Idaho and Yellowstone - Days 1 to 3

After going to Yellowstone 7 times in 5 years, we took a break to see other parts of the world.  So it has taken us 3 years to return to Yellowstone for our 8^th trip.  Needless to say, we were really looking forward to this visit.  We decided to go in June which is later than usual for us because we were hoping to see more babies.  Baby elk, baby pronghorn, baby fox, baby badger, baby moose, baby goats…you get the idea.  But we also knew that the park would be more crowded this time of year so we were prepared for the influx of  “Tourons” (tourist morons).

The first part of our vacation was spent in Northern Idaho with family.  It was nice to be back in the home where I spent so many summers growing up.  Lake Coeur D’Alene has always been beautiful and peaceful but it didn’t used to have much wildlife since years of logging and mining in the area had taken its toll on the local fauna.  But nature has a way of making a comeback and that was very evident this trip. During this visit we were amazed at the variety of wildlife that we saw over our two day visit.

Columbian Ground Squirrel:

 Yellow-pine Chipmunk:

Our first Sharp-shinned Hawk in the orchard:

Osprey eyeing us as it returned to its nest:

Ruffed Grouse:

Osprey that mis-timed its dive:

But, it swam to a log and dried out nicely:

The biggest surprise of all was seeing not one…not two…but four moose all within a ¼ mile of each other in some of the smaller neighboring lakes.  Seeing one moose here would be rare and four is a down right miracle.  Hopefully, they will stick around for a while.

We even had a cool summer storm complete with rainbow:

The 8 hour drive from Northern ID to Yellowstone is very scenic (except for the drive through Butte, Montana), so the time went by pretty quickly.  We arrived in Yellowstone around 5PM and began the drive through to park to Silver Gate and our cabin.  Even though it had been 3 years since our last trip, it didn’t seem like much had changed.  In fact,  it didn’t take long to spot wildlife and our first bear jam of the trip.

Mamma with 1 cinnamon and 1 black yearling cubs:

Next, we took a quick detour to Petrified Tree.  As we approached the end of the road, I could see someone with their cell phone taking a picture up the hill.  So, I made the snide comment that it must be tourist season since someone was actually taking a picture of the Petrified Tree.  But, it turns out that I was wrong since just then a good sized black bear bounded down the hill past the petrified tree, ran across the road, and started munching on the green grass next to the road.

 

We saw some Bighorn Sheep in the trees at the Yellowstone Picnic Area and the usual Bison and Pronghorn in the Lamar Valley.  But aside from that, the rest of the trip to Silver Gate was uneventful.  We picked up our rental scope and some supplies in Silver Gate and by the time we were done it was close to dark.  So we had our usual late Yellowstone dinner and went to bed.

Yellowstone - Day 4

It was a balmy 46 degrees at 6:30AM when we left the cabin the next morning.  That warmer than usual temperature had the animals out and about already.  We saw a moose at Warm Creek and then saw three more just past Pebble Creek.

We saw a couple coyotes in the Lamar Valley and used our rental scope to check out a Grizzly far away.  

We then headed over Mt Washburn to Yellowstone Lake hoping to see some of the Grizzlies that had been making an appearance around Mary Bay.  But we had no luck with any wildlife at all except for a lone coyote.  

Next we decided to take the hike to Cascade Lake.  Less than a mile into the hike we turned around.  The temperature had dropped into the 30’s, the wind had picked up and it started to sleet.  Any 2 of those 3 wouldn’t have bothered us but having all 3 made for a cold walk and we decided the warmth of the car was a better option.

We headed back over the mountain towards Tower.  We struck out with Pika and anything else at Hellroaring but did briefly see our fifth moose of the day at Floating Island Lake and we had a lone coyote at the Wrecker pullout.  Back in the Lamar Valley, we got out to scope the area where we thought there was a coyote den.  Turns out we were scoping in the wrong direction after talking to a few folks at the pullout.  When we did locate the den we were able to see all 5 pups out and frolicking around.  There was one adult around and they were all playing.  It was great fun to watch and our first coyote pups ever which made it even better.

After about a ½ hour of watching the pups we headed down to the Hitching Post pullout after hearing that two wolves were out in the area.  The parking lot was just about full but we snuck in at the end and walked back to set up our scope.  Turns out that the wolves had a Mule Deer kill in the willows by the river and folks had been waiting for one or both of them to make an appearance.  Sounds like a good reason to hang around for a while…so we did.  Less than an hour later, a black wolf came trotting out of the willows with a leg bone in its mouth.  It trotted through the meadow, crossed the road a few hundred yards away, and headed up the hill towards the den site.  Unfortunately, it was too far for decent pictures but we got great looks at the wolf through the scope. 

