No matter how many red fox I photograph, I always get excited when I see one out there running around doing its thing. Definitely one of my favorite animals. This one hardly acknowledged that I was there as it ran by me in search of breakfast.
Bison are the most conspicuous animals in Yellowstone, often times blocking the road as they move from one area of the park to another in search of new places to graze. This guy seemed to be the leader of a small herd that greeted me almost immediately on day one of my visit. With his goatee and horns, I thought he looked a bit satanic — you know, if Satan was hairy and hung out in the snow. Those of you who work with me, however, might agree that he looks more like Dante our sound engineer.
I spotted this cow and bull moose just outside the northeast entrance to Yellowstone last Thursday afternoon in the small town of Silver Gate, Montana — probably a mother and her grown son. They were just about the same size, but eventually he’ll grow to be much larger than her and each year he’ll grow a bigger and bigger rack of antlers, which he’ll drop annually sometime in the winter. This guy’s antlers were pretty small, giving an indication of his age, but a fully mature bull can have a rack that is 6 feet across and weighs up to 90 pounds.
I didn’t see any coyotes for the first two days that I was in Yellowstone this past weekend and then suddenly, on the third day they seemed to be everywhere. This guy was working on what was left of a wolf kill (probably an elk) that was buried under about four feet of snow.
I finally made it out to Yellowstone at about 2 AM on Thursday morning. Not exactly the 7 days I was hoping for, but a good 3 days in the park nonetheless. I wasn’t able to get any shots of wolves — although I saw some at quite a distance — but I did photograph fox, bison, elk, moose, coyote, bighorn, and a new species for me (at least to get photos of) the American marten. Also called a pine marten, I’ve seen a few before, but usually just a flash as they scurry off into the woods. Martens are in the mustelid family, which includes weasels and otters. They live in trees and on the ground and have extra large foot pads which makes them good in the snow. More on these guys in a future post.
I think I might finally be on my way to Yellowstone tomorrow night, but who knows, I’ve already had 4 flights cancelled over the last couple of days so we’ll see if this one gets off the ground. In the meantime, the delays have given me plenty of time to see movies — Black Swan being one of the more interesting of the bunch and inspiring today’s photo. This was taken early one morning on Kangaroo Island in South Australia.
Here’s another photo of the day because, well, I don’t have anything better to do now that my Yellowstone flight was cancelled yet again — apparently you need more than 48 hours of sunshine and clear skies in New York before airports can reopen after a snowstorm. Delta has assured me, however, that they can get me on a flight on Saturday that will get me to Yellowstone in plenty of time to make my return flight home a few hours later on Sunday. But enough of that. For today’s photo(s), I wanted to send a species that I’ve never posted before. This master of camouflage is called a great potoo and it was photographed in Brazil. You can see from the first shot that this nocturnal bird does a great job of impersonating a stumpy branch while it sleeps during the day. In the close up, you can see the potoo’s eye opened just a bit as it reacts to my camera clicking below. Potoos are very strange looking creatures, reminding me of a Sesame Street character.
Since I’ve been delayed in my trip to Yellowstone for a few days due to yesterday’s storm, I thought I’d send one more photo of the day before the New Year.
This will be the last post until after New Years as I head to Connecticut for Christmas and then on to Yellowstone in search of winter wildlife. Until then, enjoy this red eyed tree frog from the rainforests of Costa Rica. I figured with the reds and greens it was about as Christmasy a post as I could find in my collection. Happy holidays.