High Altitude Rodents

There are a number of rodents that live in the mountains nearby, including these two examples. The chipmunk chose a beautiful piece of pink granite as his perch.

The fine looking specimen above is a Yellow-bellied Marmot. They are surprisingly tolerant of people, perhaps because they know they can slip into a hole in the rocks at a moment's notice.

White Crowned

 The White-crowned Sparrow population seems to be doing well near Fantan Lake. They were vocal and active in both the willows and the nearby pine trees when we were there a couple days ago.

The distinctive stripes on their head make them appear fierce when they look at you!

This fellow to the left was flapping his wing to keep his balance on the end of the branch.

Pipit

 What an amazing world this is in which I can see a bird I've never seen before - practically in my own backyard - at my age!

As we were leaving Fantan Lake a couple days ago, we caught a bit of movement on the side of the trail. A closer look showed this little guy to the left; an obvious chick of some kind.

A second later we saw mama. She is not a beautiful bird but she certainly was good at her job of catching insects (mayflies, it looks like) for her youngster.

 Ken knew right away they were American Pipits - even though he has never seen one before either. His brain has a way of storing and cataloging bird species that is truly admirable.

These birds summer on the tundra which means most of them are far north of us. But a small group of them elect to make the Beartooths their warm weather residence.


Look at the mouthful of bugs this mama has in her second photo!

Luminous

Today's Photo Friday theme is "luminous". Strictly speaking I suppose this image I took yesterday of a Painted Lady on an Aster doesn't really fit since it isn't emitting light, but it felt right to me so I am posting it! This shot was taken in the Beartooth Mountains near Fantan Lake. I love the crispness of the butterfly's eye!

Hard at Work

Today I am trying something new. Earlier this week I purchased a small Sony HandyCam, the first camcorder I have owned in my life. I have been experimenting with shooting and uploading videos using iMovie on the Mac. It is not something I plan on doing every day but occasionally I think a video tells a story better than a still photo.

This first example is probably too long - 45 seconds and I have no idea of the quality in this format. It shows the tenacity of a pinyon jay working on a pinecone to get the pine nuts from within. We see a lot of the pinyon jays in the winter months but in the summer they head up in the mountains in search of cooler temperatures and food. The jays and their fellow nut eaters, the Clarks Nutcrackers, come back to our place for a couple weeks in late July/early August to take advantage of earlier harvests. I think they may have miscalculated this year. The pinecones seem very new and sticky still. This fellow in the video obviously found something he could work with. The wind is blowing and the branches are swaying but this fellow holds on for dear life and concentrates on his goal. You can hear other pinyons in the background.

Rock Wrens

 I have talked before about the unexpected consequences of having the ravens move in last year, many of which have to do with the magpies moving further away from the house.

One of those consequences was the return of many of the smaller bird species that had been tormented by the magpies for years.

This year I have seen more rock wrens than I ever remember seeing in the past. I don't know where they find enough bugs to eat in this climate but they must do okay.

 This morning as I returned from my run I noticed a large group of wrens flitting around a couple of beautifully lichen covered rocks. The colors in the sunlight are amazing!

Evening Rainbow

My posts for the last few days have been all about the lighting and this one is no exception. I was driving home from a meeting in Cody last evening when I hit that truly magical zone of near dusk combined with the moments after a rainstorm. 

 The mule deer were out in force taking advantage of slightly cooler temperatures. I wish I had taken time to get a closer shot of this group of three bucks in the photo to the left. The one looking at me was truly spectacular.

A little closer to home I found another field of munching mules alongside the road. This fellow stood in the golden light until I snapped his profile.

I feel truly honored to be the recipient of first place for my photo entered in the Wyofile Summer Snap Challenge! If you want to take a look you can do so at www.wyofile.com.

Morning Visitor

 Once again this morning I was up early, enjoying the warm light of sunrise. As I stood in the doorway I caught a glimpse of movement near the trees across the yard so I grabbed my camera and waited.

It didn't take long for this young coyote to come into view. He made it pretty clear he knew I was there but he opted to ignore me and keeping hunting bunnies.

Look at the intensity in that expression!

Morning Sky

 This morning was one of those when it pays to get up early. I stepped outside at about 5:30am and witnessed the most amazing lighting. I thought about trying to experiment with some HDR shots but decided I didn't want to take the time to adjust my camera. It was a good call as the light vanished within two minutes of me clicking the shutter!

Photo Friday

I have decided to start taking part in an on-line group called Photo Friday. The goal is to increase the width of my photo subjects by participating in their weekly theme challenges.

This week's theme is "Youngster"so I am posting a photo of the flower girl I took at a wedding earlier this summer.

White Pelican

Today's photo is a random one I took a month or so ago in Teton Park. The white pelicans are always fun to watch. It is amazing to see the big bump on this guy's beak which means he is available for mating. Wouldn't life be so much easier if humans had such obvious signs?

Butterfly Eyes

I don't often think of butterflies as traveling in herds but that is sometimes how it seems. The Satyrs in particular seem to arrive as a large group once the rabbit brush starts blooming. Like everything else this year, the bright yellow flowers are about a month earlier than normal but somehow the butterflies seem to know that. This group is also known as the "Browns" and is a very large family, all of whom have amazing "eyes" on their wings.

Bucking the Trend

Yesterday morning I bumped into a doe mule deer munching a bush behind the house. Today I surprised two of the four bucks that have been bumming around all summer. 

The first three shots are of the biggest member of the group. I love the way his shadow plays on the rock beside him in the first photo. 

Although he keeps looking back at me he was not acting alarmed. This is their normal route out of the valley in which our house sits.

I need a push from behind to get up and over this rock ledge but for this guy it is easy as can be!

 I managed to catch him in mid-air in this shot.

