years of erosion undermining its roots to the point where it is standing on a widely bowed set of 'legs' (right). In Hayden Valley we had the good fortune of spotting an otter as it passed along the bend in the Yellowstone River near Alum Creek; also, bedded nearby was the alpha male of the Hayden Valley wolf pack. He was sacked out like a sleeping Malamute on the banks of the River in that warm morning sun.
Shot of the Tetons from the east amid foreboding skies. In Jackson we stopped for lunch at our favorite spot for lunch... the Merry Piglets before heading out to the Wildlife Art Museum. Currently showing are several wonderful exhibits including the "From the Vault" showing of several pieces never before put on display, the Junior Duck stamp contest for WY - which we love seeing all that art from the youngsters of this region, and the second to last day of the "New Acquisitions Show" that included my bison sculpture "Unyielding". Included in former, were many wonderful pieces of sculpture, some carvings, drawings and paintings. An added treat was that we got to see our friend Jane Lavino (Curator of Education) and meet, for the first time, in person, the Museum's Curator of Art, Adam Harris.
The four of us outside of the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, WY (left) and a black bear that 'eagle-eye' Natalie spotted just north of Roaring Mountain (right). 5/9/07 Wednesday It is so very nice to have friends that just plain enjoy being out in the open with no agenda. Joe, Natalie and I drove out to Lamar Valley today and just set ourselves down for an extended stay. We brought snacks, drinks, cameras, spotting scopes (I brought clay and some armature wire, along with my 'field' sculpting stand) and just hung out for about 6 hours. We watched coyotes in the distance, pronghorn bucks chasing each other, American Kestrels fluttering in mid air before diving for some snack, and bison... and bison calves.
Joe and Natalie on the 'leisurely lookout' for anything in Lamar Valley The big drama for the morning was that one of the cow bison that swam the flooding Lamar River had her calf get washed away. The calf was finally able to make it to the other shore but at this point it was several hundred yards downstream of its mother AND right along side the road... and unfortunately, some visitors, not realizing the gravity of situation, walked up and stood over the little red calf as it was struggling to climb its way out of the frigid waters and rocky bank. Several times it fell back down the rocks and then back into the water where it was washed down another 20-30 feet before attempting to climb out again. Instead of leaving like they should have done, the people stayed and photographed the calf until it finally made it up onto the bank. Unfortunately, the calf then approached them as if trying to find comfort in another living beings after its life-threatening experience. By their very presence these onlookers ended up leading the calf across the road and further from its mother― who paced the far shores and cris-crossed the River several times - grunting for her lost calf the whole time. Ranger Mike Ross came by and asked the people to leave, which they did, and we lost sight of the calf. For a couple hours we watched, the mother paced, walked off, ran back... no sign of the calf. We walked, craned our necks, scanned with binoculars and scopes to no avail. Finally, Natalie said "hey look!" and there swimming across the gushing brown water of the Lamar was a little 'golden-retriever red' bison calf. As soon as it hit solid ground the youngster sprinted, leaving a dark streak of water-soaked rocks as it went, right back to its mother's side. There was no embrace, no drawn out nuzzling or other human-like reunion, only a short nose touch, a moment of pause and then a departure for terra firma and points further west along the sage brush flats and company of other vibrant cows and calves.
Shown above: the stretch of river where the bison calf was separated, then ultimately reunited with its mother (left), a 3-D clay field sketch of a cow bison (that I later placed with a calf; center) and a photo that Joe kindly took of me working on this field study (right). 5/8/07 Tuesday Just an office day today... yes, it must be done... Joe and Natalie are hiking the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone today. 5/7/07 Monday Joe, Natalie and I went down into the interior of the Park today. Our ultimate destination was Old Faithful but we made some fun stops along the Norris Geyser Basin, Fountain Flats and Fountain Paint Pots... WHERE incidentally, Natalie's eagle eyes spotted a grazing grizzly bear out in the flats!!! We were the first on the scene and became what was the start of a gaggle of stopping motorists.
View over Midway Geyser Basin and Excelsior Geyser from eastern hills.
Distant glacial hills west of Midway Geyser Basin. A little bit of excitement transpired in Gardiner while we were gone for the day... apparently a young grizzly bear was eating the bird seed and other feed that a friend's neighbor had been putting out in her yard for the deer. She had asked the Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks have the people stop, but to no avail... "what a if a bear comes in," she asked? Well, the bear did come in and she rushed home at mid day to find not only the Department of FWP there, but also folks from the Park Service and a big bunch of onlookers and photographers... As it turns out the bear left and while Jenny and I left with the dogs for Eagle Creek, we nearly ran headlong into the bear as it was walking along the road and beaver ponds of Eagle Creek. We stopped the truck (with the dogs nearly in the front seat out of the quick jab of the brakes and their curiosity towards this big 'dog') that came to rest not 30 feet in front of us. The bear crossed the Forest Service road and stopped before heading up stream along the Creek. Needless to say, we made sure we went far, far up before hopping out to run the pups. 5/6/07 Sunday Joe, Natalie and I spent all of today wildlife watching along the Northern Range of the Park. Bison calves cropping up all over! In fact, we spotted one little tike that had just been birthed along the rocky shores of the Lamar River where Chalcedony Creek comes into the Lamar. Mom was trying to get the little devil up and out of the River rocks and onto the grassy cut bank some 3-4' above. Mother was attempting to induce the little red calf to follow as she climbed the bank around the back side by Chalcedony... between the unsure footing and the wobbly nature of the calf, there was no progress in the few minutes that we watched the interaction.
We found several bison calves with their mother's right along the road in the western end of Lamar Valley, notice the latter half of the mother's tail missing on the left hand image. This, I suspect, is due to an attempt by wolves to bring her down, as this is a common 'handle' wolves will grab in order to drag down large animals such as bison. We had a look at 2 grizzlies on a bison carcass, as well as 2 wolves in the hills to the north of Wrecker Pullout along the Yellowstone River near Tower. Snows are melting off and the Lamar is glutted quite early. We stopped at the Lamar Canyon to watch this cataract of bouncing runoff speed its way to the sea.
Lamar River bouncing down through its canyon (left) and Joe and Natalie lounging in the sun to watch (right).
5/5/07 Saturday Our friends Joe Dembeck and Natalie Jones are visiting from Maine. It was such a treat to see these two and have them over for an extended visit. We haven't seen Joe since we were in Virginia and as of yet, hadn't met his darling sweetie Natalie. We look forward to some nice visiting time and good adventures here in the Park as neither of them have been to Yellowstone before. On a quick evening trip out into the Northern Range of Yellowstone this evening we did happen to stop at Elk Creek where we spotted a fine bull moose in velvet antlers and at the Hellroaring overlook and, with the help of another visitor, was able to give then their first view of a wild wolf... this one was zonked out with a pack mate near the den of the Oxbow wolf pack den.
Shot through the spotting scope of a wolf bedded near its den... look closely, it's curled up in the very center of the image.
5/4/07 Friday Took a hike with Dan Hartman today in search of a black bear den that was of interest... were there cubs in this den this past winter or was it just a solitary adult... this was what we hoped to find out. After some amount of hiking, I volunteered to crawl into the den to see if we could find any sign of cubs, particularly scats... we were pretty sure they were NOT in the den, although this is the same den that Dan poked his head into a few years ago (thinking it was abandoned) only to find himself only a few feet from the nose of an unsettled black bear. We knocked and yelled "HELLO!" before entering...
Image of Dan inspecting bear tracks faintly visible in the dried grasses and soft mud along a stream near the den; notice the semi-faint scuff marks leading toward Dan from the middle/bottom of the frame - those are the tracks (left), Dan snapped this shot of me shortly after crawling out of the den beneath those rocks and excavated soil (center) and a shot from inside the den (right). Notice the grasses in the bottom of it (they are now beaten down significantly but serve as insulation for the hibernating bear) and the dark scat in the rear of the den (total depth of the den was ~12 feet back in, about 3' high and about 2.5' wide; right)... we found minimal evidence of cubs so suspect that this den was occupied by a solitary male this past winter. 5/3/07 Thursday Spent today with friend and painter Aaron Schuerr. Aaron was coming to town for a meeting today and we decided to go out into the Park before obligations pulled us away from joy of being outdoors (click HERE to see Aaron Schuerr's oil painting and pastel artwork).
Painter Aaron Schuerr working at Slough Creek, Yellowstone Natn'l Park. We took up a 'post' at Slough Creek. Aaron did a pleine aire oil painting of the meanders of Slough Creek flats and I was gathering reference information on bison with my spotting scope and sketch book... and snapping some shots of Aaron as he worked.
Aaron makes some of the preliminary delineations on his canvassed board (left). Deeper into his painting, Aaron works to build up the color and form of the land and sky to the west of Slough Creek.
