We picked up our friends again this morning and just as we entered the park, the osprey that said goodnight to us the night before greeted us with a treat right off the bat. He had already captured breakfast and was enjoying it. We spent a good 30 minutes with him and these will be the best osprey photos we have ever shot. Just spectacular!
We decide to visit Hayden Valley first and again, we spot nothing on the way in. It isn’t until we make it all the way to Sedge Bay do we see our first predator sighting, no not a bear, a WOLF! A lone black wolf emerged from the woods and walked towards the hill side and off into the woods. We believe we would have had better viewing opportunities had the “photographers” with the “big lenses” behaved themselves and stayed put instead of running after the wolf. We didn’t let their poor behavior detract from this unique sighting for long. It was truly cool to witness her here.
A funny thing occurred while this was going on that we didn’t really notice until the wolf was out of sight. All of the marmots came out of their dens and were carrying on big time. Lots of chirps and running around. There were at least 6 of them, possibly more alerting each other of danger!
We head back to Mammoth on our way to Lamar Valley and just before the high bridge over Gardner River we see a momma elk who had just had a baby. We decide not to add to the congestion and shoot from the window instead of pulling over.
In Lamar, we came across a grizzly that was really high up on a hill, but this would be our friends’ first “naked eye” sighting of grizzly so we got an obligatory shot of her just before she went down the other side of the hill.
After driving to Pebble Creek we make our way back and join other folks who are keeping watch on a black bear. He had been eating on a meal and finally decided to cross the road to get a drink from the pond. He was backlit by the sun so the photos were not that great.
It was time to go home. It was 7:30pm and we had just talked about getting dinner at Town Cafe before they closed. It just wasn’t meant to be. We watched a mom and baby elk (may have been the same one we saw earlier in the day since it was the same area) walk into the road way just ahead of us. The baby's legs wobbled like a newborn's as she followed her momma into the grass. This is the last shot I got as the rest of the story unfolds. I’ll leave you with this photo and a link to the entire story of a very unique wildlife encounter. It was an awesome ending to an amazing day!
Link (copy and paste): http://aliciasramblings.blogspot.com/2011/06/up-close-and-personal-with-baby-elk.html
Here are some scenic shots I took in Lamar Valley:
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