A car jam at Round Prairie yielded a lone moose out in the river but it was really far away so we pressed on.  Later we found out that this moose had a baby so we were initially disappointed that we didn’t stay, but we ended up seeing the same moose with baby later in the week.

Next it was back to Silver Gate for a normal dinner time, but on the way we wanted to play scope-a-goat at Mt Barronette.  Within 10 minutes we had found 5 goats on the mountain including 1 with a newborn.  We sure got our money’s worth out of the scope that day!

After another quick dinner of soup and bread, we headed back out.  At the NE entrance booth we asked the Ranger (who will forever be known as “Hot Ranger” for obvious reasons) if she knew where the Great Gray Owl was that had been seen around the area. She didn’t know where the owl was hanging out, but the stop and conversation was soooo worth it.  Anyway, where was I?  Oh yeah… We headed back into the park to see what would be out after dinner.  We had a scoped bear at Specimen Ridge, lots and lots of Bison pouring into the Lamar Valley, and our one and only beaver sighting of the whole trip at the Confluence.  Nothing too exciting, but it still beats working and the light was great.

What a great first day!

Daily Highlights:

• 9 coyotes (5 pups) 
• 6 moose
• 5 Mt Goats (1 baby)
• 1 Wolf
• 1 Grizzly
• 1 Black Bear
• 1 Beaver

Yellowstone - Day 5

We were up at 5AM and out by 6:30AM again today but it was 20 degrees colder than yesterday because the skies were clear.  We had no moose at all this morning on the way into the Lamar Valley so our first stop was at the upper pullout to scope the coyote den.  There were 3 adults out but only 1 pup.  The coyotes were calling to each other by yelping and howling which was fun to hear. Next we pressed on to Slough Creek where throngs of people were out with scopes.  There was a kill high up on the mountain and two bears hanging around; a Black Bear and a Grizzly.  It turns out that we had just missed the Grizzly Bear chasing the Black Bear off the kill.  Oh well.  Even with the scope, the carcass was really far away and the Grizzly was not much more than a brown blob so we didn’t stick around too long.

In Little America we ran into our buddy Max who was leading a week long photo workshop.  Check out www.maxwaugh.com for great photos and workshops.

At Hellroaring we struck out with Pikas again despite the sun being out today.  We did find some Yellow-pine Chipmunks that were happy to pose for pictures.

I was determined to get some Pika shots and video today so we decided to head to Sheepeaters.  We got all the way past Mammoth to Sheepeaters without seeing anything of note.  To top it off, there were no Pikas at Sheepeaters either although there were Marmots and various Squirrels.

We met a guy there who claimed to have been guiding people in the area for 40 years.  He mentioned that he witnessed some Pine Martens hunting and catching Pika there about a 1 ½ years ago and that he hadn’t seen any Pika since.  That was a disappointing thing to hear and was likely true because everyone we talked with during the week had no luck with Pikas at either Hellroaring or Sheepeaters.

Begging Magpie at Mammoth. "No, I am not giving you any food!":

After a hot lunch at the Grill in Mammoth (Hmmmm Western Chicken Sandwich…yum!), we headed back toward the Lamar Valley.  On the way, we had a coyote on the road near Lava Creek but nothing else the whole way.  After sitting on our butts all day, we decided to hike up to Trout Lake to look for Otters.  We knew the afternoon wasn’t the best time for this but we needed an excuse to get some exercise.  As expected, there was really no wildlife at all out at the lake or at the nearby Buck lake.  The only excitement at all was Karen slipping and falling hard on her butt.  But even that was short lived as she sprung back up quickly and “walked it off”…

Trout Lake:

We had gotten a tip about a Great Gray owl being seen in the woods near the NE entrance.  So with little to go on we decided to bushwack it into the back country a bit hoping that the bird would call and give away its hiding position. After crossing bogs, walking up hills and down hills, and vaulting more downed trees than we could count we struck out with the owl.  We did see our first ever White-winged Crossbill so that was cool.

Next we took about a 1 hour drive up the Beartooth highway (our first time ever).  Boy, it is a very pretty drive.  We decided that we needed to spend more time on this drive and reserved a future day for this.  We went to the Log Cabin Café in Silver Gate for an early dinner which had been good in the past.  It was good again and we recommended it for dinner. Try the trout and moose tracks ice cream (served separately of course).

Back on the road we saw a lone coyote at what had been described as a 2^nd den site in the Lamar Valley.  It sure did look like there was a hole by where the coyote was but we looked here every time we passed for the rest of the trip and never saw another coyote so who knows if it was really another den site or not.  At the YPA we learned we had just missed a badger dart down into the fox den.  We waited for a while but it never came back out.

