Well, the bears seem to finally be back in their usual places.  I took a drive this afternoon and saw 9 bears; 4 grizzlies and 5 blacks.  The grizzlies were at Lake, Dunraven, and Lamar while the black bears were in the usual places between Tower and Mammoth.  No photos to show for it though as I was after pronghorn fawns, which I was shut out on again.

I finally posted today's Photo of the Week.  It's a shot of a great gray owl near Phantom Lake.  I would have had it up earlier but internet here in the park just keeps getting worse.  That's one of the reasons I haven't been able to update here before now too... bad internet!

I did go camping last night in the Tetons and added a few more images to my baby animal list.  At Oxbow Bend I found a mother merganser with a bunch of little mergansers in tow.  I was able to get a few shots of them in some tricky lighting.  I also finally saw a pronghorn this season with a little one, in fact, she had twins.  They were near South Jenny Lake, but the sagebrush was so tall that I had a hard time getting shots of the little twins.  They weren't very old.  Speaking of the Tetons, I was surprised by how few flowers were in bloom.  Hopefully the warmer temperatures will bring them out now.

On a sad note, a friend of mine had an accident on Friday while working out in the employee rec hall.  He's currently fighting for his life.  Any prayers out there for a Yellowstone employee would be appreciated.  This merganser shot is for Cory, hopefully he'll see it soon!

The following information is directly from the National Park Service press releases regarding a 20 year Utah man who jumped over the railing at the Brink of the Lower Falls in an apparent suicide:

Officials are searching for the body of a Utah man who apparently committed suicide by jumping off the edge of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone Tuesday afternoon.

The 20 year old was last seen about 1:50 p.m. on the observation platform at the Brink of the Lower Falls, along the north rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.   

Witnesses at the scene said the man jumped over the railing into the Yellowstone River, and then went down over the 308 foot high Lower Falls.

A search of the river was begun immediately, using both observers on the ground and the park helicopter.  The search and recovery effort continued Wednesday.

The Utah man is missing and presumed dead.  His name is being withheld pending notification of family members. The incident remains under investigation. 

The latest stream flow reading upstream of the falls at the outlet of Yellowstone Lake recorded over 44,500 gallons of water per second flowing into the Yellowstone River.

- www.nps.gov/yell -  http://home.nps.gov/yell/parknews/09043.htm

Searchers continued their efforts Thursday looking  for the body of a Utah man who apparently committed suicide in Yellowstone National Park Tuesday afternoon. 

Witnesses say 20 year old Nicholas Mostert was on an observation platform at the Brink of the Lower Falls, when he jumped over the railing into into the Yellowstone River. 

The Salt Lake City area man was then swept over the 308 foot Lower Falls to the bottom of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

Searchers Wednesday rapelled to the bottom of the canyon, and recovered some of Mostert’s clothing from an eddy about a quarter mile downstream from the base of the Lower Falls.

The park helicopter conducted another search flight Thursday morning along the 20 mile long canyon.  The ground search is centered on observation points along the canyon rim with a clear view of the Yellowstone River at the bottom of the canyon, which ranges from 800 to 1,200  feet deep.

The Brink of the Lower Falls is a popular observation point along the north rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

A gauge upstream of the falls recorded nearly 6,000 cubic feet of water per second flowing into the Yellowstone River at the outlet of Yellowstone Lake at the time of the incident. 

- www.nps.gov/yell - http://home.nps.gov/yell/parknews/09044.htm

Bear sightings this year seem to be few and far between.  I checked my notes from last year, and at this time, I had 67 sightings.  This year, at the same time, the number is 48. (those are individual bears, just sightings, which may be seeing the same bear(s) but on different days or in different places).  At first, I thought I was just having bad luck, plus I've been spending my photography time trying to photograph different species, but in talking with several other people, both park employees and regular visitors, they've reported seeing less bears too.  This is just my speculation, but I suspect it's due to a couple of reasons:  1) Last year was a harsh season for bears.  Late snows kept early season grazing to a minimum (though there were plenty of winter kill carcasses).  Then a bad autumn season for food sources compounded the issue.  I suspect many bears simply couldn't find enough food sources in 2008 to fatten up enough to survive the winter, so there are fewer bears in the park. The other result of the poor autumn food crop is the lack of cubs of the year.  With only a couple of exceptions, I haven't talked to many people who have seen young cubs.  Egg fertilization is based on the female's body fat, and if it's not high enough, she's not likely to become pregnant.  2)  Like last year, spring snow storms resulted in edible vegetation for bears to come up much later than normal.  The winter kill rate didn't seem as high, as there didn't appear to be as many carcasses as last year.  This makes sense, since it wasn't as harsh a winter.  But snows lingered, slowing down the "green up".  I suspect this moved bears from traditional feeding areas to other places which had "greened up" and where they were able to find food.  Anyway, this is all speculation with no data to back any of it up.

Other wildlife news:  The badger den in Little America (on the way to Lamar Valley), is gone.  I heard that a coyote took one of the young badgers.  As a result, the mother would have moved the remaining young to prevent the coyote from coming back and killing them too.

The injured cow moose near Trout Lake trailhead is no longer there.

Here's some information for anyone planning a trip to Yellowstone any tme soon...  Currently, gas prices in the park are $2.89 per gallon for 87 octane and $3.09 for the good stuff.

Also, the road construction project between Norris and Madison, that was started several years ago, finally received the budget dolars so that the project could be completed.  As a result, there's currently a nightly road closure between Norris and Madison from 10 pm to 8 am.  During the day, expect up to 30 minutes delays.  There is also road construction near Flagg Ranch with 30 minutes delays and a resurfacing project outside the Northeast Entrance  towards Cooke City, also with 30 minute delays.  Official information of road closures can be found here.

Another closure, this one on a popular hiking trail, just took effect.  A rock slide took out part of the Uncle Tom's trail, along the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  This trail includes a long series of stairs that lead down about 2/3 of the way into the canyon.  Near the bottom, a section of stairs was totally destroyed and will have to be replaced before the trail can re-open.

Finally, a Park Service release states that visition for this spring is up 11% over last year.  I think anyone who has spent time out in the park, myself included, can definitely vouch for the increase.  Visition for the first five months of 2008 was 321,939 visitors, while the first five months of 2009 has seen 357,036 visitors to the park.  Visitation for the first four months was flat but a huge spike in the month of May is the reason for the increase.  May saw a 20% increase in visitation which, again, anyone in the park during May can definitely attest.  The official NPS release can be found here. 

The other night I met a photojournalist from Milwaukee named Peter Zuzga.  Peter and I had a great conversation about Yellowstone, some of my work, and this blog site.  I decided to post a couple of photos here for the photojournalists in Milwaukee in order to provide those folks with a little Yellowstone in their day.  The fox kit playing with its sibling's tail is from the fox den I've been visiting.  I hope to make it back there again in a few days and see if the kits have grown much. 

The otter shot was a moment of serendipity.  I had stopped in Sedge Bay early one morning and the otter was sitting on the remaining ice on Yellowstone Lake eating a cutthroat trout.  I was fortunate enough to get several images as the otter dined, groomed and poked its head out of holes in the ice.  The lake was in shadow, casting the blue color on the ice.  The photo of the week for this week will be one of those images, so check it out on Sunday.

I also wanted to post a general thanks to all the folks who have stopped by Lake Hotel in Yellowstone National Park.  My photo exhibit there has ran almost three weeks and has thus far been a great success.  The exhibit will be up until the end of June, so if you're in Yellowstone, stop by!