Yellowstone is getting crowded.

. . . .  . and it has been a great year for bears. Either we have not been in the park during bear season or 2014 is a great year for observing them. June 19th was another great visit with a couple of very interesting photographs. What do we mean by crowded. June's daily attendance will be at least 20 times larger that Aprils. The average daily attendance will be over 20,000 and when you drive through the park it's difficult to find a place to view the wildlife and the roads are very crowded.

Yesterday was a good example. As you can see from our prior postings there have been a lot of folks waiting for bears to appear or get closer to the park highway so they can get a better view of them.
We were traveling toward the Tower Falls from Lake Yellowstone when we found ourselves in a swarm of cars, at least 35 or maybe as many as 50. We were stuck and soon realized what had created all of the attention. It was a grizzly. I couldn't get out of the car because I was on the road. The bear was getting closer, I rolled down the window and started taking photographs. In less that 2 minutes the bear was very close to our car and I had taken 29 photographs. When I got home, this soon became my favorite. It is without a doubt the best photograph I have ever taken of a grizzly.

Do you agree?

This was great, but we missed another grizzly, similar to this one about 2 hours before. Why didn't we get a photograph. We were too far away in the traffic and the bear was going in the opposite direction.

Prior to the bear experience, Marty spotted what she believed to be a mother moose and perhaps a calf. We stopped, I got out of the car and ultimately decided I would hike into a better position to get a photograph and determine if there were calves. In the backdrop was the Lamar River and as you can see they were on the other side of this brush, but I did get this picture of the mother.

She was a big gal and yes, she had not one but twins. I wandered around and waited and finally, one of the babies appeared for me. The other one must have been shy as I never did get a good view of it. If you look carefully, you can see part of it's side to the left of this one.

I did see see a black bear but the image is not like the above grizzly. Of course there were lots of bison, an occasional pronghorn, some deer and some elk. I was another great day in Yellowstone.

We had to return home via Livingston as the Beartooth pass was closed due to snow. As a result I drove over 500 miles in the 38 hours of our travel. We did get to stay in Chico Hot Springs.

Yellowstone was exciting again

Another day in Yellowstone. The roads to the south were open as well as the Beartooth Highway which connects Red Lodge and Cooke City. The weather was beautiful and the snow in the Beartooths was very deep. As we drove along the highway, we saw snow piled at the side of the road as deep as 20 feet at times.

We did see another Elk with new antlers, a couple moose as we were nearing Cooke City, Bison were plentiful, and a mama black bear with triplets and a grizzly.

There were lots of people attracted by the mama bear and the triplets. This was my best photograph, however as we returned past the scene several hours later, all three cubs were resting on a log. There were so many people there, we were not permitted to stop for another photograph. Look carefully and you'll see the baby on the left and mama on the right.

We didn't go far until we saw another pack of people. We were informed there was a grizzly, so we parked the car and walked back to the area. This was the big guy that everyone was looking at.

In the Lamar Valley there were lots of Bison. This is just one of the many herds we saw and this youngster was a standout. They are referred to as "red dogs" and there were plenty of them in the park.

The forage in Lamar is very lush at this time of the year. Many of the herds were all resting as their bellies must have been full. This guy was near the road and for sure his belly was full.

Of course we saw elk as well, this guy with his new and growing antlers was by himself near the road about 8 miles from Mammoth Hot Springs.

The remaining question was, will be see any moose. We were almost in Cooke City when Marty spotted a moose that we were about to pass. I stopped the car and turned around. I took several photographs of this one.

we were about to leave and Marty spotted another one. Yes, there were 2 moose, we got to see them and got photographs of them both.

Our next trip to Yellowstone is in 3 weeks. If that trip is as fruitful as our last two, you'll see additional postings on the blog.

A Great Day in Yellowstone National Park

Spring has sprung and Yellowstone National Park was evident in every aspect of our trip through the park. Our past winter has left it's impressions as well. There is still plenty of snow in the higher elevations and more water in many of the ponds that have typically had little or no water in them.

One of the more prevalent sightings has been of bears. Although we were not close enough to photograph any of the very young bears, we did see a lot. In total we saw over 10 different bears in different locations and there were lots of visitors with their spotting scopes, either watching or waiting for the next bear to show up.

