Apparently, I shared about our spring baby encounters too soon! Over the past few days, we’ve had a number of other adorable baby encounters.
There’s been a mother bear and her cub-of-the-year hanging around the road lately… and we happened by an afternoon wrestling session between mother and cub.
Then, guiding a tour for Yellowstone Wild a couple days later, I came across the same pair. This time, the cub was up in a tree taking a nap on a narrow, uncomfortable-looking branch. Before long, the cub got up, walked the tightrope to the tree, and climbed down to mom. Then, it was snack time!
We’ve known about a peregrine falcon nest for a few weeks, and when we stopped by to check it out, we were lucky enough to see the adult bring in a meal to the chicks. Peregrines are bird predators, and sure enough, the meal the adult brought it was some sort of bird, though hard to tell what kind. I wondered if it was a coot, but Mike thinks the feet aren’t big and lobed enough. He’s wondering if it could have been an American dipper. In the rocky nook that is the nest, there were also a bunch of red feathers from a northern flicker that the adult had fed the chicks earlier that morning.
Note the small fourth chick in the back. Raptors start incubating as soon as the first egg is laid. That egg hatches first, and the chick is the largest. The last egg laid is the last chick hatched. This is a strategy to increase the chances of survival of at least one of the chicks (the first one). The first chick is the largest and gets the most food, therefore, it has the best chance of survival. The last chick, also the youngest, is smallest. Many times it doesn’t survive.
While watching the peregrines, we also spotted some bighorn sheep on the slope above the rocky raptor nest. The group had a couple of lambs with it. We watched as one of the lambs goofed off above the shear cliff. It’s amazing to think these little critters learn so quickly to stay stable in such a place.
Mike shared about a very young sandhill crane colt in his Colt post last month. I hadn’t seen one since that little colt and its parents moved on from their over-popular pond, so I was excited to spot one with my tour group this week. The video isn’t super sharp (heat waves cause wavy views in the heat of the day through a scope)… but check out its adorable chicken-wings!
There’s a fox den folks have been watching lately, too. I took my tour group to check it out, but sadly, the fox kits were having nap time. However, a bit earlier in the day, Mike had visited and had a chance to watch some baby fox antics.
Tomorrow, I pick up a group of North Carolina educators at the Bozeman airport for our NC Museum of Natural Sciences’ Yellowstone Institute. Tag along on that trip through the Educators of Excellence blog, and maybe there will be even more baby sightings to share!
Roads End Naturalist 
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