It still doesn't seem like July in Yellowstone.  Flowers are just starting to bloom throughout the lower elevations and also on the slopes of Mount Washburn.  Meanwhile, management issues and people speeding on park roads have accounted for five bear fatalities this summer already.  Bears are still being seen regularly.  Their typical food sources haven't sprouted much yet, so they seem to still be in late spring habitat rather than their summer ranges.  I am noticing more clover and biscuit root however, so this should take bears into their summer ranges soon.  A carcass in Alum Creek on the north edge of Hayden Valley has drawn large crowds for a few days now.  The wolf kill was taken over by the sow with three cubs I mentioned earlier.  Viewing distance is several hundred yards or more and many park visitors are getting a glimpse of these creatures.  I passed up this sight and headed up Dunraven again last night, where the sow with two cubs continues to be seen regularly.  Rangers were hazing her away from the road with cracker rounds, but I still was able to get a few photos of her and the little ones.  The photo below was taken last week, I haven't processed the shots from yesterday yet.  But it's the same bear family. 

The NPS did euthanize a cinnamon black bear that had been hanging around the Lake Area.  Reportedly it trashed a tent at Bridge Bay Campground and was following hikers on the Elephant Back Trail.  Information on this bad news can be found here Habituated Yellowstone Black Bear Euthanized.  This is the third bear killed as a result of management issues this season, including the bear euthanized as a result of the fatal mauling outside the park mentioned in another post.

Other bear news on the NPS website includes a second bear that was killed in a hit and run automoble incident.  This one involved a black bear that was killed when stuck by a car in the northern part of Yellowstone.  Information can be found here Black Bear Victim Of Hit And Run Accident.  Finally, Norris campground is being limited to hardsided camping only, due to bear activity.  Information can be found here Bears Active Around Norris Campground.  Hopefully the bears mentioned in this article can be safely relocated without any further incident.  The Norris to Mammoth corridor has been a hot bed of grizzly activity the last couple of years, hopefully people and bears can coexist in this part of the park without incident.

With warmer temperatures across Yellowstone (it was in the 40s today at Old Faithful) and minimal snow pack, Yellowstone's bears have begun emerging from their dens.  The Park Service has put out a statement, Yellowstone's Bears are Waking Up .  In it, it states that bear tracks have been seen on the Blacktail Plateau.  This region is a bear management area and is closed in the early spring each year due to bear activity.  I've also heard unconfirmed rumors that a bear has been seen at Beaver Ponds, near Mammoth Hot Springs, and down at the South Entrance.  I've posted a couple of bear photos to kick off the up coming bear season!  These photos are not recent.

The image at the top of this entry was taken a few years ago in Mary Bay.  The young griz looks almost disproportionate with his long snout and large ears.  This image was taken from my vehicle with a long telephoto lens.  The image below is of a cinnamon colored black bear on Dunraven Pass a few September's ago.  Again, the image was taken with a long lens.  The backlighting was really nice and I really liked the result.

Fall color is still slow in coming.  But wildlife viewing is improving.  Bison are still visible throughout much of the park, mostly in Hayden Valley and the Lamar-Tower area.  Elk are active in their rut with nice bulls visible at Mammoth and down near Grant.  Neither area is especially photogenic, with all the buildings at Mammoth and the burned trees around Grant/West Thumb.  Pronghorn should be nearing their rut too, though I haven't been up north to see if there's much activity.  I have heard of some moose sightings in the Tetons recently and I hope to head that way soon to look for moose and also to check on the fall color.

I have heard of some bear sightings, finally.  My photo of the week this week shows a fat black bear near Dunraven Pass.  I've heard of other bears up in that area recently.  There's also been a grizzly in the Lake Butte area, but that one hasn't been seen for the past several days.

In wolf news, the park service released some information about distemper and wolf pup mortality.  The article can be found here .  Basically the article states that in the past, it was believed the high mortality of wolf pups in 1999, 2005, and 2008 was due to parvovirus but that a new study shows distemper may be the actual cause.

With cooler temperatures forecasted for next week, hopefully fall color will improve and wildlife sightings will continue to get better.

The mid summer months can be a hard time to find and photograph wildlife.  When something cool is visible, there's often so many cars stopped that trying to get images can still be very difficult.  I often hear people say they haven't seen anything except bison, or maybe a few mule deer, and perhaps a few elk at Mammoth.  It's actually easy in July and August not to see anything and seeing something out of the ordinary takes some work.

One thing I always do is to follow up on tips.  However, wildlife rarely stay in the same spot for long.  Seeing a bear at Canyon today doesn't guarantee that it will be there tomorrow.  In fact,  unless there's a carcass, it will probably be long gone.  But when there is something to hold a particular animal in an area, such as a roadside carcass, then it may be worth investigating.  Of course, I use a carcass only as an example.  One should never approach a carcass, especially when it's evident that something has been feeding on it.  And I recommend avoiding searching for carcasses in the backcountry.  I had heard that the otters were back at Trout Lake this year, so I made three different trips.  As a result, I was able to get some nice otter shots that, if I hadn't have followed up, I would never have taken.

Another piece of photography advice I learned fairly quickly in Yellowstone is to always have a camera with me.  Even when it is July or August, you never know if you will come across something.  I learned this lesson by not having a camera with me several times when I could have had some nice shots.  I often joked that if I didn't bring my camera, then I'd see something cool.  Now I always carry it, even if I'm going to town.  This grizzly bear image was made on a road trip to Cody, WY.  As we drove along the East Entrance Road, this bear was seen.  Had I not had my camera, I wouldn't have been able to take this and the other photos I did.  So an outing that had nothing to do with photography ended up yielding a few nice shots.

Lastly, much of the mega fauna that everyone wants to see have typically moved into the high country, away from roads, to escape the heat and biting insects.  But there's still plenty of other critters to aim a lens at.  Marmots, pikas, mule deer, ducks, ground squirrels, and other critters can offer nice photo opportunities for those willing to see.  I saw this goldeneye at Trout Lake on one of my trips to photograph otters.  I was skunked on the otters but ended up spending a beautiful morning at Trout Lake with some friends and photographing a few ducks.  While I didn't get the otter shots I was after, I still came away with some nice images and had a good time talking to my friends.

Wildlife sightings are never guaranteed. I think that's one of the things that makes photographing them so challeninging and interesting.  Even if you have a lovely seen and beautiful light, you still can't make a nice wildlife image without the wildlife.  And when you have the animal, if you don't have nice light and interesting behavior, then there's still no guarantees.  July adds to those challenges with creatures being harder to find, but with patience, great images can still be had.

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.