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About The Spotting Scope

While you were out!!

It has been a relatively mild winter here in the Greater Yellowstone area.  Of course mild for us is 325 inches of snow at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.
The wildlife watching in the winter, as always, was fabulous.  Here are some of the highlights:

NE Corner of Yellowstone:  Wolf activity was amazing this season.  The legendary Mollies wolf pack, who normally spend the winter hunting bison in the Pelican Valley (Check the Canyon Map for details) moved into the Lamar area and wreaked havoc.  These large, strong wolves are bigger than their Lamar Valley cousins because of the prey they hunt.  While the NE corner packs hunt elk and deer.  The Pelican Valley has little to none of those species in the winter.  Only the hearty bison can survive the amazing amounts of snow that the interior of Yellowstone receives.  They have the ability to move the snow around with their massive heads and neck muscles to get down to the grasses below.  Thus, the Mollies have adapted to hunt the bison and have grown larger and stronger. 

This is the same for the Canyon wolf pack, but more on them later. 

The Mollies moved into the NE corner of the Park, a first for them.  They proceeded to devastate the Agate Creek pack, killing most and leaving only 3, including alpha female 471F.   The Mollies also let the Blacktail pack know they were in the neighborhood, killing one of their pups and 830F, a soon to be 3 year-old.  The Lamar Canyon pack, with a very smart Alpha female known as the ‘06 female (now 832F as she was collared this winter) stayed out of the Mollies way and, though there were some close calls, it seems that all of the Lamar’s have survived.  I say it “seems” that way because there is a missing male yearling but it is thought that he is just off on his own and not a casualty, but we don’t know for sure.  The Mollies, whose count varies between 15 and 17, and possibly more, is still showing itself in the NE corner and we are wondering if the easier hunting has caused them to decide to move into the area for good.  Only time will tell.  As the snow melts and the elk move higher the Mollies may decide to go on back to the Pelican Valley.(Read More) 

Etiquette

Simple rules to make your experience the best.

Quiet. If you speak at a subdued level, you will often hear wolves, coyotes and the grunts of bison.
Be Aware of where you stand and who’s view you may obstruct.
Listen and Learn: You will meet people who have been watching and studying the animals for years.  One of the more aggravating things you can do is to argue with a semi pro about what it is you are looking at.

Ask Politely….But don’t be shy. Sometimes the wildlife is far in the distance. If you don’t have a good spotting scope, wildlife is often just small dots in a sea of brown. Wildlife watchers are usually more than happy to let you take a peek through their scope. However, resist the temptation to grab the eyepiece with your hand. Simply bring your eye up to the eyepiece and touch the scope as little as possible.
Park in spots that don’t obstruct traffic. When you block traffic, then everyone is forced to listen to another boring lecture by a ranger. ( continued)

Locating Wildlife in the Northeast Corner of Yellowstone National Park

Certainly the Northeast corner of Yellowstone is the single most bountiful area of North America for viewing large mammals in the wild.  The Lamar Valley is frequently called the Serengeti of North America and for good reason.  As we head toward the Lamar area from Tower-Roosevelt we first cross the Yellowstone River Bridge. After crossing, there is a pullout on the left, nicknamed “wrecker”.  Wrecker can be a good place to see bighorn sheep up close and personal. One afternoon in the summer, we watched a heard of rams and ewes wander around the parking lot and between cars for almost an hour.  Lot's of film got shot on that afternoon.

Another 1/4 mile East from Wrecker is a picnic area on the right – Yellowstone Picnic – We've seen black bear hanging out there as well as some elk and deer.  This is a good trail head heading up Specimen Ridge.   A moderate, non-technical hike, you will come across bison, big horn sheep and possibly a bear, so bring your bear spray with you.

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East of Yellowstone Picnic we pass through “Boulder” and “Little America”, these areas are home to bison and pronghorn. Stopping in this area we point our optics at Specimen Ridge (on the right/south side of the road) we always hope to catch a glimpse of wolves, sheep or bear. Remember to look up high! Sometimes you will have a terrific silhouette at skyline!  (Read More)

How to Scope for Wildlife

I have often heard people say that they just do not see what I see when I offer them my spotting scope to see the wolf in the distance. What is the secret?

The first and best piece of advice I can give you is don't look for animals.

What??? Really???

Yes, absolutely. If you look through a scope, or a pair of binoculars, and try to see an animal, or rather an animal shape, you will often not see it.  First, the animals are completely camoflaged and blend into their environment.   And, part of the animal is often concealed by brush, trees or shadows.

Instead, you have to look for movement, color variation and something that is simply different from the surroundings. Once you've located a difference, you can try to hone in on specific animal features. The flash of white in a green sage meadow, the dark black shape on a brown rock face, the quick swish of gray between the trunks of cottonwood trees, the dirt being thrown up as a badger digs a den, as opposed to the badger itself.

(Read More)

Pika

One small animal you may see, albeit only for a second, is the Pika.  Most people think these small animals are rodents, actually they belong to the same family as rabbits, lagomorph.  Take a look at those ears and it’s a dead giveaway!  Pikas are 6 to 9 inches long and can weigh between 4 and 10 ounces.  These cute little mammals are most often seen running for their lives across the road.  I have to admit that, though I am an avid pika-avoider, there have been casualties. 

Pikas do not hibernate and are herbivores.  Before winter sets in they gather fresh grasses, lay them in stacks to dry and then move them to their burrows. They primarily eat grasses, sedges, shrub twigs, moss, and lichen. When they are in this “haying” process they can make 13 trips per hour to collect vegetation.  They seem to assess the nutritional value of available food and harvest accordingly.

Pikas have gnawing incisors, to break down the tough grass, but no canine teeth, which are used for tearing.  One similarity to rodents is that their teeth keep growing for as long as they live, this means they have to chew constantly so their teeth do not over-grow.  A female has 2 litters per year and these litters’ average 3 young each. Breeding takes place one month before the snow melts and the females are pregnant for about 30 days.

We can discuss all the technical aspects of camera and lens selection, resolution, contrast, color saturation and image composition.  But there are many far simpler photography considerations that are fundamentally more important.  Subscribe to the Boy Scout rule of “Be Prepared”.  In other words, keep the camera in easy reach, make sure you have batteries (charged), mmory cards or film, a tripod if you’re using a zoom lens.  A camera which is only accessible by opening the hatchback of your rental car will see little use and might, in fact, put you in danger.  (If you are in the middle of a bison herd or near a bear or wolf, you do not want to get out of your car.)

Do you know how your camera works and how to use it?  Even the simplest digital camera today has  zoom, buttons, a settings menu a rotating wheel to select photographic mode.  What the heck do they do?  It would be wholly impractical to discuss the operation of even one medium priced camera here.  But, there is a wealth of information available on line in the form of operation manuals and photo instruction.  So, first, if you haven’t yet done it, get out your camera along with the instruction manual and take a few hundred sample photos of various subjects while changing the settings on the camera.  Take photos with front, back and side light.  Take low light photos, which is often what you’re faced with when out in the wild.  Honestly,I don’t know how to use every feature found on my Nikon D90….and I’m an engineer.  There are, however some simple controls you really should understand. (Read More)