In the last photo the second buck is catching up. He too jumped the ledge as if it were nothing.

Breakfast Club

Other than filling the bird feeder in the winter months (once the bears are hibernating), we do not feed the wildlife that roams our place. There are just too many possible negative consequences for both sides in such a scenario. 

That doesn't mean the animals go hungry. The llamas are not very careful eaters and the bunnies and chukars know to hang out near the bowls at feeding time to pick up the spilled grits. They seem to tolerate each other with very little squabbling.

 This morning I rounded the house as I was leaving for my morning run and discovered this mule deer doe munching on the skunk sumac bush growing in the middle of a juniper. At first she seemed totally unconcerned by my presence, then she turned and looked at me as if to say, "Who, me??"

She looks as if she has been through a bit of a battle although she is certainly not starving. The skunk sumac all over our place has been infested with some kind of bug this year that has stripped almost all the leaves. I don't begrudge this gal finding a snack where she can.

Crow Pipe Ceremony

 Yesterday I had the amazing opportunity to be part of a very special event - a Crow Pipe Ceremony at Heart Mountain.

The event was a joint effort of several groups, most notably the Crow, the Episcopalian Church and the Nature Conservancy.

I am only going to show a few of the many photos I took as there is a chance they will be published in an upcoming magazine story about the day and I don't want to preempt the opportunity to have them in print.


The youngest dancer of the day is pictured to the left.

 Makeup is applied to one of the dancers.

I love this shot - the strong face, the amazing dress and the wonderful sunlight and shadow!

 The drummers with Heart Mountain in the background.

Chopper

What an unusual couple of days I have had. The last two mornings have required a 4 am rising, but for very different reasons. Yesterday morning Ken and I took part in a continuing search south of Cody. Because there was a helicopter available we needed to get to the airport very early to try and beat the winds that have been a constant later in the day for the last few weeks. 

The pilot is a friend who was generously volunteering his time and equipment for the morning. All he needed was two willing spotters to go along. To make searching easier, the doors of the chopper were removed, meaning photographs were possible. The camera was also to be a tool for forensic photography - shooting any areas that looked like they would warrant further investigation from the ground. 

The sun was just coming up as we flew over the southern part of the Cody Reservoir and headed downstream. 

 The second part of the mission was to have the helicopter fly in two searchers in kayaks who would search the upper part of the river. To do that, Ken and I got out while the pilot took first one and then the other kayaker in with his equipment.
In the photo above, Bruce is landing to pick us up after dropping off the boaters. We then continued to search the river from the chopper until low fuel forced us to return to Cody.

Part of the difficulty of this particular search area is the steep canyon up stream. In this photo you can see the shadow of the chopper against the sheer rock wall on one side. The other side looked the same.

As we flew over the steepest part of the canyon I looked down and saw the two kayakers shouldering their boats to portage around a particularly dangerous section of whitewater. It is not often you get a top view like this one!

Butcher Bird

As a kid in school I remember reading Wallace Stegner's short story Butcher Bird. I really believe it was the first story that affected me so strongly that it kept me awake for several nights thinking about it.

Last year I happened to be in the car driving somewhere I can't remember, but I do recall it was a multi-hour trip. I had on NPR and the program was short stories. They read Butcher Bird - the first time I had heard it in about 40 years - and just like that I was transported back to the same sense of dread and deep emotion of decades earlier.

In reality, the bird that is commonly called a butcher bird in this part of the world, the loggerhead shrike, is a small creature, easily overlooked. It is hard to believe this beautiful black and white specimen pictured above is such a cruel and efficient hunter. The habit that earns them their nickname is that of catching insects and small reptiles or rodents and impaling them on thorns or barb wire fences so they can butcher them into smaller, more easily managed pieces.

We seem to have a pair of these guys hanging around this summer. As seen a few days ago they are not  afraid to take on the golden eagle, a bird almost one hundred times their size and weight!

Frank the Cat

Now that the eagle is back, he seems to be here all the time. Sometimes there are two of them but more often it is just the one and he seems to be quite tolerant of us. Of course, for all we know, it is the same eagle that has been here since we purchased the place 20 years ago so he is probably used to seeing us around. 

 I sometimes worry about Frank the cat as a tempting meal for goldie, but Frank is pretty savvy when he is outdoors. His favorite spot is in front of a row of rocks that are basically the same colors he is, making it hard to even tell he is there sometimes.

Unfortunately Frank has discovered that the juniper bush near his rock pile is home to three newborn cottontails so this morning I looked out to see Frank neck deep in the foliage hunting lapin!

Southfork Revisited

Ken and I spent the weekend back in the Southfork working with the Park County Search and Rescue team.

It rained on and off yesterday afternoon but by the time we headed home at the end of the day, the sun was breaking through one last time.

 The landscape of the area is spectacular at any time but in those lighting conditions it was like something out of a movie.

Harassment

This is a post with many photos.The shots are not up to par because I was shooting right into the sun for most of the drama but the story was so exciting that I had to share it.

Yesterday morning I went outside to drink my coffee on the back deck, when I heard a strange sound. I went back in, grabbed the camera and watched events unfold.

The noise I heard was a pair of shrikes - butcher birds - dive-bombing a golden eagle and screaming while they were doing so.

Nearby was the pair of ravens watching the action.

Soon the eagle had enough and he plunged off the cliff with the shrikes in pursuit.

 The eagle landed on the other side of the cliff but the shrikes and the ravens followed closely, not willing to let him be.

 Next it was the raven's turn to harass the big bird, chasing him and trying to grab his tail.

 In the photo above the raven is giving chase while one of the shrikes comes in from the side.

 The eagle lands once again but the smaller birds keep up the chase.

 Finally the eagle starts walking, seemingly in disgust! He kept this up for 2 or 3 minutes until he disappeared over the hill.