This bear was near Tower Junction along with several more that were farther away or were hiding behind trees around the Tower.

The next series of photographs were of pronghorns (antelopes). These two guys were having a great day as they were either enjoying the beautiful sun and weather, actively playing with each other, or sparing for leadership. This tells the story of what we saw.

So you think you are the boss, or do you think I will put up with you any longer, or my girl friend told me about you and I'm ready for the challenge. They guys were alternately sparing, dancing or trying to stare down the other. We had never seen such activity among 2 pronghorns. We labelled the next photograph, "watch out, I'm on my way" to determine who really is boss.

and then another battle began.

and they were still playing or fighting as we left the scene.

Did we see any wolves?  No, but as were traveling through the Lamar Valley, this coyote crossed the road ahead of us.

Elks were plentiful. This herd was strung out on a ridge, and when were drove around the bend in the road, we saw what had their attention. It was a bear along a river.

This guy was resting as he was spending all of his energy growing his new set of antlers. You can see that they look more like velvet than the boney look you'll see in another month or so. If you are not familiar with their antlers. They grow at a rate of 1 to 2 inches per day.

I still don't know what this guy had up his sleeve. We saw him in the river and he was not crossing it. He may have been warm and wanted to cool off and certainly he was thirsty as I saw him drink on several occasions.

One of the sites I was hoping we would see were the new born bison calves. Almost every sighting of bison included some new calves. Not all were close enough to get good photographs, but these were.
This calf was walking along the river, content to be with it's parent.

The calf near the head of the older bison is happy to be with it's parent. I said it was whispering to the parent that this other calf is it's good friend Billy, the Bison.

We plan on returning at least 2 more times in the next month and hope we can find as much to share with you after those trips as we did not this one.

A short trip around Fishtail

I didn't have to travel far to find this variety of images. It's mid April, most of the snow is gone, Easter has just passed and the creatures are starting to invade the pastures and other terrain. One of the first images I spotted were some birds. Of course, one of our favorite birds is the American Eagle and this one was perched in a tree overlooking some interesting other birds.

I looked closely and I wasn't sure I had seen these birds in Montana. I took several pictures and it wasn't until I got home and looked closely at the images that I discovered it was buzzards that I was observing. The eagle was looking down on the buzzards and I figured they had some type of a meal 

in the vicinity but I never discovered if there was something. Maybe they were just working together to find their next supper.

Spring in Montana brings a lot of new births and the ranchers are busy taking care of the new calves and lambs. What caused me to stop the car were these images of baby sheep.  They were in a field of at least 150 mothers and probably 300 babies. The normal birth rate is twins and you can see here. The rancher had already labeled them with their mothers number.

and not too far away was one of the older lambs who adventured away from his twin and was climbing on a log. If you look carefully they have started the process of removing the tail. The ring that you seen is cutting the circulation and soon the lower part of the tail will be missing.

Starting in the spring and until late fall, one of the birds that you will see in the fields are the Sand Hill Cranes. They returned in late March, they travel with a mate, will have off spring and travel south in the fall, only to return in the spring. This is the male of this set.

When we got the snow the week before Easter, I commented on my Facebook that the hiding of the easter eggs would be a real chore with all of the snow. The mountains in Red Lodge got over 2 foot of snow, we didn't get that much, but we had plenty. So as I'm driving down one of the back roads,

who do I spot but Jack like in Jack Rabbit, like the guy who has the chore of hiding the easter eggs.

Looking closely at him, you can see he looks exhausted from the chores that he inherited prior to Easter.

Yes, it is spring in Montana and we're happy to be sharing with these guys and gals.

Migrating Wildlife in Yellowstone National Park

There has been a lot of speculation about the migration of the wildlife and particularly the bison in the last few days in Yellowstone National Park. For those in the know and those who have observed the wildlife in Yellowstone recently, the cause is not the animal instinct that another volcano is about
to erupt like the one several million years ago. It's the fact that the winter of 2013-2014 is one of the
severe winters that has been experienced in Wyoming and Montana.

As a result of the tough winter, the vegetation is even more scarce than typically this time of the year.
So, what does the wildlife do, they migrate to area's where they hope there may be more to eat.
My wife and I visited Yellowstone on April 2, 2014 and made the following observations and took these photographs in support of what we saw.