5/2/07 Wednesday Just finished running the dogs (6:47pm)... they are nuts... letting them cool down before feeding them "breakfast" - our universal term for any puppy meal aside from "snackies". It is nice to see Gardiner still on the green side of things, though I fear that spring my pass us by a bit too fast. Things are supposed to cool down and even rain this weekend... so "they" say, it has been close to 80F around the region. The Yellowstone River, among others, have been running high, fast and brown.
Male sandhill crane on nest at Floating Island lake just after switching off incubating duties with the female... sat and watched them through the scope for over 5 hours... how fun! Shot of male crane on nest (right) and sketch of him later when he stood up to fluff up his brood patch of feathers and roll the eggs (left). 5/1/07 Tuesday Today is my sister Amy's birthday! I called her from Eagle Creek while walking the dogs to wish her a happy happy amid the sun, spring green, ever-present bison and splashing mud-and-dogs of Montana. Spent most of the rest of today working on a plaster cast of the turkey leg that I harvested yesterday... it is one thing to have a dried-out turkey leg positioned as in life but after the desiccation process, it has lost much of its life-like qualities. Form my sculpture work I want LIFE in the modeling, so, by casting this turkey's leg ~18 hours after harvest, I hope to preserve some of the subtle features of its amazing form before time and drying evaporates them. Painter Edward Suthoff stopped by to take some reference photos of the turkey before I plucked and prepped it for the dinner table. Edward was impressed as I with the brilliant color and shapes of this turkey. We took turns holding the wings, legs and feathers in various positions for each other to photograph. Jenny and I had one of the breasts grilled with zucchini and eggplant for dinner.... wow is that good! The only down side to plucking your own bird is the most of the wild ones have bird lice... until I showered, I spent some time with what's know in our family as the "heebee jeebees" aka. the "creepy crawlies".
4/30/07 Monday
Exploring points to the north of home: a panorama of upper Big Timber Creek and its smooth, "U-shaped," glacially-carved valley.
4/29/07 Sunday When for a bike ride with some friends from the Yellowstone Association down near Canyon today. A splendidly sunny day with cool spring breezes.
The 'gang' biking near the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (left) and Jenny & I at the obligatory tourist photo opp. at Artist Point (right). Interestingly, enough runoff was coming over the falls that the usually green streak of water coming down the left side of the waterfall was brownish.
Grizzly bear in Hayden Valley snoozing, well, not once the group showed up... it was only 100 yards away. It had been feeding on the bison carcass positioned only a few feet off of the road shoulder... Disclaimer: kids, don't try for this photo at home... this shot was taken opportunistically in what could be a pretty dangerous situation - we recommend backing out as soon as possible - just as the group did in this instance. 4/28/07 Had a wonderfully relaxing morning with Jasper out at Blacktail Ponds watching waterfowl, cranes and bison. With Jasper on his leash and I on my spotting scope, we watched as the sandhill cranes built up nesting material... for what I assume will be their nest site for this year, and the bison alternately grazing, ruminating and pushing one another around their subtle hierarchy. We did have a slightly tense moment as 5 big bull bison came up onto the road and proceeded to walk right past us. The first, and largest bull, passed on by without incident and proceeded to scratch, scrape and disfigure a telephone pole-sized lodgepole pine about 35 yards from us. As the other 4 came 'click-clacking' their hooves down the pavement on the other side of the road, Jasper stood up from his quiet spot in the grass near the truck. At that instant the bulls exploded in flight, bolting over the embankment and in the process exciting the first bull. The whole bachelor herd galloped about 80 yards then stopped and threw their heads about, kicked at the air like a tough guy recovering from a knee-jerk reaction to the scamper of a mouse. The largest of the bulls, that first one, took the situation to new levels by using it as a chance to challenge all of the others with deep guttural roars and grunts, throttling an innocent sage brush and alternately bluff charging the others with leaps into the air ― launching his massive frame some 3 to 4 vertical feet in the air. Really this is nothing considering they can accomplish a standing long, and high-jump of six feet, but anytime I see that much animal leave the ground with the ease of a ballerina, I can't help but feel very ill-equipped. Later on we ventured over to Phantom Lake where a group of folks were watching a dark male cinnamon black bear feeding the the hill to the south. He fed so delicately by pulling away the topmost layer of forest floor then nibbling and licking the area quite gingerly... "ants," we wondered? We were sure it was a male after HE rolled onto his back and groomed his belly with laps of his tongue and delicate pawing with his front feet.. in the process showing his 'gender indicator'. Usually you have to wait until a bear urinates in order to positively identify its sex; in males the stream goes forwards, and females - backwards.
Field sketches today from watching a husky, dark cinnamon black bear at Phantom Lake (left) and a group of bison along Blacktail Lakes (right). 4/26/07 What a wonderful morning... chilly to cold temperatures-yes, windy-yes, alternating snow and rain- yes, fleeting patches of sun in an otherwise overcast sky... all of the above and more, amid grizzly, sandhill crane, bison, pronghorn, eagles, ruddy ducks and amorous bufflehead duck sightings keep the momentum rolling.
Bison heard coming to drink at Blacktail Deer Ponds after the grizzly bear left, notice the tiny red calf in the herd left of center... tough to see but, it's a calf! On the way up to Mammoth, heading towards Blacktail Ponds to study sandhill cranes a small group of sheep were right down along the road. I couldn't help but pull over and watch the for a few moments. I snapped this photo (below on left) with the point-and-shoot digital camera as the one ram walked behind the "sheep management area" closure sign.
This bighorn sheep ram is working the situation to the full extent of the law... grazing just a few feet from the road without fear of harassment from rude tourists (left), two young sheep enjoying the new spring greenery (center) and a better view of the ram pictured behind the sign - notice the dark, transverse lines (yearly growth rings) on its horns, count them and you fill find that this ram is ~5-6 years old (right).
Blacktail Deer Pond; the more western of the two (left), a field sketch/sculpture of sandhill crane pair (center) and photo of a crane pair through the spotting scope (right). Not a minute after arriving at the Ponds did I see the sandhill cranes on the eastern side of the water. Some distance away was a large bull elk with velvet-covered antlers grazing in water up to its hocks. As I set up the scope to take a picture of the elk it became very tense and focused in its gaze... looking east. At the same time the sandhill cranes left the water where they had been feeding and moved onto dry land in a westward direction. "This is curious behavior," as I next spotted the bison up on the hill all looking downwards and to the east... this sort of attention to detail usually means a bear or a wolf is in the area. Sure enough, a mid-sized grizzly (pictured below) appeared from the eastern side of the ponds and proceeded to walk the entire open expanse of the ponds' north side and ultimately crossing the road to my west. Ranger Brian Helms noted that this may be the bear that was sprayed with pepper spray yesterday. Apparently a hiker was coming back to the road on the trail as the bear was walking along in the opposite direction. Caught in the open space between two fenced off research plots, the bear and the person didn't have any other good place to go. The hiker waited until the bear was about 20 feet away and discharged their red-pepper bear spray. Only the wind also blew some into the face, nose and eyes of the sprayer... the sprayee apparently got enough of a dose that it went running off in such a hurry that it ricocheted off the fences before getting some distance away and wiping it face off in the snow.
A grizzly bear as seen through the spotting scope this morning at a distance of ~ 1/3 mile away. 4/24/07 Finally home... Jenny came and picked me up at the airport last night and we ended up getting a hotel room to avoid driving the 90 miles home with fatigue. The hills around Gardiner seem a little greener and the air has just a hint humidity. Caught up on office work during the day then darted off to run the pups at Eagle Creek. Dandelions are now blooming as are some yellow mustards. We spotted several Mourning Cloak butterflies and our first white butterfly of the season... this is a big deal because this means that this is the first butterfly that has immerged from a chrysalis rather than over-wintering as an adult butterfly - as some species do, like Milbert's Tortoishells and Mourning Cloaks. With the pups tuckered out from running and splashing in the stream and ponds, we 'put em up' so Jenny and I could have a night out in the Park by ourselves. Jenny had yet to see a bear and not until going to Dave's Hill at Slough Creek did we spot a solitary, silvery grizz, Jenny's first for 2007! The big bruin was grabbing up mouth-fulls of grass. I was such a pleasant night to be out, the air was calm and cool save a soft breeze issuing out of the northwest. Rolling waves of chorus frog song welled up out of the marshy corners of Slough Creek and it neighboring oxbow ponds. AND, guess what we saw.... THE FIRST BUFFALO CALVES OF THE YEAR! ... FOUR OF THEM, all rusty red, awkward and tight to their mother's sides. And who could finish off a day like this any better than with a striking sunset over the Gallatin Mountains.
