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Our Trip to Yellowstone
We recently returned from a trip to Yellowstone National Park. Above is a pic of some adorable baby bison, viewed through a scope. We primarily went to do some quality wolf-watching, after reading a wonderful book by Terry Tempest Williams, which we blogged a bit about here.
Little did we know how evasive those wolves could be! They are terrified of humans, after all we’ve done to them, and won’t come anywhere near us. So, you basically have to find them with an extreme magnifying glass called a scope. They won’t even show up in basic binoculars they stay so far away. Made us realize how rare the wolf encounter in the memoir, Romeo, was. Now we want to go to Juneau!
We did see one black bear (no grizzlies), and several moose, elk, pronghorns, coyotes, and many, many, many, many bison! Here are some of our pics:
“Slow down. You’re going too darn fast!” says Mr. Bison.
A moose we spotted one evening. It is darn hard to get good pictures. Our respect for wildlife photographers grew immensely on this visit!
A momma bison and her baby, viewed through a scope.
We didn’t see any grizzlies, but we saw this one brown-colored black bear from far away. He’s lying down, back toward us, right next to the tree in the center of the pic.
Soooo hard to get any real pics of wolves, they stay so far away from us. This is through a massive scope lens. She is lying down about an inch below the tree trunk at the top of the scope. She is lying near the den housing her cubs. We waited over an hour for some action, but the most she did was lift her head and appear to be looking in our direction, from about twenty miles away! Sadly, they’re smart not to come around us. Humans haven’t done too well by wolves. Well, we haven’t acted well toward any of our great American predators.
There were lots of wolf-watchers – people setting up scopes and watching the animals for hours. I would have had no idea what I was looking at without their help. These people are experts. Some are pros, some are just very enthusiastic lovers of the animal, who help the park’s rangers track them. There’s a wonderful Facebook page devoted to the wolves of Yellowstone, of Lamar Valley, where most of them live. It’s called Legend of Lamar Valley and I am now hooked on it!
One thing I learned was how smart ravens are. They basically make friends with the wolves when they are cubs, then help them find food. The wolves in return share their killings with the little birds.
My tour guide felt badly that I didn’t get to see any wolves or grizzlies up close so we went to this wildlife educational center in West Yellowstone, Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, where they had several. Here are two beauties. So, yep, got to see my wolves after all!
And a grizzly 🙂 This guy is from Alaska, so he’s pretty big, feeding on all that salmon.
This lady loves to climb trees for her food!
After leaving Yellowstone, we went on to Reno for the RT Booklovers Conference. Before the convention, we took a little tour to see some wild mustangs. I noticed their bodies are more solid and their manes are wilder than their non-wild counterparts. But they seemed very friendly!
Wonderful trip and we had a blast! I may go back for a winter wolf-watching expedition. Supposedly they are a little less shy because the park is so much quieter. I don’t know though, since I don’t have a lot of experience with snow. We’ll see!
Ducklings Rescued from a Drainpipe!
We love our little community 🙂
Someone walking her dog around our neighborhood lake heard some squawking coming from a nearby drainpipe. She and dog walked over to see a duck chirping madly about. She noticed the squawking was coming from a drainpipe and peered down to see some baby ducks stuck inside it. She frantically called for help and several people showed up to form a kind of assembly line, helping the little ducklings all out. It ended up taking hours and the crew worked into the late evening to get all the babies out. Mother Duck was quite happy, needless to say.
The woman worried that the ducklings would fall down the drainpipe again since it had no covering. So she reported it on Nextdoor.com and asked readers to call the HOA and voice our concerns. Well, quite a few people did – including us, of course! A cover was installed over the pipe by the end of the day.
So, first we worked collectively to get our beloved swan rescued, and now the ducklings. We’re so proud of our fellow people here who care so much about all forms of life 🙂
Sneaky Pie Brown Rules!
We are major, major fans of Rita Mae and Sneaky Pie Brown in this household! Sofia poses with the very first in the Sneaky Pie series, Wish You Were Here. The best cozy mystery / cat mystery writer around, in our humble opinion. Brown’s cats – Mrs. Murphy and Pewter – and dog, Tucker, are all so smart and their personalities really shine through. And, most importantly, they help their human solve the crimes. So often, with the current crop of cat mysteries, the cats just sit around looking cute. They have a very minor, if any role. Cats are smart! Use them, mystery writers!
Anyway, our human is working on just such a cat mystery. And, inspired by Sneaky Pie’s Tucker, and our own dear little dog, Sofia, she has decided to add a dog sleuth 🙂
Happy Tenth Birthday to Our Rhea!
Happy 10th birthday to our sweet little Rhea! She was born into a hoarding situation – 70 cats! – in NY until she was rescued by the ASPCA, where we adopted her. She’s been with us for 7 years – in NY, CA, now AZ. She purrs a lot, even when being play-attacked by canine sis, Sofia. So we think she’s very happy 🙂
Petey the Swan Has Found a New Home!
Very happy to report that the swan who lived in our community lakes, alone after his partner passed, has been rescued by the amazing Liberty Wildlife.
We named him “Petey” after Tchaikovsky (who’s first name was Piotr) because he was a swan on a lake 🙂 Aren’t we clever 🙂
Petey seemed so lonely after his partner died – likely by choking on trash. We all were so worried about him and tried to get a wildlife rescue to come and get him, but he proved impossible to catch.
Lately he’d been spotted walking around the various lakes, in search of something, and people surmised he may have been scared by children playing with a toy motor boat, and possibly some bark-y dogs.
He ended up getting hit by a truck while trying to cross a busy street. Apparently he wasn’t hurt too badly, as he gave the rescue quite the chase! Now he is in their capable hands where he will be safe, treated, and on to a new, less lonely life. Sofia and I will miss him, though, on our walks, but are very happy for him! Have a wonderful new life, Petey!
Goat Yoga
Yes, I joined the craze and did goat yoga, at Welcome Home Ranch in Gilbert, AZ. It was fun – but not a whole lot of yoga, lol! I’d say about 10 minutes of yoga, and 50 minutes of adult petting zoo 🙂
The goats balanced on our backs, individually, and then at one point, we made a circle, and they trotted around it, running atop our collective backs! They weren’t heavy but their nails did get a bit scratchy, so if you do this, I’d recommend wearing a t-shirt that fully covers your back, unlike mine!