Category: Trip report
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Eye of Newt
Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder’s fork, and blind worm’s sting, Lizard’s leg, and owlet’s wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. Double, double, toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble. ~William Shakespeare I went camping last weekend with… Read more…
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Scrambled Eggs
The name “raccoon” is drawn from the Algonquian term “arakun” and roughly translates to “he who scratches with his hands”. ~Samuel I. Zevelof, in Raccoons: A Natural History Between the Bobcat and the Black Bear cubs the other day, I had another interesting wildlife encounter. Most of the dusty miles of gravel roads at Alligator… Read more…
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Yellowstone Reflections
This place, this Yellowstone, comes in through the nostrils, swims into the blood, to alter your very constitution, leaving the familiar skin a sage-scented facade for the wildness running beneath. ~Liz Hinman, a teacher that participated in a Yellowstone Educators of Excellence Institute It usually takes me awhile to readjust after returning from Yellowstone. As… Read more…
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Bison Babies
I hear the soft inquiring grunts of the cows as they talk to their calves, and the gentle grunt in return as the calf answers, “Here I am”. ~Wes Olson, in Portraits of the Bison If there is an iconic animal of Yellowstone, it has to be the Bison. And spring is a great time… Read more…
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Wings Over Yellowstone
Walk in wild places, and you are sure to see, and hear, birds, if nothing else. I am betting that many visitors to Yellowstone pay the birds little notice. It is, after all, the big mammals that draw most of the attention – the bears, the wolves, Elk, Bison, Moose, and Pronghorn. Some of the… Read more…
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Badger Business
Badger hates society, and invitations, and dinner, and all that sort of thing. ~Kenneth Grahame, in Wind in the Willows Badgers are a solitary lot, except during the mating season, or when females are raising their young. So, last year in Yellowstone, I was thrilled when I saw more badgers than I have ever seen… Read more…
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Cub Scouting
Bears are made of the same dust as we, and breathe the same winds and drink of the same waters. A bear’s days are warmed by the same sun, his dwellings are overdomed by the same blue sky, and his life turns and ebbs with heart-pulsings like ours and was poured from the same fountain…… Read more…
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Watching Wolves
It was clear to me in an instant why nearly 100,000 people say they come to Yellowstone each year just to see wolves. ~Frank Clifford, in Howling Success I have been going to Yellowstone since the early 1980’s, a decade before wolves were reintroduced. In my early trips, it often seemed like I had the… Read more…
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Songbird? Not so Much
…when I first heard them, I thought something was dying or being hurt. Then I realized it was just one of these birds “singing”. ~anonymous Every time I visit Yellowstone in summer, I see and hear the beautiful male Yellow-headed Blackbirds as they establish and defend territories in marshy ponds. They can be regularly observed… Read more…
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What Grizzlies Eat
…almost everything is food except granite… ~John Muir on what grizzlies eat Muir was probably not far off in that observation. Grizzlies (and Black Bears as well) have a tremendously varied diet according to the season and food availability. Grizzlies are omnivores, feeding on a wide range of both plants and animals. Grizzlies tend to… Read more…
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Roads End Naturalist 