Sunset over the Gallatin Mountains (with Electric Peak left of center which is located west of Mammoth Hot Springs). 4/23/07 Last morning in New York with Mom. I had high aspirations of getting out early in the morning to sit and watch/listen to the wild turkeys greet the morning... BUT, forgot to change my watch alarm from Central Time Zone to Eastern Standard. As a result I ended up getting up an hour late and in a mad dash across the sloppy, muddy pastures, got to the tree line where the birds had roosted at 06:00. By then the light had risen and the birds spotted me on my half-asleep, half-crazed sprint to beat the fly-down. Needless to say, they were onto me and my scheme... amid a cacophony of alarm clucks and wing feathers striking tree limbs, they were off... gone... not to return. Awe, poo... A few hens stuck around, clucking and softly yelping from their comfy limbs but by 06:30 all had departed the coop. So there I lay for the remainder of the hour, with leaves and sticks strewn over my legs and body (for makeshift camouflage) and listened to the rest of the woods awaken. Northern Cardinals sounded out with their "werp, werp, Werp, Werp, WERP!" cadence, bluejays shrieking and chastising some invisible threat, a winter wren trilled and warbled a dazzling repertoire, skeins of geese honked their "V"s over the still naked tree canopies, and robins rounded out things with a sing-song, "cheery-up, cheery-up" tune. I shook off my ;camo,' walked among the still flattened leaves from last autumn, many of which were raked into loose arrangements by the toes of turkeys, found two shed wing feathers (from turkey of course) and admired the green and purple variegated leaves of tiger lillys... or is it trout lilly?... It's been a little while since I've been immersed in the eastern woodlands in spring.... It's good to be home :) 4/22/07 A good day to be in the East. Mom and I woke slowly and went for a bike ride around the back roads of Palermo. She also got the horse up and ready for her first ride of the spring.
Mom taking her Trachaner mare 'Impy' (short for Imperial) for a walk around the paddock. 4/18/07 Hiked with the puppies at Eagle Creek for a few hours this morning. Greenery of the first biscuit root is coming up as are Dalmatian toadflax (the nasty exotic), buttercups, clover, lupine and tufts of grass all over. Tolkien's "Misty Mountains" are visible to the south (actually Sepulcher and Electric Peaks shrouded in the low atmosphere that brought us a good dose of rain early this morning). 4/17/07 A foundry day, picked up the casting of Wolf 42 - the life-size garden piece AND picked up Jenny from the rental car place after her long drive back from Moscow, ID. She presented her Master's project for the faculty and student body while I was in Utah/Colorado. 4/16/07 Found my first bear of the year! At Blacktail Plateau this morning I took a few minutes to scan with my scope for bears before continuing back to the Ponds in order to sketch the sandhill cranes. I was not disappointed as a handsome grizzly came strolling across the Plateau and over some remaining snow fields. FINALLY, after being gone for several days and hitting bad weather on the days I was out prior to leaving, I had terrible luck this year finding my first bear sighting. Last year Jenny and I found the one at Tower being harassed by the black wolf on the second of April. ALSO, got to see our friends Dale and Elva Paulson from Rosebud, OR. They are like the human version of the sandhill cranes... arriving each spring in early April and staying until the tourist season begins to build... they are outstanding naturalists, and come from a long line of great naturalists/observers... it's great to have them back! I've heard of the first 2 bison calves being seen so far! Also, I had a Cooper's Hawk nearly snag a pigeon out of the air right in front of the truck window while passing through the Gardiner Canyon north of Mammoth. The pigeon adroitly dove for the river amid the steep rocks and water and shook the hawk. 4/15/07 A long drive home from Boulder, CO... 10 hours and 697.2 miles of travel through north of Colorado, entire north-south expanse of Wyoming and across the mid-central section of Montana... ready for bed! 4/14/07 Paid a visit to friends Brian and Claire in Boulder, CO on the way home. Had a great visit in their wonderful flat on the top floor in downtown Boulder. We went out and toured the Leanin' Tree museum and sculpture garden and walked downtown to have dinner, sushi!, before calling it a night with a few games of billiards. Thanks so much Brian & Claire, you are wonderful hosts indeed. 4/13/07 Have had a wonderful day listening to the other speakers and guests of the Sierra Mist school in Carbondale, CO... very touching and very powerful examples of the "power of one" for social and environmental change. Among them were Rabbi Randy Fleisher (working to improve the lives of those in inner city St. Louis, Missouri and abolish racial injustice), Sylvia Martinez (a mother of two, and advocate for equality and inclusiveness esp. as it relates to Latinos and her background in migrant farm labor), Duncan McDaniel (a high school student from Basalt High School in Colorado, presenting "Invisible Children" about the injustice of African children living in fear of abduction - to be come child soldiers, and murder, from rebel forces), Christiane Leitinger (presenting for "Pennies for Peace" - an effort by the Central Asia Institute organization - started by mountain climber Greg Mortenson, to bring schools to rural communities of central Asia to "promote peace... one school at a time," and Nelson Harvey (a graduate of Sierra Mist attending NYU who presented his work on "Greening the Urban Campus: A sustainability Assessment of NYU). 4/4/07 Took the pups out for a run up at Eagle Creek - the alders are popping out in catkins as are the cottonwoods and aspen. We spotted buttercups in frosty bloom at this early morning hour. Northern flickers were calling in their repetitive trumpeting style to bring in the spring season. Frozen bison tracks, elk, people, dog, deer and shod horse tracks pocked the road surface along the Forest Service route. 4/2/07 Our good friend and ski guide from the Park, Point, told me that he spotted the first osprey of the year down on the nest toward Yankee Jim Canyon! 3/29/07 We're back home after a trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico. What a great trip indeed! This was just what the doctor ordered. With all the 'catch-up-or-perish' items out of the way we can get back to updating you on what we were up to. It's sunny, chilly and windy in Gardiner today. Jenny called from north of Gardiner, in Paradise Valley, to say that she has seen the year's first sandhill cranes! Welcome back gang! 3/28/07 Snowed sideways all day today... nothing really stuck... it just looked pretty neat. 3/27/07 Drove home from Bozeman after getting our 'children' from the puppy boarding house. Spotted our first red-winged blackbirds and a red-tailed hawk (probably not the first) of 2007. Gardiner has a little more green around it than when we left... and it was raining... soak it up plants... we don't know when the next rains will come. 3/22/07 New Mexico get-away 3/22/07 -3/26/07 We're off! Jenny and I decided to take a trip down to Santa Fe, New Mexico. We hardly just decide at the drop-of-the-hat to dart off for parts unknown, but it was about time...
Jenny & I all smiles about being out and about in NM. After hopping a flight from Bozeman to Denver, and then from Denver to Albuquerque, we were on NM soil by early afternoon. From there it was off in our rental care, down the highway, headed to Bandelier National Monument... but not before doing a little shopping in Los Alamos (where the shot below was taken). The scenery is striking... we had to pull over to admire some of the formations and take some photos. Lots of New Mexicans that we ran into balked at the cold and rain, but for us, this was quite balmy and welcomed spring weather... made for some dramatic atmospheric effects too.
Shot of formations south of Los Alamos, NM Camping out in Bandelier for two nights was the plan. This was foreign country for me but very exciting just the same. Though raining and saturated, it had that indelible feel of desert country―sparsely positioned junipers and pinion pines separated by expanses of bare soil an rock. Exposed rock and earth that would, in a moist environment, come crashing down and be on its way to the ocean in the blink of an eye, stands in austere banded cliffs of gold and ochre, rust and rouge, spires and fins in precarious postures. All of the earth tones stand in stark contrast to their color-wheel opposites in the form of vibrant green coniferous foliage.
Ruins of the ancestral Pueblo village of Tyuonyi in Frijoles Canyon at Bandelier National Monument Stopping at the Bandelier visitor's center came with a torrent of rain and wind (so we ate lunch, peanut butter & honey bagel for me, turkey sandwich for Jenny, under the back hatch of the car and enjoyed the moisture); in minutes it broke and we could take a hike of the interpretive trail leading through several of the native ruins. Though evidence exists of nomadic hunter-gatherers goes back 10,000 to 12,000 years in this region, the structures and cliff dwellings of Frijoles (said Free-hoh-lees) Canyon spans ~400 years, ending in the middle 1500's with spreading regional colonization by the Spanish.
Some of the rock shelters, carved out of soft volcanic ash, have been rebuilt to resemble their form when used by the Ancestral Pueblo people. Jenny is seen peering out the window of one of the shelters (left and center). On the right is a show of the canyon walls above the shelters showing the pock-marked ash deposits that are currently home to white-throated swifts.