This is one of the few bison that we saw as we drove from Mammoth Hot Springs toward Cooke City. It was not the healthiest looking bison and was content to be standing here as we passed going East and still there when we returned going West.

We have been to Yellowstone in the winter on many occasions and had never seen as many bison on the road, in the fields, and pastures outside the park, north of Gardiner to the cattle crossing on route 89 approximately 14 miles north.

This is a scene where pronghorn and bison were inter mingled with a lot of bison in the hills in the background,.

If you compare the vegetation in the first photograph and look carefully here there are signs of vegetation and the wildlife is grazing the available forage.

Just across the Yellowstone River was this scene. You ask the question, why were most of the bison laying down. Again if you looked carefully, they were chewing their cuds and at least their bellys had more in them here than in the park.

and then a sight we had never seen. Bison crossing the Yellowstone River to get when the better grazing was. I didn't believe what I was seeing until I got close enough to take this photograph.

Finally, this was the other side of the Yellowstone. You can see some who had crossed the river and others who were returning for a drink of water.

To make the point even more profound. Where the bison were migrating to we also saw a lot of pronghorn, big horn sheep, deer, and elk. We saw none of them while we drove over 80 miles in Yellowstone.

Finally, Al Nash, Chief of Public Affairs, Yellowstone can be seen on this web site where he provides his opinion of the wildlife migration.
http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/yellowstone-fighting-online-supervolcano-rumors/article_81471a70-37f7-587a-bc98-adb35cfe6927.htm

Happy Valentines Day

BIG HORN LOVE

I’m different than most of you men sitting here,

I’m seldom with my woman and never drink beer

When the season’s called mating, I fight for my love

Occassionaly you’ll find me with my girl friend, Dove

In the summer, we go to the mountains on high

As the grass starts to dwindle, we all say good bye

We’re easier to find in the lower elevations

We fight for our love, those mating sensations

The boys drift away from the girls and the herd

We rest on the slopes and think of our loves

As the time nears for creating more sheep

We rant and we rave and rarely get sleep

The picture you’ll see, was an unusual shot

She was playing hard to get, and I was not

The rest of the scene was not recorded for others

But the result of my love, is now with it’s mother.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

Happy Holidays from the Circle B Bar T

This young buck is expressing the Holiday Season as it posed for this photograph in Yellowstone National Park. We will be in Yellowstone on December 19th and hope to see wildlife posing in the snow.

Happy Holidays

Clint & Marty

Rain in Boulder or Snow in Montana

In September in read about the rain in Boulder and we received a report from our son who lives there. In spite of the 12" plus rainfall, Jeff had no problems where he lives. His property was well served by drainage and sewers, therefore, other than traveling in the problem areas, there was no problem.

Now, in early October, travel 550 miles north to Fishtail, Montana where we experienced at least 18" of snow. The results of the precipitation were different. Just look out the window of our home or on the deck and you see a pile of snow.

here's a better view of the snow on the deck of house, facing south.

So, other than a lot of snow, how were you impacted. The daytime weather has been in the 70's during the month of September and we had almost 3 inches of rain. The pastures were green and there was plenty of grass in the pastures. We had not fed the horses hay since last spring and there was enough grass in the pastures around the Grove Creek, the neighbors brought over 36 head of cattle to graze off the growth.

This is part of the cattle herd looking for the pasture. The snow was too deep for the neighbors to bring them hay. 24 hours later they arrived with a hay on a truck and a tractor to pull the truck in and pull it out of the field.

and these horses wandered all over the pasture where they had been dining for the last 2 months only to  have their dinner covered with 18" of snow.

and Doc had this look that maybe he saw Clint bringing hay to the pasture.

and a day later, there had been some melt, but it didn't get the snow on the top of the posts on the deck rails.

SO WHAT IS THE BOTTOM LINE AT THE CIRCLE B BAR T RANCH . . . . . . . 

