Monthly Archives: October 2006

Excellent!

American pika at Grand Teton National Park

Excellent!

Come closer human, come closer. You’re about to walk into my trap!

Wait, why are you stopping?

Doggone it, he’s got a telephoto lens, he doesn’t need to come closer! What kind of fool carries such a heavy lens this far up the canyon?

I came across this beautiful pika just below Inspiration Point on the trail into Cascade Canyon in Grand Teton National Park. The picture was taken with Canon’s 100-400mm lens, a moderately sized telephoto lens. Pikas were one of the creatures I was anxious to see again on my visit, so I was thrilled to see a few on my day hikes in the several days I spent in the park.

Crunch Crunch Crunch

Black bear eating carcass at Yellowstone National Park

My first day in Yellowstone set the tone for the entire trip. That Wednesday was my final morning in the Tetons and I drove north to Yellowstone, where I would stay for the rest of my trip. I didn’t see much in the Tetons that morning and the weather was so cloudy that the mountains were mostly hidden. On my drive into Yellowstone, however, it wasn’t long before I started to see wildlife.

On the road towards Bridge Bay I came across two coyotes hunting near a small pond, then found a small group of gray jays working their way through the forest. On the road towards Roosevelt as it was getting late in the day, I pulled off the road to photograph some bighorn sheep lambs and ewes that were near the road. The gentleman next to me mentioned that a bear was coming, and sure enough far down the road a black bear had crossed the road and was heading towards the edge of a hill.

After not having seen any bears the previous year, I was excited to see my first on this trip (and certainly not my last). As I settled in with my telephoto lens (including my new 500mm lens), a small group of us watched as the bear wandered over to an old carcass of some large mammal and begin to work over the bones. The meat had long since been devoured, so the bear began to work on the skeleton to get at the marrow in the bones.

Once an idling diesel pickup truck left, it was suddenly so quiet that you could actually hear the crunch crunch crunch as the bear began snacking on the ribs it ripped from the rib cage. While it’s always best to give bears their space, a bear around a carcass needs extra space, so we all stayed far back at the road.

Black bears are omnivores and eat both animals and plants. While seeing a bear so casually crunching bones is an impressive reminder of the animal’s strength, plants make up the majority of their diet in Yellowstone and you’re much more likely to see them snacking on the nuts in the pinecones of white pine trees.

This picture was taken with my Canon 500mm lens and a 1.4X teleconverter. You can see the large spine of the carcass has been lifted up while the bear chews on one of the ribs. I watched this bear for quite some time, before it eventually walked back down towards where it had come from. It was time for me to depart as well, the bear had his dinner and now it was time for mine.

Reborn

Timber wolf with black fur at Yellowstone National Park

I spent a week in Yellowstone and the Tetons recently. Last year I visited for a week at the same time of year, where the Tetons amazed me day after day, while Yellowstone was more hit and miss.

This year the roles reversed. The Tetons were fun with some great highlights, but I quickly realized how lucky I had been last year to see the animals and sights I did.

Yellowstone, however, took my breath away almost from the time I entered the park. On my first full day in the park, I had gotten some nice hiking in but didn’t see much wildlife. At the end of the day I had a great chance to watch black bears and a coyote from a close distance, along with a number of other people.

It was getting late so I turned the car around and headed down from Mt. Washburn and back towards my hotel in Gardiner. I hadn’t gotten very far when a black shape crossed the road in front of me. The light was getting low and I only saw its shape and not details, but it took me just a split second to realize that I had just seen my first wolf.

At that point my excitement short-circuited my brain and I struggled to even remember how to stop the car and roll down the window. I barely managed this simple task and grabbed a camera from the seat next to me. The wolf had disappeared into the sagebrush however and left me to wonder at not only being lucky enough to see a wolf, but see it from a close distance.

Suddenly the wolf popped up on the ridgeline, curious enough to stop for a quick look before continuing on its way. It stopped only for a moment but long enough for me to get a picture before it disappeared into the advancing darkness.

I pulled over at a nearby turnout, too afraid to look at my camera to see if I had gotten the shot. I eventually worked up the courage and brought up the image and while it was underexposed and a little out of focus, it came out surprisingly well given the circumstances. When I converted the RAW image, I tried to capture the feel of the moment, a dark shape suddenly appearing in the fading light.

Having watched a coyote just a few minutes earlier, the wolf’s larger size was particularly striking. This wolf has black fur, apparently one of several in this pack with dark coloration.

My silent reverie was disrupted a few moments later when a pickup pulled into the pullout with me. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that they had just missed a close encounter with such an amazing creature. When the young lady stepped out of the truck I had a little laugh at myself, as she was carrying an antenna, tracking the wolf by the radio collar around its neck — the encounter wouldn’t have been so rare for her.

After getting back in the car, my spirits were high and I felt reborn. On the drive back to Gardiner I wondered what more Yellowstone could possibly offer in the coming days.