On the way back towards Silver Gate we stopped to check out a couple of Pronghorn that were lying down in Little America just in case there was a baby with them.  As we were watching them bask in the glow of the setting sun, we heard a wolf howl close by.  No matter how many times we hear it, it’s hard to beat the wonderful sound of a wolf howl.  So, we hung out a bit longer just in case the howling continued.  Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted movement parallel to the road and moving towards us.  It was a Gray Wolf and it was coming closer.  For 10 minutes we were able to watch the wolf ambling slowly along about 50 yards away without anyone else around us.  It was truly magical. 

Gray Wolf:

In some interesting animal behavior, the Pronghorn we were watching initially got up and bolted away when the wolf made an appearance.  But then they came back and headed right towards the wolf in full alarm mode which for Pronghorn means flared butt hair! (I am sure there is a scientific name for this but it probably wouldn’t be as funny).  Then some nearby bison also got in alarm mode and headed towards the wolf.  The wolf ignored them all and continued walking slowly until it went up over a small hill and out of sight.

Alarmed Pronghorn and Bison:

What an awesome experience!

It was getting dark now so we headed home rather quickly but the day had one more encounter in store for us.  At Warm Creek we saw eye shine along the road. As we got closer we realized it was a Red Fox but it was on the other side of the car from me so I couldn’t attempt a low light picture.  We passed the fox, made a quick U-turn and headed back down the road.  Just as we got up to the fox again it crossed the road…damn no photo op!  OK,  we will just pass the fox again, make a quick U-turn and try again.  So, that is what we did.  But the fox must have anticipated this because the darn thing crossed the road a third time right as we were approaching it.  Due to some cars approaching from behind and not wanted to torment the fox like it was tormenting me we gave up and headed home.

Another great day!

Daily Highlights:

• 6 coyotes (1 pup)
• 1 Grizzly
• 1 Black Bear
• 1 Wolf
• 1 Red Fox

Yellowstone - Day 6

It was 34 degrees when we left at 6:45 the next morning (we slept in a bit) and headed into the Park.  The only plan today was to take a mid-morning Trout Lake hike once it warmed up a bit.  As mentioned before, there were lots of Bison in the Lamar Valley this trip but today there was even more.  They were everywhere and pouring in from Little America.  Others had noticed it too and after discussing it for a bit the theory is that many of the Bison didn’t make the trek to the Hayden Valley and instead were hanging out in the Lamar Valley.  Whatever the reason, it was a great spectacle to watch.

At the coyote den we had a lone adult but no pups.  We also had a pair of Pronghorns that decided to race each other.  Boy, it's fun to watch them run!

Once they ran by we turned around just in time to see a small herd of Bison running down the hill:

This Uinta Ground Squirrel didn't seem entertained at all:

 I'm not sure why everything was in such a hurry, but maybe that meant it was time to press on.

At the Slough Creek carcass there was a Grizzly but once again it was too far away to enjoy that much so we head to the YPA to see if the badger was around at all.  It wasn’t.  But, we did get our one and only Bighorn Sheep closeup of the trip.

Next we headed back towards Trout Lake but before we got far we encountered our first Baby Pronghorn of the trip.  There were two adults and one baby strolling along in Little America.  They were a bit far for good pictures, but I took some anyway.

We scoped a black bear in the Lamar Valley and had 2 pups out at the den when we passed by.  As we approach the parking lot for Trout Lake it became painfully obvious that we were in the summer tourist season.  Not only were all the parking spots taken at 10AM but all the flat areas around the parking spots were taken as well.  So, there would be no Trout Lake hike for us.  On a whim, we continued on to Pebble Creek and decided to hike the trail there instead.  We parked at the Campground (which was not yet open), loaded up the gear and headed out.  We looked everywhere for the trailhead that is clearly marked on my detailed Yellowstone map but we couldn’t find a way across Pebble Creek and didn’t feel like fording the river. Little did we know that the footbridge from the camp grounds to the trail was gone which explained our issues.  You can only reach the Pebble Creek trail for the turnout East of the Campground now.  Oops…

We were hungry after another failed hike so we hit up the Buns and Beds deli in Cooke City (Hi Jan!) for excellent sandwiches which we ate in our cabin. 

After lunch we headed back into the park not expecting to see much because the temperatures had started to climb (It was 70 degrees that afternoon).  But, we didn’t have to wait long for a great photo opportunity with a beautiful cinnamon black bear that was grazing alongside the road. Since I was driving, Karen took this shot.

