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.

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.

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

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.

Not much photographically here, but I wanted to post a few pictures of the Northern Lights for those who have never seen them. We weren’t allowed out of the penned in backyard at night due to the danger of lurking polar bears, so I couldn’t get proper landscape shots of the lights, but pretty cool to see them none the less. They only appeared on one of the nights that we were up at the lodge and weren’t all that strong. We were told it’s been an off year to view them. Also known as the Aurora Borealis, here is what wikipedia has to say: an aurora is a natural light display in the sky, particularly in the polar regions, caused by the collision of charged particles directed by the Earth’s magnetic field.