Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.

~Gary Snyder

If you saw our FB post about our yard elk, you know that a bull has shown up in the neighborhood as the rut begins. We watched him one day over a week ago in the street out front as he looked for the cows that tend to hang around here.

Well, now he has appeared a bit closer to our home. A few days ago I had to have my truck windshield replaced. The mobile unit came and they were in the driveway for about an hour to do the work. I was out under the deck overhang watching and talking with them. When they drove off, I walked up the deck steps and as I turned the corner to step on the deck, there he was, maybe 20 feet from me. We were both startled, and he raised up and turned around (he was eating a shrub in our narrow walkway next to the side deck). He took a few steps and turned his head and just stared at me. Respectfully, I backed away and went inside the basement and up the stairs to grab my phone for a pic. He moved around to the back side of the yard and was again browsing on some of the shrubs. He had to move differently than I have seen the cows do when eating at the fence cages around many of our side yard plants. His antlers made it more difficult to just lower your head and eat leaves sticking out of the mesh. He had to angle his head so the antlers would not get caught in the fencing. After pulling some plants through the mesh, he came around from behind the fencing and stared up at the mountain ash branches. I was hoping he would stand up on his hind legs to get the branch as I have seen the cow elk do across the street, but he just ambled on up the hill toward the cliff.

There was one cow up at the base of the cliff and he turned to go in her direction but then tuned around and walked along the path where I have the trail camera.

–The bull elk strolls by the trail camera at the base of the cliff. I was hoping he would come back that way for a head-on shot, but he had other things on his mind I suppose

While this is a nice bull, he looks like a teenager compared to the dominant bull now in the park in Mammoth. Known as #24, he is massive and has claimed quite a harem of cows. He recently battled another large bull and maintained his status as the dominant. I haven’t been able to get a pic of him yet as there is always a large crowd when he is out and rangers are keeping people a safe distance from him and the other elk. But this week, I did see what I am guessing is the bull elk he defeated. This large bull was resting along the road near Mammoth. Note the broken tips on a couple of his antler tines. Like #24, his antlers are much larger and thicker than the town bull that is hanging around our house.

And now another wildlife event is happening…as I was typing this, our neighbor texted that a black bear and 2 cubs had just been in our side yard where the bull elk photos were taken. By the time we got out there they had left and gone across the road and were running across a field possibly due to some dogs barking. Our neighbor texted us this pic taken through her window screen of the sow and one cub after they jumped up on our propane tank in an attempt to get in the back yard. They stayed for just a few seconds and then walked off around her house and crossed the road. It is never dull here for sure.