At Pebble Creek (where we had just been a hour or so earlier) a jam of people had formed along the road.  We pulled off in the Campground parking lot, pulled out the scope and joined them.  The moose with baby that we had sort of seen two days ago was back and closer.  Through the scope we were able to see the baby moose walk around and nurse from mamma.  Our first baby moose! 

 

We next took our daily drive down Slough Creek in hopes of seeing badger.  No badger was seen but we did have a lone coyote.

We didn’t have any further excitement until we reached Elk Creek and saw a huge car jam.  We knew that multiple black bears with cubs had been seen in the area so we found a pullout along the road, grabbed our gear, and headed towards the people.  Just as we arrived, the Ranger doing crowd control said that we missed the bear nursing the cubs and the whole family was asleep behind a tree now.  They weren’t likely to be out for a few hours so we could do what we wanted.  With that, the Ranger left and so did most of the people.

We decided to stay and stake out the bear family. After all it was a mother with two restless cinnamon yearling cubs. How long could they stay sleeping behind the tree?   Actually, the answer was 3 hours, that’s how long.  We know this because we stood around the whole time waiting.  The time actually went by quickly because we chatted with fellow photographers.  During the 3 hours, the bears played with our hopes many times by getting up, stretching, looking around, and then laying back down to sleep more.  They would tease us with a glimpse of heads and bodies and the occasional stretching paw.  Eventually, they did get up.  But, instead of walking down the hill and into good light the headed up the hill away from us an out of sight.

During the “great bear stakeout” we heard from others that another black bear was out up the road a bit and she had one cub of the year.  So we headed up that way and got a glimpse of the mother bear and the cub climbing a dead tree.  There were no spots left to park so we decided to head back to YPA to see if the badger would make an appearance.

We arrived in Yellowstone a few days too late to see the fox kits at the Yellowstone Picnic Area (YPA) and too late to see the drama that happened with the badger that ended up killing the fox kits.  We knew that the badger had been seen in the area but weren't expecting to see what we saw next.

We pulled into the YPA to see the male fox at the 2nd den site digging furiously.  He would dig for a few seconds then stop and look off to his left:

After doing this five or six times, he finally disappeared into the den.  He reappeared with something in his mouth, moved a few yards away and dropped it.  He then went back to the den and repeated this a few more times:

It quickly became obviously looking through the lens that he was pulling out the remains of the fox kits.  The scene was enough to bring tears to your eyes.

Once he was done, he went over to the spots where he had dropped the remains, rolled around, and sniffed the area:

He then walked up the hill a bit and greeted the female fox that we didn't even know was there.  She had been laying down in the scrub hidden from view.  They rubbed against each other a bit and then the female proceeded to head down the hill. She walked over to the to the 2nd den site and the area where the remains were to sniff around just like the male did:

She then walked back up to the male and they rubbed against each other again.  It was incredibly touching:

After a few more minutes of this, the male got a burst of energy and started to hop around and run back and forth, but the female didn't join him and instead just watched:

After a a minute or so of this, the male went back over to the female and greeted her again.  Then they both walked up the hill and disappeared...

It was such an emotional experience for us as we watched this unfold because we knew that we had just witnessed the foxes holding their version of a memorial service for their lost kits.

It is so hard not to humanize animals when you witness something like this that seemingly had so much human emotion to it.  At the end, it even appeared as if the male fox was trying to cheer up the female fox which is such a human thing to do.  It was a somber evening for us but an amazing piece of animal behavior to witness in person.

We never saw these foxes again the rest of the trip.  We wish them well and hope to see them successfully raise a new family next year.

On the way home we had one adult coyote at the den site but not much else except this great panoramic view of the Lamar Valley and the hundreds of Bison that had moved in.  




We didn’t get back to the cabin until close to 9:30 so it was another light late dinner and bed for us. 

Daily Highlights:

• 7 Black Bear (3 cubs)
• 4 coyotes (2 pups)
• 2 Moose (1 baby)
• 2 Red Fox
• 1 Grizzly Bear
• 1 Pronghorn fawn
• 1 Bighorn Sheep

Yellowstone - Day 7

We “slept in” until 5:45AM today but were still out by 6:45AM which isn’t too bad.  It was 37 degrees when we left and it reached as high at 75 degrees in the afternoon. Today we were going to make sure that we beat the rush to Trout Lake.  In the Lamar Valley, we had another scoped Black Bear but nothing was happening at the coyote den.  We saw 1 coyote in Little America but everything was quiet elsewhere.  Back towards Trout Lake we had another coyote harassing some Bison and the moose with calf was out again at Pebble Creek but they were no closer than they were yesterday.