Top left was our shelter for the trip as somebody forgot to bring the small tent poles for the small tent (ah, ahr, that was me... sorry dear) so we slept in the back of the Subaru Forester at our camp site. By the way, it was perfectly spacious enough for the one who didn't forget her half of the duties for the journey... I however was a little crinkled, but no worse for wear. When in ponderosa pine country we can never resist our first impulse, which is, and try this because it is true, that if you sniff the furrows between the barky plates of the tree's trunk, it smells like butterscotch, or vanilla (Jenny demonstrating at the top right). Once all the the traveling and moving about was over for the day, I passed out in the campsite with my backpack and the useless tent for a pillow (bottom).
Panorama of western view near Nambae Reservation north of Sante Fe.
Top left is the view out of a shelter room to a cliff overhang and a reconstructed kiva (religious structure), Jenny on the rim trail between the campground and Frijoles Canyon, Abert's squirrel (bottom, left) and myself coming up out of the kiva (bottom, right.)
A section of preserved (via a sheet of plexiglass) wall paintings that adorned the inside of one shelter in Frijoles.
Caught in the act... sketching in the town square of Sante Fe, NM
3/18/07 Slow Sunday sort of day. Went for a run with Jasper down the Old Yellowstone Trail Rd. We ran our best time in months... both our tongues were hanging out by the end. Unseasonably warm still, muddy spots are now dry-hope we don't have the dust storms of March and April that we had a couple years ago. After breakfast we went to walk in Yankee Jim Canyon with both dogs, Jenny ran some too. Bighorn sheep were along the road coming back through the canyon ~6 ewes. 3/17/07 Happy St. Patty's Day! Was out in the Park this morning with friends Scott and Dean from California... though we were determined to find our first bear of the season, the effort yielded a wonderful, and long session of watching the Hellroaring wolf pack from Hellroaring Creek overlook. Following a stunning sunrise of magenta and orange, a rousing morning greeting by the local 'yote packs and low conversation by the resident ravens we watched in silence for that bear, only to be treated to the group howl of the Hellroaring wolves. We looked in vain for several minutes until Scott softly uttered the words... "I'm gonna follow this raven". Moments later the destination of that raven was revealed... all 4 wolves, two black and two gray individuals, on a fresh carcass. A bunched group of elk and a few others departing at a little more than their usual walk suggested something was afoot but until Scott's keen observation, we hadn't fount the source. I counted 16-32 ravens, 3 coyotes, and at least 3 eagles did the tear-the-carcass-two-step as the wolves alternately fed and bedded. Over the span of a couple hours the wolves drug the carcass ~50yds from where it initially fell and was fed upon. Also joining us for the morning awakening were Clark's nutcrackers, singing dark-eyed juncos, red crossbills, pine siskins, red-breasted nuthatches, the tooting of a pygmy owl AND several Milbert's tortouishell butterflies from Slough Creek to Gardiner and Eagle Creek. 3/15/07 Warm and sunny yet again. Snow is nearly gone from the foothills of Sepulcher Peak. Light in the hour of 11am, as I write, glimmers off of car windshields, roofs and windows... almost portending of blistering summer heat to come. I hope I'm wrong. The dogs are content to lay in the warmth in the front yard. Mudslides of small to modest size continue to wash over snow and road each afternoon as they have fore a couple weeks now. 3/14/07 This is the final day afield with the Lawrence Academy group. The lot of us hiked, not snowshoed mind you - there was absolutely no reason to wear them as the snow was non-existent for the most part and we found ourselves dodging puddles of water in the flat areas. The views from the top of Specimen Ridge were pleasing as always. Looking down over the Lamar Valley, Slough Creek, across the expanse to Cuttoff Mountain to the north and Mt. Washburn to the south with its fire tower top-hat made one wish you could fly. The ridge top was devoid of snow, which it usually is being wind blown and all. Today's wind was no exception- the group ate lunch facing north-east with our backs being buffeted by the gusts. I especially like the view of the glacial moraines from this perch high above. One can almost envision the progressive advance and recession of those massive ice rivers. 3/13/07 Jenny spots the first mountain bluebird of the year! The first tick of the year was spotted today on one of the Lawrence Academy students... 'tis the season... uhg! 3/11/07 Elk antlers are dropping off now. While out with Jenny's major professor from the University of Idaho, Troy Hall, we spotted ~24 bull elk in Lamar Valley today. Of those 1 had one antler on and one off, and two others had lost both antlers. 3/10/07 Signs of spring... spotted the first marmot of the year out on the bank of the Yellowstone River in Gardiner. I think that the single whistle blast that we use as a command for the dogs to "sit," (we're in the throws of training Casey) sounded very similar to their alarm whistle... and as a result, I guess, we spotted this little fellow up at full attention looking for trouble... sorry for the false alarm. 3/8/07 Slow down... the world is now traveling at bison speed. Like a friend once said, "you have no problem getting a bison to do exactly what it wants to do".
Rush hour in Gardiner, Montana... a herd of bison crosses the bridge over the Yellowstone River. 3/6/07 Teaching a class for the Lawrence Academy, a private high school from Massachusetts. We took a hike all the way up to Tower Falls... boy is the weather warm. We started out snowshoeing and ultimately ditched them next to the trail in favor of walking on the packed snow of the groomed skate ski path. Water is everywhere and rills of eroded soil spill mud over all below them, be it the road, a snow bank, rocks, etc. 2/25/07 Second day out in Lamar Valley leading the Greater Yellowstone Coalition group on a winter wildlife/wolf watching program. We took a hike today along the Yellowstone River with part of the group. Some where curious about the ice that had apparently formed on the bottom of the river... ice is supposed to form on the top of the water right? Well, yes, but I didn't have an answer as to the process that is involved in making this phenomenon occur. With a little research later, I discovered that in order to get anchor ice, as it is called, you need very low air temperatures which creates free-floating crystals of ice in the flowing water. As the water brings these crystals into contact with various objects in the channel, the ice attaches and soon begins to build up as more crystals then attach themselves to the ones before them. This can very detrimental to underwater life (which banks on the physics of water to keep their underwater world free of ice) as it will tear free aquatic plants, algae layers and the organisms themselves; in so doing, it destroys both the plants, animals and their habitat.
Anchor ice that has formed on the bottom of the Yellowstone River results from very cold air temperatures and relatively shallow, flowing water.
Another very interesting sighting for the day was a spot where a lone wolf, probably the solitary black male that has been attempting to court the Slough Creek pack females, attempted to bring down and elk in Lamar Canyon. The tracks of the elk and the wolf crossed the road from north to south and went right down into the river corridor... leaving snow, rocks, trees, etc. smattered with blood and the signs of struggle. No one was around to see the hunt, but from the tracks, this elk, and wolf, were really moving. It is unclear what ultimately happened to the elk though. I presume the elk got away as there were no birds in the area, though Bob Weselman though that the elk may have jumped into the River and been swept under the ice... we'll never know I suppose. Interestingly, while investigating this with the group, a red fox was also exploring the blood trail for potential meal options. It was apparent that the scent of the injured elk was irresistible to this little guy. It was so preoccupied with the scent of the elk that it came right to the road within 20' of us and then crossed the road... very determined it was!
Tracks and blood trail in snow from where a wolf unsuccessfully attempted to kill an elk in Lamar River Canyon (left) and detail (right) from the lower left portion of the left-most image showing elk blood in the tracks.
Red fox spotted in Lamar River Canyon, and photographed with my digital point-and-shoot camera, as it was investigating the irresistible odor of an elk that was injured by a wolf a few hours previous. Doug Smith came to talk to the group while at the Buffalo Ranch regarding the most recent wolf information for Yellowstone Park. I made some notes and present just a few of the things I found interesting: • of ~130-140 wolf/grizzly bear interactions around carcasses, the bear wins ~80% of the time • Doug has seen one grizzly bear fend off 24 wolves from a carcass that it had claimed as its own • researchers in Yellowstone documented an average of 27 ravens, 3 coyotes, 2 eagles and 7 magpies at each wolf kill • mange was documented for the first time in Yellowstone's wolves this year, in the Mollie's pack in Pelican Valley • approximately 25% of the wolves in the Yellowstone wolf population disperse outside of the Park each year • GPS collars on Yellowstone wolves are programmed to take up to 48 locations/day • wolves in Yellowstone have show evidence of having parvo-virus, distemper, and canine adenovirus • parvo 'jumped over' from cats and was first seen in dogs in Minnesota in 1973 and in Greece in 1974 • distemper is one of the oldest canine diseases known in existence • canine adenovirus is a dog version of hepititus
2/24/07 I'm leading a group program for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition through the Yellowstone Association Institute, and based out of the Lamar Valley Buffalo Ranch. The Agate Creek wolf pack had a kill north the the confluence of the Lamar and Yellowstone Rivers. Coyotes seemed to be all over this morning and we spotted a couple foxes also... making it a three-dog-day! Michael Scott spotted 2 otters along the Lamar River where the main road passes over it. We all stopped and got in place in time to see one of them jump up out of the water, onto the ice, making a running jump-slide back into the river and then watched as both otters passed beneath us on the bridge and continued on upstream. 2/23/07 Wolves killed this cow bison two days ago in Slough Creek flats not far from the campground road and only a couple hundred yards from where the Slough Creek wolf pack killed a calf bison the day preceding this kill. It has been completely cleaned by both the wolves and scavengers. Other than the patch of fur between the horns, the skeleton has been entirely 'scrubbed' of flesh and hide.
