January 16, 2025
Despite the fact that this week’s adventure has been going well, I decided to spice things up by waking up at 2:30 and not getting back to sleep. This definitely added a kick to the proceedings, in the form of a red fox crossing the roads of Gardiner at 5:30am.
Eventually the rest of my lazy group decided to wake up and we were back in the park, where we spent ample time monitoring the thermometer over the next couple hours. It was the coldest morning of the trip.
Before we crested the winding hill road to Mammoth, I was forced to slow. A white shape bounded across the road. A jackrabbit, clad in its winter coat! I’ve only seen the white-tailed jackrabbit a few times over the years, and never in winter.
The rabbit paused for what seemed like an eternity as everyone fumbled for phones and cameras. It was still dark, so the likelihood of any pictures turning out was remote. That is likely why the bunny crossed back, just near a pullout. I parked and we watched as it was joined by a second jackrabbit. In the quiet cabin of our vehicle, we could see the pale shapes become more and more vague as they chased each other out of range of the headlights. The playful spirits dissipated before our eyes, and we were left contemplating the brief but magical moment.
It was a morning for unusual sightings. Several miles beyond Mammoth, as the sky was warmed by hot pink clouds, I pulled over again, in a futile attempt to find something that had fallen out of the car the day before. I’d barely peered out the window when a large silhouette emerged from the trees just ahead of us: a moose! It was soon followed by another moose, this one sporting a small set of antlers.
Traffic slowly filtered through as people peeked at the bull beneath the road. We spied frosty bison and a few elk on the nearby hills as well. Probably good we didn’t opt for a hike in that area…
It was much colder on this morning, reaching a low of -2F. This meant the northern range was glittering with loads of frosty trees. We pulled over to photograph the aspens in eastern Little America, and as we did another vehicle pulled in before us. The fellow who stepped out blurted, “I sometimes see moose here!”
I never see moose there. Yet, two seconds later, two moose emerged from behind the willows!
I sometimes see moose there.
We were spared from a landscape shoot. Phew! And it was nice trying to initially frame the moose with the aspen trees, and later get them as they pranced over the horizon with a moon high above and frosty mountains behind.
Like a moth to flame, we were drawn toward the rising sun. It set Lamar Canyon ablaze, casting a golden glow over all of the frozen pines. It looked so nice that we turned around and drove it again (honestly, we were just hoping to find a pygmy-owl perched in that light). When we finally entered the Lamar Valley we were equally entranced. A low layer of fog blanketed parts of the valley. Colorful wisps of moisture crawled above the cottonwoods, and the light changed remarkably quickly as passing clouds danced before the sun.
Sadly, there were no bison or other critters around to complete our compositions, so our photo stop was confined strictly to landscapes. And it meant that we missed otters at the Confluence by about two minutes. This pattern would repeat itself throughout the day, as we continued to miss other sightings by just a minute or two.
The moral, of course, is to not stop for landscape photos.
Further exploration netted us some missed pygmy-owls back to the west before we finally crawled toward the northeast. I was hitting the wall at this point, so it was a good time to pause for lunch.
Our return to the park was initially comprised of more back-and-forth searches. While we had been away, an array of ermine tracks were laid down on the sunny hillsides between Round Prairie and Trout Lake. Never saw ‘em though.
We’d received reports of more pygmy sightings, and arrived in time to see folks packing up at each one. As the afternoon light began to deepen, we started driving toward Mammoth, and came across another pygmy jam that was just breaking up.
Despite these near misses, I knew there was still more pygmy potential down the road. And wouldn’t you know it, as we were taking that winding hill back down toward Gardiner, I spied a small, bulbous silhouette perched a short ways above us. Despite the waning light, we were able to set up to grab a few shots of the little hunter, which was bouncing from perch to perch with relatively little patience for a pygmy-owl.
Another fine conclusion to another fine day. One day left for this tour!
January 17, 2025
It’s hard to believe my week with this group is just about over. I was feeling pretty good this morning about our accomplishments this week, but there was certainly room to stuff more goodies into the memory cards before they go.
Thankfully, I enjoyed a solid night of sleep, making up for the previous evening. When I stepped outside to load the car, I was shocked to see it coated in an inch of snow (which was still falling). This would add a couple extra minutes to my prep time, so I hustled to retrieve the ice scraper and brush to clean the vehicle… and immediately found myself on my backside. It appears I’m not yet old and fragile enough to damage myself too badly with such a fall, though the added fat via yesterday’s Stop the Car milkshake undoubtedly helped cushion the blow.
You heard it here first: Stop the Car milkshakes prevent serious harm and possibly save lives.
The drive through Yellowstone’s northern range was quite different from Thursday, as you might imagine. The falling snow was mild, but yesterday’s crystal adornments had long melted away, and everything was dark and gray. That didn’t stop me from spotting a pygmy-owl, so we were soon pulled over and busy climbing a nearby hill in order to get an eye level shot from across the way.
We were just getting into position when it flew. So we had to readjust. After perching briefly, it dove down into the snow, but came up empty. It returned to a perch. Once again it was up rather high, amidst some snowy clumps of pine branches.
After waiting it out and grabbing a few shots, we returned to the road, and were heading back to the car when we saw it had followed us back down. It was suddenly on a much shorter tree, which helped us land some much nicer shots (it didn’t hurt that it was getting lighter now too).
We left the owl back at its original perch. Hopefully plenty of small rodents and birds were in its future.
Much of the day beyond that was quiet. My group was able to snag some moose photos amidst the “snowball willows” at Round Prairie, fulfilling a quest they’d visualized days before. We made one final run to Silver Gate and Cooke City, grabbing grub and drinks from Cooke City Coffee this time, before returning to the park.
A walk in the woods yielded a brief bird shoot, and then we were back making one final afternoon pass. It all went rather quietly, but we had enough daylight to end up at Mammoth, where we found a large bull elk grazing near the thermal runoff of the terraces.
Still with some daylight left, we said goodbye to the main part of the park. On the way down the hill to Gardiner, I spied a large flock of waxwings near the road, but the moment we pulled out our camera gear, they launched en masse and flew off into the distance. Bummer. That’s a beautiful bird!
We found an alternative. After exiting the park, we ventured out along the boundary road in order to track down some Horned Larks, new for most of the clients. And we quickly found them, giving my group one final shoot for the tour.
This week was filled with a fantastic mix of wildlife sightings, including some rare interactions and several new species. And as expected, it was great fun with the Ravenettes, back for their third winter tour with me. Big thanks to April, Jenny, and Steve for another go-around, and to Lyn for coming in as a substitute and gelling with this wild group so easily. And of course, we had Chris and Linda, our other Ravenettes, there in spirit!
Tomorrow is a transition day. I’ll say goodbye to this group and will say hi to the next one. We’ll kick off the second tour when we’re back in the park interior on Sunday!