          - The snow was too deep to bring in supplies from the barn where we keep them so we

                       WADED THROUGH 18" OF SNOW & CARRY HAY, STRAW, & SHAVINGS

                                 TO THE INSIDE OF THE BARN

         -The snow was too deep to spread the manure so

                      THE MANURE IS PILING UP WHILE WE WAIT FOR THE SNOW TO MELT

        -The snow was too deep to get out of the driveway and drive to town

                     THE COUNTY & A NEIGHBOR PLOWED US OUT AND WE GOT TO TOWN

WE STILL HAVE A LOT OF SNOW AND CAN'T WAIT FOR THE TEMPERATURE TO RISE

TODAY & TOMORROW WE ARE EXPECTING 70 DEGREE TEMPERATURES

It's almost fall on the Grove Creek

At the end of the summer and before the fall, the wildlife are getting ready for the change in weather. The young bluebirds that were born this spring are maturing but they will not get the vibrant color that we are used to until later as you can see by this one in a nearby tree,

One its buddies returned to the nest. You can ask how I know it returned to the nest where it was born and I say look at the color of it's feathers. If it's a male it will become vibrant. If it's a female the color around the head and eyes would be gray.

The sand hill cranes usually arrive in late March or early April. They mate for life and typically they will produce one or two off spring. This is a proud mama and papa strutting their stuff.

However, it's getting close to time to head south. This is a whole group with the one in the middle giving exercise lessons getting them ready for the long trip. The two of the left are trying hard, the one on the right is watching while the little one is probably one of this years offspring and is in the learning process.

and of course we have deer, who don't migrate but are careful at this time of the year that we don't interfere with their fawns. You can see this lady was trying to hide from me when I got near her with my camera.

As fall gets nearer and it starts to cool, there will be more.

Happy, Happy Birthday Emma

Today Emma celebrated her 3rd birthday. Although is was windy at the Circle B Bar T Ranch, Emma found a place in the lawn where the sun kept her warm and the grass held back the wind. Happy Birthday from the entire gang.

HAPPY, HAPPY

Surprises as I approached the Grove Creek

Every year I have observed female deer along the Grove Creek, which is south of our home. They have  fawns in the late spring and I watch them with my telescope as they graze in the pastures near the creek. With my telescope I have been able to determine the female is nursing based on the size of her utter. This is a photograph I took of one of the females from our deck with 400mm zoom lens.

I purposely avoid getting near them as the fawns are young to avoid scaring them and perhaps getting them injured. However, I said, now is the time to take my camera and get a close up of the fawns. I head toward the creek and all of a sudden, the first surprise. Ahead of me along the fence was a small yellow and black bird. I had not seen these before, so I had to take some photographs. This was the first one I captured.

It was a goldfinch. When I got back to the house, I learned that this little bird sheds these beautiful colors in the winter time. I had seen them in their winter colors around the barn but didn't know what they were. They left the fence and were flying around in the pasture, when I captured this image of one of them perched on this old sunflower.

So on to the creek. As I get closer, I seen two fawns. It must be another deers baby. I am getting closer and no long need the zoom lens to see the fawns. Now there are three fawns and I was guessing that the female that was near, must be in charge of the babies. This is the photo I took the the group.

Mother is in the lower right of the photo and the fawns are at the top. Now for the surprise. As I got closer, mother became alarmed and must have alerted the fawns, as they all took off together. Surprise - this mother must of had triplets as the entire entourage headed over the nearby hill and were gone. If these babies belonged to someone else, they would have headed to where their mother was. As they followed this mother, I gave her the nod as being the mother of all three.

Clint Teegardin is now 75

It was only 25 years ago that Clint was joined by his mother, his three children -  Susan, Jeff, and Jennifer, Jeff's wife Nadine, and the photographer, Clint's wife Marty. It was a great celebration and surely no one at this time would have guessed that the 25th Anniversary of this event would be held at Montana Jack's in Dean, Montana.

The living participants from above were in Westport, CT, Boulder, Co, and Columbus, Oh while the crowd at Jack's sang Happy Birthday to Clint and enjoyed the food and the toasts. This is what the birthday boy looks like 25 years later as he is accompanied by his wife Marty. The photographer was Dana Teegardin from Georgia who was visiting with her daughter and enjoying the horses.

As the wine glasses were raised and a toast to the birthday, Clint invited everyone in attendance to the next 25 year celebration when he will be 100.  So as you read this blog, mark it down on your calendar for July 7, 2038 that you have been invited to Clint's century birthday.

A FUN TIME WAS HAD BY ALL.

SEE YOU IN 2038