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.
It was just about a year ago that I stumbled upon a deserted stretch of beach north of San Simeon, California inhabited by a herd of elephant seals. When I first got to the beach I noticed several pregnant females so I went back about a week later hoping to photograph the newly born pups. All in all, I saw about seven babies, all a much darker color than the adults, including this guy here who couldn’t have been more than a week old
Flinders Ranges National Park in South Australia is where the southern mountains start to give way to the Outback. This is fairly rugged country. It also happens to be full of several different species of kangaroo. It was late in the day when I photographed this red kangaroo crouching in the brush.
There was a large fenced in area in the backyard of the Seal River Lodge that we had access to whenever we weren’t out hiking. Occasionally, a curious bear (usually a new one to the area) would approach the fence, drawn by all the new smells and strange looking creatures. It was a great opportunity for us to view the bears at very close range. Sort of a reverse zoo situation where we were in the cage and the bears were observing us. This was a relatively small bear. He walked up and down the length of the fence for a while, sniffing the air and biting at the wire. Notice in the background the plywood and nails that circle the perimeter of the lodge. This was to keep the bears from getting too close to the windows. Undeterred, several of them found a way to flatten the nails with the sides of their paws and we experienced a few surprise Peeping Toms while we were inside warming up at the end of the day. After dark, the lodge staff would cover up all the lower windows with plywood to avoid any accidents.
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