Cow bison skeleton at Slough Creek (left) being measured for anatomy reference material for sculpture (right).
Elk skeleton in Lamar Valley also being recorded for art purposes. Wolves and scavengers chewed this down to the point of absolute completion... even the ribs were gone. They left nothing between the skull and pelvis but a string of naked vertebrae. 2/20/07 The Slough Creek Pack has a kill out in the flats of Slough Creek. The group of wolves which normally has a count of 2 grays and 6 black wolves has an extra gray wolf... it appears that another wolf from the Agate Pack has come to join his relative now that he is the "man" among the Slough Pack ladies. Its markings are different from the other 2 grays; most prominently it has a very dark 'bib' of fur along the bottom of its neck (see sketch of him on the field scribbles for 2/19). At one point we counted 55 ravens on the kill; apparently it was the remains of a calf bison. An outside black male wolf who has been courting the Slough females comes into the kill once the pack has meandered away. He chases off some of the ravens before feeding (see sketch below and right). Following his meal he beds down and howls to the Slough pack in hopes of luring some girls away... he is not successful, however. Later we have the distinct treat of spotting 2 otters in and out of the water and ice along the Lamar River.
Dr. James Halfpenny leading class in a study of coyote tracks near Tower Junction later in the day and field sketches of wolf chasing ravens from a carcass.
Memory sketches from being in the field today including the unknown black male wolf that has been hoping to find love in the Northern Range packs this breeding season. 2/19/07 The Druid Peak wolf pack had a kill very close to the road in Lamar Valley today. So close in fact that Rangers drug the carcass down in the flats of the Valley from its initial resting point ~ 20 yds from the pavement. Apparently it was still close enough the the pack was unwilling to come in. One of the black pups did make its way in despite the capacity crowd of watchers and photographers. The closeness was still of apparent help to the coyotes (with so many people at the 'doorstep' the wolves tend to shy away and this opens up opportunities that the coyotes wouldn't normally have), even so, it was a bit of a surprise when we spotted two coyotes in a copulatory tie right near the carcass with wolves bedded just a few hundred yards away... mating in the midst of such danger would seem unthinkable, but as these two 'yotes tied and facing in opposite directions attest, love know no bounds.
Another few field sketches from the day.
Soda Butte Cone with Mt. Norris in background.
Barronette Peak in northeastern corner of Yellowstone Park.
Bull elk #6 (the one who had his antlers cut off in the autumn of 2005 & 2004) bedded in our neighbors yard.
Field sketch of bull elk #6. 2/17/07 Took a drive down to Big Sky today to deliver some artwork and along the way back I spotted the first butterfly of the year―a Milbert's Tortoishell in Yankee Jim canyon just 15 miles north of Gardiner along the Yellowstone River. It flew across the road and those alternating bands of yellow, orange and black gave it away even as it was driving ~65mph.
The massive-racked bull elk #6 as seen from our front deck at dusk- his rump and ivory-tipped antlers can be seen just above the fence post in the darkness. He has been one of the premier bulls during the elk rut in Mammoth Hot Springs the last few years. 2/16/07 What a day indeed... you can't quite shy away from the beauty of a morning of magenta sunrise and nor can one argue with the feat of seeing FIVE, YES, FIVE MOUNTAIN LIONS in one spot. One of the students on Kirsty and Alan's wildlife watching group commented, in jest, about 4 mountain lions playing about when we stopped for a restroom break. Not a few moments later did word come about that 4 lions were seen from Hellroaring overlook. They were on a kill, and actually had been seen last night. Well, they were still in the same spot and we were off for a look! As luck should have it, they were in view... a female and her 3 kittens. After some time there Alan said that there were actually 5 in view... WHAT?!!?!?! There was a cat up in a Douglas fir tree to the left of female and kittens. What an unbelievable sight! If this weren't enough still, the group and I stopped at the confluence of the Lamar River and Soda Butte Creek and spotted two golden eagles―one of which was feeding on a duck north of the road and about 1/2mile east of the confluence. Through the spotting scopes we could tell that this was a duck that the eagle was eating, but we couldn't tell which species it was. As if on cue, both eagles too flight and landed in the trees right over the parking area, and the 3 bighorn rams that we initial stopped to view. As the one eagle continued to feed the other perched itself in the fir boughs beside the first and chortled at it in want of lunch. With these two amazing birds just a few yards over our heads, and still wondering at what species of duck was one the butcher block today, something dropped out of the tree.... this object rolled down the hill and came to rest at the edge of the parking lot... it was the head of the duck... question answered―it was the head of a female Barrow's golden-eye! This day was a banner one all around; we spotted two red foxes along our travels too!
Morning glow over Yellowstone Park to the south of our house in Gardiner - 08:00 - taken off of the front deck.
This is a memory sketch from today's lion viewing including the landmarks where the cats were positioned and snapshot sketches of what the cats looked like when in those spots. When we first showed up the 4 cats were all in a pile near a trident-shaped juniper tree on the north side of the Yellowstone River. They had a kill there and were visible since yesterday evening. The kill itself was just out of view behind the boulder. Over the course time, the kittens and momma ventured out and about the immediate landscape. The kittens played around the boulder and one went off by itself near the cliff that drops into the Yellowstone River. To the left of the whole scene is where the fifth cat... and adult-looking cougar (was this a hold-over from a previous litter or a courting male?) that was laying on the first major limb of a Douglas fir tree. This other adult then dropped down to the ground and left all of the remaining cats to their own devices. When I asked one of the cougar biologists from the recently finished "Yellowstone Cougar Research Program" about this other adult, she said that every female is an individual and it may have been a courting male, some females will allow males in close proximity to their youngsters. It should also be noted that since the cougar research program has ended, that all of the collars have been removed from the study animals. SO, if you are lucky enough to beat the odds like we were today, and see a cat, the cougar you might spot will not be wearing a radio collar from now on.
Memory sketches from watching FIVE, yes, FIVE cougars at one time today from Hellroaring overlook in the Park.
2/15/07 This was the first day out in the field with Kirsty and Alan Peake's group from the UK. We had a distinct treat in seeing 4 members of the Hellroaring wolf pack. This group has been pushed around a fair bit by the larger Oxbow wolf pack and this is one of the few opportunities we've had to see them as of late. Jenny snapped this shot of our two little darlings today. Being that Casey kind of rules the roost, i.e. biting Jasper about the head, neck and legs, taking over the water bowl, toys etc. and he seems to be very reluctant to discipline the little demon, his ever passive nature has earned him the big, docile, plant-eating sobriquet of "brontosaurus" and the little hellion with sharpened tooth and claw has engendered her nickname of the "veloceraptor".
Double trouble... the "brontosaurus" and the "veloceraptor". . 2/14/07 Swarms of birds careen about town. I take the opportunity to try out our spotting scope from the house as the birds amass in the trees below our place in Gardiner... I'm sure the neighors think I'm spying on them... nope... just looking over the flocks of gray-crowned rosy finches for any black rosey finches or other odd balls. I did spot at least one, maybe to different black rosey finches among hundreds of gray-crowned ones... couldn't get a photo though...
Gray-crowned rosey finch (below & left) and house finch as seen through the spotting scope. 2/13/07 Oops... can't take the dogs for a game of fetch in this direction. This bull bison in the neighbor's yard meandered in and around the road where we usually walk to play in the afternoons. After a few minutes he did move over enough that we could sneak by with the dogs at heel. Winter snows are forcing the bison, elk and many other species, out of the Park and into town.
Bull bison in the neighbor's yard with Rattlesnake Butte sunlit behind. 2/12/07 It's winter again! After days and days of spring in February, it has snowed enough to accumulate... I actually had to shovel the 2-3" of white stuff off of the front deck this morning. Hope it keeps up...
A new blanket of snow falling on Gardiner- notice that you can't see past the last buildings to the foothills of Sepulcher Peak. 2/11/07 This bull bison died about 4 weeks ago of unknown causes near the Yellowstone River not far from Tower Junction in the Park. Brad Bulin had told me about it, and once we had a day off, he, I and Brad's girlfriend Jennifer, went out to take some pictures, make measurements, and shoot some video footage. This is the first adult bull that I've had the chance to take a full set of measurements on for artwork purposes. It usually ends up that the carcass is so thoroughly picked over that there is little left to measure. We were lucky enough that this one is fully articulated with only the legs being pulled off since Brad was here a day ago... and they were still intact just a few feet away. You can image the difficulty of measuring a fresh carcass with bears and other such carnivores looking over you shoulder or the prospect of a live, wild bison (the true ideal scenario) allowing you to sidle up to it and stretch a pair of calipers and measuring tapes around it...
