Coyotes in Yellowstone

A series of pictures of coyotes that were photo-graphed on a recent trip to Yellowstone National Park. Coyotes, mate for life, however in the wild there are circumstances that can end these types of relationships, primarily, other predators.

These pictures were taken during mating season, the female is on the right and the male is the full body picture on the left. I took 15 pictures using a 100mm-400mm canon zoom lens with image stabilization. The pictures were taken using a 100mm-400mm zoom lens with an image stabilizer. The coyotes were in the process of walking up a rather steep slope in the Lamar Valley, the temperature was minus 5 degrees and there were no clouds in the sky.
I captioned the "mate for life" expressions as I viewed the pictures which I will share with you. I plan to add more pictures so come back soon. One picture is "bored and losing patience", another is "good lookin is finally getting here", and "where did you get that collar, it's ugly.

Clint's Pictures

I purchased my first serious camera in 1977, upgraded it from time to time, received a Canon Sure Shot from from children as a birthday present in 2002. Went to Africa in 2004, dusted off my Canon EOS and my zoom lens and shot 20 rolls of film. I had the rolls developed and recorded on CD's. I was amazed at the quality of the images. Since then I have progressed with my addiction. 3 new lens with image stabilization, a digital camera, adult education at the high school, 2 new printers, Photoshop CS3, and Scott Kelby's 7 Point System.

The most positive response from the those outside my family came in January 2008 when I started to share some pictures of a wolf that I took in Yellowstone National Park at Christmas of '07. It has grown from there, my son-in-law is associated with etsy.com and got me on their web site, my brother -in-law created an LLC for me, one of my prints of an elk sold for $325 at the high school art auction and my work is now in several galleries.

More to come on each of these subjects.

Clint and Al are waiting

As Clint & Al were accepted by the ranchers, they were given more responsibility and many times were sent off on their own to either move cattle or round them up. On this particular day, they were sent to a specific part of the forest to round up the cattle that Clint & Al could find in that area. They accomplished their mission and moved their cattle to the designated area for accumulation. They had been waiting for at least an hour, times were boring, and all they could do was wait. Clint had brought his small digital camera with him in case there was something of consequence to record.

Sitting on the crest of a ridge, Clint looks over his shoulder to see a perfect silhouette in the form of a shadow of Clint and Al. Out came the camera, and recorded for ever was this great image that is now a part of this blog. This is one of the events that prompted Clint to pursue his photographic skills. Today this image has now been creatively captured on a 70 million year old rock that Clint found while walking through a pasture on the Circle B Bar T Ranch. For more information on the Circle B Bar T Ranch go to www.circlebbartarabians.com.

Al and the local ranchers

Al was an a rab, as the local ranchers called him. They all had quarter horses and Al was an outlyer. Al and I were tested on many occassions to see if this a rab could cut it with the cowboys and their quarter horses.

Most of the exposure of Al to the neighbors was during cattle drives which usually took 3 days. That was 3 days to get them to their summer grazing pasture or 3 days to return them to their home ranch after the summer grazing somewhere else.

One day at the end of a very dry summer, which means the cattle were spread through out the 1000's of acres where they were grazing, Al and I were asked to join one of the locals who was riding a sure footed mule and to go into the back country of the forest to find some of the cattle. I'm sure Al and I were chosen to join the mule and his rider to test whether Al would make the trips up and down the steep slopes, across the streams, along the trails with sharp fall offs, and through the trees, shrubs, and brush.

After 8 hours of visiting the forest terrain, we had accumulated 7 cattle. These 7 cattle were taken to a common meeting place where the others on the cattle drive were told to take their cattle as well. The cattle would spend the night at this point of accumulation. Hopefully we had collected all of this ranchers cattle and tomorrow we would start the drive back to their home ranch.

We took our horses to a small pasture for the night and we, the ranchers and I gathered around the pick-up truck that had the coolers with the cold beer. This was the custom to celebrate the days work. We had hardly opened our can of beer, when the questions starting coming to my ranching companion for the day. Doug, how did Clint and Al do today. The answer they got as not what they expected.

Doug said, "they didn't miss a step, went everywhere that the mule and I went, and in fact went many places that I had trouble getting the mule to go".

This was just one of many experiences where Al earned the respect of the ranchers and started to gain the praises of the quarter horse owners.

Clint and Al

The picture you see on my blog is my horse, Al. Al became a part of my life in 1999, just 2 weeks after we moved into our new home in Fishtail. Al was a breeding stallion, had never been ridden, was 6 years old, and my wife explained his personality as one that wanted attention, not a mare in heat. Artist Julie Jeppsen was commissioned to paint this picture of Al and I shortly after he passed away. There will be updates of Al Dude, as he was known by my grandchildren, as we share our experiences together on this site. Hope you enjoy Al Dude and the stories as much as I did having him part of my life.