Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 350

I went out to feed the birds this morning, and I heard two Crows calling and a Raven up near the nest site out back, could it be spring in the air. My back roof slid off last night about ten and it shook the house as now there is a couple of tons of snow in the back yard and not on the roof. Better check your roofs as there are well over two feet of snow on most of them, just saying.

Back in Yellowstone Park, those first four days driving through the Lamar Valley seeing lots of beautiful scenery and wildlife. We had four inches of snow falling one morning which painted its own picture but most of that melted before the day was over as the temperature got above forty degrees. The Lamar River was open in a few places and those spots you would see where otters had been out of the water sliding on the snow. Along the edge of the water there were little birds American Dippers about the size of a Robin, picking bugs off the ice that hatch out of the river. They also jump into the water and swim underwater catching these bugs off the bottom where they were hatching from. I left the Bald Eagle in the tree and the otter on the ice to photograph these neat birds swimming in the water and diving under to catch bugs. In one place there were four of these birds working along the ice edge where it must have been a good feeding site. I had seen them while out elk hunting a few years ago, but they were very spooky and I was never able to get any good photos. These in the Lamar River were preforming just for me, and I just kept shooting as they were in and out of the water much like the otter.

I turned around once and a while, as you never know what maybe around and there sat a beautiful Golden Eagle in a dead tree on the ridge line. It didn’t take long and my camera was focused on it. I only got a few shots, and it glided down the river valley hunting. I’m sure if some of the Mallard and Barrow’s Goldeneye ducks flushed up from the river they would be toast for him as a hunter.

One morning as we were going up the valley the temperature was just and hoar frost was coating the trees along the road and all the bushes and saga brushes in the meadows. That caught every photographer’s eye as tripods were set up all in a line taking shots before this all melted away as the temperature rose.

Five coyotes came from the other side of the river in one place and walked over toward us on the road. I looked like it was a mom and her pups from this year as she watched them all come across to her and then they went on their way up the valley. Sometimes they would hear something under the snow and pounce on it like I had seen fox do but never coyotes. They were successful sometimes and they would come up with a snack of a mouse or vole for breakfast out of the foot of snow.

The buffalo on that morning were also very frosty just like the trees and as they breathed the white steam would come out of their nostrils making for more great photo shots. Some people don’t respect these large animals, and they cause more incidents in the park than all the other wildlife. They can run thirty-five miles an hour can you.

The last day was the most exciting with a pack of wolves in Hayden Valley but that’s another story. See ya.