Bull bison carcass near the Yellowstone River being filmed by Brad Bulin and Jennier Mast: notice the coyote track in the bloody snow beside the bull's head in the bottom/right side of the lower image. 2/10/07 This is our last day together on the Winter Wolf Discovery program here in Yellowstone. The Druid wolves were visible near a kill along the south side of Lamar Valley. The pups were up on one of the snowy slope and romping around, playing with one another like a group of rambunctious kids.
Streaks of "God light" over Lamar Valley looking east from Dorothy's Knoll this morning. We hiked out to an abandoned wolf den and ended up following in the tracks of an injured wolf. Spots of fresh blood dotted both sides of the prints for the entire distance that we walked behind them - at least 1/4 mile. The redness in the snow must have only been a few hours old. Was this the limping 'gentleman caller' who was hanging around the Slough Pack? After lunch we ventured out to an old kill made by the Druid Pack some weeks ago. It was a cow elk that they had brought down on the foothills of Druid Peak only a 1/4mile east of the Buffalo Ranch. The wolves had also killed a coyote near this carcass and injured a golden eagle to the point that it needed to be put down. Normally the animal would be left to 'Mother Nature's will' but due to the legal status of eagles and possessing eagle feathers, Terry McEneaney the Park ornithologist, came out to lay this poor female to rest (she was an older bird that had both legs and both wings broken... predation is not a pretty thing). I hope she wasn't the female that has been nesting up in the area of the Lamar River/Soda Butte confluence. Golden eagles in the wild have been know to live up to and over twenty years of age.
All the remained of the cow elk was the axial skeleton (skull, vertebrae and pelvis), the jaw, one front leg and one scapula (shoulder blade) - top image. Interesting also, was the fact that all but a couple ribs were completely gone too; so instead of looking like skeleton with a cage of ribs it was just a string of vertebrae. Below: Students viewing Druid wolves in the bright morning sun (left), Gordie, Dick and Cathy examine the elk's skull up close and take some photos of its teeth and jaw (she was old, I would guess in her early to mid teens; middle) and the rest of the group looks on with Jasper bench and western Lamar Valley in the distance. 2/9/07 'The right place as the right time,' allowed a wonderful view of the Druid Peak pack of wolves in Lamar Valley. The pack had been milling around, pups playing amid the log jams in the river corridor, with the alpha male, wolf 480M howling, howling and facing the north-west. We later found out that the Slough Creek pack had been in that direction... looks like the Druids are making a full comeback to their old haunts despite only having 2 adults in the pack at the moment. Earlier in the season the Druids would hardly go past the middle of Lamar Valley. Perhaps with so many pups they were concerned about a skirmish with forces beyond their size/muscle. With the packs having circulated around one another enough to this point it looks as though the Druids are comfortable enough to throw their weight around a bit more now. Comfortable enough that they all then rose to their feet and moved toward us with the apparent intent on crossing the road and following up on the Slough howling. The dark alpha male was in the lead followed by the others. They came all the way towards the road and stalled out directly across the Lamar River from us. This was quite close quarters and made for some great looks through the scopes and even cameras and video recorders. Unfortunately, they were repulsed by the line of cars that came to see them approach the road and moved back away to the south―and after nearly everyone left, thinking that they would cross further down, they came back over the hill and bedded in full view of us until the snow squalls blew in and clouded our view.
Wolf 480M (alpha male of the Druid Peak pack) approaching the road to contest the Slough Creek pack howling to the north (left). After a failed attempt to cross the road the Druid Pack bedded down for the day only ~1/3 mile south of the road at the west end of Lamar Valley (right). We had a great time watching one of the black pups play with what looked like a strip of elk skin while the others settled into their snowy beds. 2/6/07 Had a wonderful day
out in the field with Jim and Jan Mamminga, and their friends Bill and Louanne
on a Yellowstone Association Ed-Venture. Sunrise at Elk Creek just seemed to be
the absolute finest way to begin the day... what do you think? Sunrise this morning as viewed from Elk Creek in Yellowstone Park looking east through Lamar Valley. Things worked out quite well for us as we began wildlife viewing at Slough Creek. From the Lamar Canyon area we heard the low howl of a single wolf. It turns out that this was probably one of the intruding male wolves that has been hanging around the local packs over the last few days. As luck would have it, Lorie Lyman and her husband Dan spotted the Slough Creek pack on the other side of the Lamar Canyon... what luck. We changed positions and were in for a fantastic few hours of viewing as the Slough wolves howled at the intruder, bedded, checked his scent trail, howled, got up, moved, etc. The intruder came in to smell the beds of the Slough females after they moved away, or so it looked... checking the estrus state of those ladies I'm guessing. It was too much for the Sloughs to handle―they marched back down the hill and pushed the intruder off, but not that far off. All hung in the immediate area for some time almost as if waiting for one or the other parties to make a move. This love game can be a matter of life and death―if it works out, you get a mate, have pups, and live happily ever after... if not you will be pulled to pieces... As the day wore on, the wolf action slowed (no love or pulling to pieces) and we noticed a swarm of ravens to the south of the road in Lamar Valley... a carcass??? No, not at all, at least not a ungulate carcass... it was a raven carcass, under the talons of a feeding golden eagle! Apparently, we spotted the angry swarm of ravens just after the bird was seized by the eagle. Once they figured their comrade was gone, they dispersed. I took this shot (below) of the eagle on the raven carcass and the spread of black feathers as the big raptor plucked and ate.
Picture through the spotting scope (from ~3/4mi away) of a golden eagle eating a raven it just caught. Oh, and not to be left out... we had a 3-dog-day!!! Thanks to Jim's eagle eyes we spotted a red fox in the western end of Lamar Valley, and then a second near the confluence of the Lamar River and Soda Butte Creek (this is the hardest of the 3 wild dogs of Yellowstone to spot), add to this the perennially common coyotes and the ever-popular wolves, and you've got a three-dog-day! 2/5/07 Warm, warm was the rule today. Places all across the region were posting temperatures in the forties and fifties. Slush and running water were ubiquitous. I spent the day with Bill Gallea & Jeanne McPherson and their friends Mike and Annie on a Yellowstone Ed-Venture through the Yellowstone Association Institute. Cool colors dominated the warm atmosphere. Payne's gray and cobalt blues adorned the distant landforms, but these gave way to blue skies later in the day. We had the good fortune spotting the Agate Creek wolves near a kill site just north of Tower Junction. Although at some distance, we could clearly identify the various individuals and the behavior between them. After standing at the spotting scopes for some time we opted to take a snowshoe hike through the "snowman snow," (that wet, sticky snow that's great for snowballs and rolling up snowman parts) as Annie put it, along the Yellowstone picnic trail. Bison had been grazing throughout, leaving heavy-hoofed tracks in the snow and craters of cleared white stuff. Two bulls were not far from the trail and later we found a group of ~12 cows and calves near where the old Bannoch Indian trail comes up out of the fording area of the Yellowstone River upstream of Tower Falls. There were very sharp weasel tracks across the wet snow surface... so clear in fact that you could see their toes! Red crossbills and pine siskins filled the air with their calls and put kinks in our necks as we craned to spot the airborne flocks. Luck us, we also came across two bighorn sheep ewes on the way back to the bus. Both were adults and apparently with some age on them based on the condition of their horns, which was a bit battered and worn. By the end of the hike the gang was ready for Boiling River along the Gardiner and we split ways at the Mammoth Hotel. I thought of them soaking in those hot springs as I drove past the 45th parallel sign and looked into the River with its milky cast from the day's runnoff. 2/4/07 Talk about one crazy wolf watching day. Today was one of those days where you have scopes pointing in all directions, updates and events transpiring so fast and often that you can hardly keep up with it all. In Lamar, the Druid wolves were visible and active near Soda Butte cone, the Agate pack traveled in from the west and spent much of the day in the Slough Creek area as did the Slough Creek Pack themselves. In this mix were at least 2 uncollared black male wolves that were working the 'wings' of each pack hoping to draw some ladies away. Conservatively estimated, we had upwards of 32 individual wolves in an area of ~2 x 10 miles.. I so wish I hadn't misplaced my fully charged battery for the digital camera, otherwise I would have some pretty great shots through the spotting scope today. We had a good look at wolf 113M of the Agate pack, the oldest wolf in the Park right now at 9 years and 10 months of age. Considering the average lifespan of a wolf in Yellowstone is not much over 3 years... he is a real survivor. Unfortunately wolf 113 has a bad injury to his left hind leg which is still bleeding. It almost appears to be a flap, literally a flapping piece of flesh, that is still bleeding down his leg. His past mate, 472F of the pack, was offering herself up to him today with an averted tail, but the poor ole boy was just not up to it... It ended up that the beta male, 383M, bred her later. Lots of howling, lots of howling between the packs and the unknown individuals. Not to be left out, the weather was warm and red crossbill were everywhere! Broke my scope away from the canines long enough to watch a few males and females in the tree tops singing away in their bubbly, finchy way. Friends also mentioned that they spotted some white-winged crossbills (somewhat out of their normal winter range, which according to David Sibley's book, comes down only about half way south into Montana) near Pebble Creek and another sighting along Barronette Trail... this is neat... I haven't seen this species since being on a camping trip in West Virginia 7 years ago. 2/3/07 Today was magical―new snow dressed the entire land in a veneer of white. With temperatures at the house of -0.4F, Jasper and I hopped in the truck with our field gear and sketchbooks and made for the Park. Skies to the east were marked with a bank of banded clouds, almost like orange and yellow strips of beach sand, and topped in wispy garland ochre. Steam issued from the Gardiner River covering the river-edge Junipers in white 'frosting'.
Tracks in the new snow abound and older ones were filled in... a look over the hills showed the distant Druid Peak (left) and a heavily grazed area near Floating Island Lake, west of Tower Junction (right) The light was so amazing, so much so that we had to stop multiple times and just soak it in, take pictures, whatever... Mammoth terraces beamed with yellow-orange light―gracing the 'toe boards' of the giant limestone steps the illumination made them all but glow. Elk and bison grazing on Blacktail Plateau left wormwood marks in the snow where they walked and fed.
Bison herd at Tower Junction At Slough Creek we came upon a scene that has become quite common to folks in the Park at this time of year... a mystery male wolf attempting to find love in the Lamar Valley area. An unknown black male wolf was hanging around the Slough Creek Pack this morning; he was close, really close... so close to us up on Dave's Hill at Slough Creek that other wildlife watchers were asked to stay back until the wolves moved further away... I can't say enough about this new Swarovski spotting scope... I could see every detail! We didn't want to run them off or change the behavior we were watching. I made sketches as Jeff Hogan from Jackson, WY was doing some shooting for a BBC film on Yellowstone. It was really interesting to watch this outside male keeping his distance but still keeping 'in the neighborhood' in case any of those females of the Slough pack wanted to join him. Some of the girls looked as though they were interested but resigned to stay with the pack and howl at the intruder. This went on for several hours as they jockeyed around the area of Slough Creek flats and even carried on after I went down to let Jasper out of the truck for a walk, and then even after, as we headed for home.
Sketch of some of the Slough Creek wolves including the bedded beta female known as "Sharp Right". 2/2/07 Temps in the sub -7F this morning... starting to snow though in Gardiner. I can just see the foot hills of Sepulcher Peak across town. Jenny and I watched an amazing life and death chase a few minutes ago―a Cooper's hawk was hot on the tail of a pigeon. The pigeon ducked, swerved, darted in and out of the Yellowstone River corridor and finally outdid the Coop with a quick dart to the right and dropped down in the south bank of the River. It was amazing to see the agility of both birds. The typically strait, narrow tail of the Cooper's was flared for peak directional flight, or should I say direction-changing flight. Empty taloned, the hawk folded up its tail feathers and cruised on upstream and out of sight amid the falling snow. In the afernoon Jenny, Jasper and I went for an outing up along the "Roller Coaster" ski trail up in Jardine. The new snow up there was a BLAST! Jasper was having as much or more fun than we were; time and time again he burried his head in the new powder and bulldozed ahead at a trot! Along the road were the remains of a butchered elk and it drew the attention of no less than 70 ravens (pictured in trees below) and at least 6 eagles.
A true conspiracy of ravens in the trees above Jardine, MT 2/1/07 Mornings have been chilly as of late. Today was a veterinary run for the pups with Jenny and I took the chance to go for a jog in the 15F temps. I'm glad I did as the thermometer kept on dropping throughout the day. By dusk it was around 0F. A small herd of bison, young and old, stood shaggy and somewhat bewildered looking at the Rocky Mountain Campground entrance here in Town. I'm glad the hunt is over. I means these guys will at least be able to roam without being harassed with loaded rifles. The total harvest this year in the Montana bison hunt was 20; three of these being taken by the Nez Perce Indians on their treaty hunting rights. I was un aware of this, but the Nez Perce can even hunt at night, before and after legal hunting hours as stated by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks. Only a dusting of snow fell last night so we can at least see who's been tromping through the yard and back streets of Gardiner... mule deer, elk, bison, dogs, cats and a weasel.
Another cute puppy shot... she crawled in Jenny's duffel bag by herself... :) 1/31/07 Spent the morning leading a wildlife watching trip for members and staff of the Montana Wilderness Association in Lamar Valley. The Druid wolves, minus wolf 302M (he is likely up to his old tricks of visiting far off fair maidens during this, the one and only breeding season of the year) were traveling east along the north side of Lamar Valley. When only a couple miles east of the Buffalo Ranch, and just before the Picnic area pullout, someone on the bus shouted, "there's something running!" Sure enough there was something running... it was a cow elk being pursued by 3 of the Druid wolves. In the lead was a large black wolf, maybe the alpha male 480? Tom slowed the bus to let the elk cross the road but by this time we were right in the middle of it all, she was running right toward us! I think I knew when that elk first spotted the bus on the road as she looked, then came right for it... we probably saved her life this morning as the wolves ceased their chase and walked a dejected walk, back up the hills to where most of the pups were. Wolves don't like the 'people scene' along the road and usually opt to pass up prey and even carcasses along the road in favor of being further away from us... coyotes take advantage of this by using the road corridor in lieu of the scarcity of wolves there - unfortunately, they also get fed there by motorists.¶ Later in the day we went for ski of the Bannoch Indian trail toward Silvergate. The trail was hard packed until one stepped out of the broken tracks and then one sunk a foot or more through the sugary snow pack―almost like the fluffiest of sand or sawdust, it provided no support. This evening we had the honor of listening to Conrad Anker give a lecture on his role in the 1999 expedition that summmited Mount Everest and his own discovery of the Englishman, George Mallory's body―the explorer who in 1924 attempted to climb to the top of this same mountain. Mallory's ice axe had been found years before on the second step from the summit but not until this expedition, that Conrad was part of, were the whereabouts of Mallory himself known. Interestingly, the photos he shared of Mallory showed his head facing uphill and his left leg―bootless (probably from the trauma kinetic energy of the fall) crossed over his right leg which had a sever compound fracture. These two observations probably indicated that Mallory had been conscious after his fall and perhaps in a feeble attempt to alleviate the pain in this right leg, crossed the left over top of it. Conrad was kind enough to bring copies of his book, "The Lost Explorer―Finding Mallory on Mt. Everest," and signed them for us.
Cute puppy picture (of Casey) thrown in for good measure :) 1/30/07 We (Staff and members of the Montana Wilderness Association) never left the parking lot of the Lamar Valley Buffalo Ranch this morning. The Druid Peak Pack of wolves were south of us and moving west across the frozen expanse of Lamar. Wolf 302 was in the lead. It almost seemed like he was wanting to get away from the rest of the pack (which incidentally is composed of 8 pups and only 3 adults) so that he could ascertain his options in the dating scene. It is the mating season now and with no available females in his pack, he is likely going to wander in search of love as has been his modus operandi in past years. I think that everyone was happy that they were so close as the temperature this morning was -18F. Many of us darted in for a warm-up and ultimately the allure of "second breakfast" was more than all those cold toes and fingers could bear. Some of the group hiked up the to the Rose Creek wolf pen with fellow instructor Melissa Scott and YA volunteer Tom Boschen. 1/25/07 With Jenny down in Jackson Hole at a conference, Jasper, Casey and I went out into the Park this afternoon. Boy was the sun bright... we all needed our sunglasses but so far we've only been able to find shade to fit on a human's head... sorry pups. It warmed up to the point of wet slushy snow and puddles forming around Gardiner. Reflectivity of the dry, ivory snow in the Park contrasts with scattered green/gray conifers, partly covered boulders and the blue wintry shadows amid the slanted afternoon light. Making a stop in Lamar Valley we picked out the coyote pack of 5 that hangs out in the Valley floor. The big male is radio collared and the alpha female has a bobbed tail - somehow she lost the lower half of it... fight, infection, did a wolf grab it? They minced about and so did we. Ultimately, my scope fell upon two liquid, black shapes about 2 miles to the east - they were wolves. With the sun dropping away, mirage-like waves melted the black animals' bodies like droplets of used auto lube in a bucket of water. They coalesced and then parted - walking apart on fluid inky legs. Turns out they were 2 of the Druid Peak Pack pups, nearly grown and romping about with something dug out of the snow. Heading down that way for a closer look we ran into Lori Lyman and others who were watching the same wolves. The rest of the pack was bedded about 100yds away. Before night fell, and the chill came on (foolish me, I only wore my jeans and sneakers... bound on staying close to the car, dogs and sketch pad) and the pack strung out in formation moving west, in and out of the trees. They passed by 4 bull elk but paid them no mind. The elk looked but didn't seem to bothered. Before leaving the pack gave a rally howl after one of the males (302M) gave a howl from his position well ahead of the main pack... he was probably wanting to solicit some outside females, now that the breeding season is close at hand, and only got a response from the pups of his own pack.
Coyotes seen today as drawn from memory... including the 'bob-tailed' female coyote from Lamar Valley pack. 1/24/07 Spent the morning out with a group of seven writers from around the country. This was a press program set up through Xanterra taking them snowmobiling, visiting tourist stops around the Park and today was the final day in order to experience one of our "Winter Wolf Discovery" programs in the northern end of Yellowstone. This was a very enjoyable group and full of eager photographers... a stop at Hellroaring overlook was a must in order to catch the sunrise. In the pre-dawn light we stood and watched as the fog amassed in the Yellowstone drainage- so much so that the bank of white appeared like a clean mass of glacial ice flowing down through the valley bottom. Scatters and skips of linear and wispy clouds accented the sky as the sun spread oranges and hints of magenta into the brightening ether. We were able to carve out about a minute of total silence with the group to hear the day come over us. Only the sound of the River's din, and birds (ravens, Clark's nutcrackers, red crossbills, mountain chickadees and pine siskins) could be heard. We did see the Druid wolves near a kill along Soda Butte Creek... ravens and coyotes all about. 1/22/07 Wonderful day on snow coach with Cole family... the last of our 3 days together. We took time out to hike around the Norris Geyser Basin down as far as Steamboat Geyser (world's largest active geyser)... but it was frigid out so we hustled back to the snow coach. At the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone there were all sorts of delights to behold. It is just magic to see the walls of this chasm smattered in white and that deep black-blue and teal color of the river ~800' below our vantage at Grand View Point. From Lookout Point we took a few minutes, the kids and I, to make some sketches of the lower falls of the Yellowstone River. The contrasts and colors were just remarkable; especially when taking in the aquamarine ice of falls against that alabaster snow and orangey-yellow oxides of the exposed rock walls. Lunch at the Warming Hut was a welcomed stop... how could you go wrong... it was warm! We looked hard for otters and the Hayden Valley wolves before heading home but found 9 coyotes instead along the open expanses of Hayden Valley. Thanks for a fun Winter Families program Coles! 1/21/07 Skiing Tower Falls Road today with the Cole family from the Boulder, CO area... remarkable blue skies. We made it all way to falls... total of 5 miles 'round trip! Tracy did great, as did Olivia and Tanner. Showed them the bear tree, marten tracks, and a little window in icy waterfall through which we could see the gushing flow, albeit reduced from the warmer months, of Tower Creek. Today lived up to the "winter wonderland" ambiance for sure. 1/20/07 Spotted Druid Peak pack of wolves from Fisherman's pullout in Lamar Valley... an amazing look... playing with coyote skin and some other strip of hide pretty darn close as these sorts of sightings go. 1/13/07 A cute puppy shot...
Casey, age 2 months. 1/9/07 Waking up in Lamar Valley is about as close to heaven as I can imagine. The air feels warm in the early morning and ranges between 25F and 35F for most of the day. I have the pleasure of teaching this particular program, along with fellow Yellowstone Association Institute instructor Julianne Baker, for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. In the afternoon several folks opted to go out either snowshoeing along the Yellowstone canyon at Tower with myself or skiing with Julianne up the Bannock trail. I am impressed with the sheer amount of weasel tracks along the snowshoe route. Barbara, who's snowshoing with me, retells a story of watching a weasel around their house and deck for nearly 20 minutes at their home north of Livingston, MT. This is a very long time to watch one of these most 'wired' creatures... usually its just a flash. And either we had several weasels here or there was just one or two very busy weasels. With the slight crust on the snow we can see places where all of their 5 little toes register in the track (this is a rarity), also where they dive into the snow and disappear into the subnivian environment only to pop back up out of the white world beneath a sage brush or log. This is sort of neat in that you actually get to see how big around the weasel leaving all of the tracks really is... in this case, it is only perhaps one and a half inches across. Imagine this scenario, how would you feel as a mouse or vole to be contently, and warmly I might add, going about your day only to have something 10-20 times your size come crashing through the roof of the house intent on doing nothing but eating you? ... talk about absolute terror! Earlier today, with the whole group, we had one of those classic 'surrounded on all sides' sort of wildlife viewing days. From our vantage point near the confluence of the Lamar River and Soda Butte Creek we had 12 bighorn sheep grazing on the hill behind us (including 2 of the rams that I age to be 4 and 6 years old, respectively), bald eagles in the cottonwoods to the south, at least 3 American dippers, Barrow's goldeneye ducks along the river, coyotes in the drainage corridor chasing off what appeared to be an intruder among their ranks, and the Druid Peak wolves, all 11 of them out among the old river terraces of the Lamar River. At one point the group had an amazingly good view of the wolves as they came to within perhaps 300 yards onto the ice of Lamar River to chase the coyotes that had just chase that lone coyote off. This is one of the better looks I have had at the markings of the two adult male wolves of the pack; the white spot on the chest of the big black alpha male wolf 480M and the cross-wise gray bar on the lower chest of equally black wolf 302M. The pups, as always, regaled us with near constant play... if they weren't bedded/sleeping they were romping, chasing, tackling, and otherwise harassing one another to no end. 1/4/07-1/6/07 A welcomed trip down to Old Faithful for FUNNN!!!!! This is the first time that Jenny and I have been able to go to Old Faithful and not have to work... THANK YOU SO MUCH MOM AND DAD GOLDING! Snow coach was our chosen means of travel and we had the pleasure of "Dipper" Darla as our snow coach driver. Darla is perhaps the biggest fan of the American Dipper that I know of in this world and in the past when we've done programs together, her enthusiasm for this little charcoal-colored water bird is absolutely contagious. Students leave not enumerating wolf, bear, or eagle sightings but those of DIPPERS!!! However, however, I think this was the first trip down to OF this year that Darla hasn't seed a dipper... and of course it was the ride we chose :) Big interest was in checking out the bison that died yesterday on the Gibbon river just a few tens of yards west of the road. This was a sad scene as it often is with bison. Only the carcass was there but we could see the packed snow around her body where her, now gone, herd-mates slept, or at least bedded by her side. Other drivers said later that they watched earlier as those same herd-mates tried to pick her up with their horns in a lost effort to do what ever they could to get her on her feet and revived. Anyone who says these animals don't feel loss and remorse have not watched bison enough. this entry to be continued when I get back from teaching at Lamar.... 1/3/07 The bison carcass is nearly entirely gone!... just from yesterday alone... It is just amazing how fast a thousand-plus pounds of meat can just disappear into the scavenger community in just a few hours. It also seems that in the night the coyotes, or maybe the wolves finished off that injured calf elk in the Lamar River; birds, coyotes and later the Slough wolves were on it. 1/2/07 Awoke in Lamar this morning to the Slough Creek wolf pack feeding on a bison carcass about 1/2 mile southwest of the Buffalo Ranch in the open valley. Bald and golden eagles, coyotes, ravens and magpies sit and wait patiently. A young coyote creeps in for a meal with the wolves bedded only 70-80 yards away; this is not smart and the brazen act surprises me―all other, arguably, more educated, coyotes stay far away. All at once the wolves get up, stalk, en mass towards the unwitting coyote. They get closer, and closer, and closer to the point where I say under my breath, "go now, get out of there now..." to the coyote. And nearly at that moment the wolves launched into their chase. The coyote realizes pitifully slow and only makes it ~45 yards before the wolves grab hold. A cluster of highly held wolf tails and biting and tugging are all that can be seen, until all involved grab a bit coyote and pull... lifting the coyote into view at wolf-head height. The coyote's mouth is wide open and clearly visible in full frame image through the spotting scope. The gray female of the Slough wolf pack has it solidly by the throat. It lasts only seconds more before the ravens move in. No matter how many times you see these things, at least for me, it still turns my stomach and evokes very mixed feelings when life is snuffed out right before your eyes. This is not TV, not a story in a book, or a second hand yarn―it's hot blood in the snow and a life never to be lived again.
Memory sketch of the killing of a coyote that became too bold around the Slough Creek wolf pack's kill.
Click to see Field notes from 2008 Click to see Field notes from 2007 Click to see Field notes from 2006 Click to see Field notes from 2005 Click to see Field notes from 2004
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