It was around 9AM when we reached the Trout Lake parking lot and we got one of the last spots.  We got there just as the Yellowstone Association bus was unloading a group of elderly passengers.  Good for them…It’s quite an ascent up to Trout Lake.  All the same, we got ready really quickly and made sure we beat them to the trail head!

It was calm up at Trout Lake and as our luck would have it, there was one otter out fishing.  We watched it dive in and out of the water like a dolphin would as it was hunting.  Just as we got ourselves into position near a fallen tree that we knew would be a good resting place for the otter, it made a close appearance and entertained us for a while.  








We were also entertained by a pair of American Avocets:

We headed up to Buck Lake again to see if any more otters were out but none were.  The lake was very picturesque now that the flowers had started to bloom.

After the hike, we decided that we needed to try to get better pictures of the moose and baby.  So, we parked at Pebble Creek and walked out into the trees lining round prairie in hopes of getting close enough for some pictures but not close enough to bother them.  Unfortunately, the closest set of trees to them was still pretty far away and we felt we would potentially disturb them if we left the trees so we just stayed there for a while and watched them.  The moose calf was sleeping on the shore of the river so there wasn’t much to see.

I had a hankering for another Western Chicken Sandwich and more baby watching (in this case elk) so we headed to Mammoth next.  We had one coyote on the way at Blacktail Ponds.  Initially we struck out with elk calves in Mammoth.  All we saw were females with no babies…weird.  After lunch, just as we were backing the car up to leave I saw a female Elk and calf on the hill behind the hotel.  We parked the car and headed out quickly to see them before they disappeared.

As it turns out, the female ended up leaving the baby hidden in the sage as she walked down into Mammoth to graze on the grass and gossip with the other females. “Oh Marge, did you see the antlers on that young buck down the hill?  I sure would enter estrus for that hunk”.

Since we had yet to make it down the Western side of Yellowstone past Sheepeaters, we headed that direction next.  We hit the tail end of a bear jam at Grizzly Lake.  A Female and three cubs of the year had just walked through a meadow.  They were now up in the pines a bit.  We stopped and waited a while in hopes that they might come back out into the meadow but they didn’t.  We did get some fleeting glimpses of all 4 bears which was great.

Back at Roosevelt, we decided to stop to see if the Flicker had a nest in the sign post.  As we got there, a Flicker appeared and headed for the hole.  Just as it was about to land in the hole, a pair of bluebirds came out of nowhere and attacked the Flicker. They ended up driving it away.  Is it possible that the Bluebirds were nesting in the hole this year?  It’s a big hole and likely not a good place for them but their aggressiveness towards the Flicker seemed to indicate that they owned the hole.  We stopped at the sign each time we passed for the rest of the trip but saw nothing so we don’t know what is nesting in the hole this year if anything is at all.

Back in the Lamar Valley we stopped to scope the coyote den and saw one pup out and about.  We played scope-a-goat again at Mt Barronette and found 3 including 1 baby.

Our next stop was outside the NE entrance.  We had heard about a Red Fox den site in the area and our plan was to find it.  The pair of photographers with tripods was a dead giveaway so it didn’t take us long to find the den (how had we NOT seen it before?).  We stopped only to learn that we “just missed” the fox kits.  We chatted with the other photographers for a while until they left.  We planned on staying until it was too dark to take pictures because seeing fox kits was #1 on our list of things to do.  Just as it was getting too dark, I saw movement which belonged to 4 legs behind a bush.  However, once the kit got past the bush and saw us it turned around and disappeared.  That was it…our only fox kit sighting to date.

Despite that little disappointment, it was a great day.  Of course we decided that next day would center around the fox den because we just HAD to get better looks at a fox kits.

We had our typical 9:30PM soup and bread dinner and retired for the evening.

Daily Highlights:

• 4 coyotes (1 pup)
• 4 Grizzly (3 cubs)
• 4 Mt Goats (1 baby)
• 2 Moose (1 baby)
• 1 Red Fox (1 Kit)
• 1 Black Bear
• 1 Otter
• 1 Elk Calf

Yellowstone - Day 8

Today was our last full day and we had a lot of things planned.  We wanted to head up the Beartooth highway in morning light to get some better pictures and we wanted to maximize our time trying to find fox kits.  With the latter goal in mind, we had used some of our local contacts to hire a guide.  The guide knew of a different fox den and a likely place for a Great Gray owl.  Today could be a great day!

We were out a bit later at 7AM today because we wanted to stakeout the fox den site from last night for a while and we heard that the kits weren’t active first thing in the morning.  We hung out until 8AM until one of the photographers from the night before stopped by for a chat.  As it turns out, the kits were spotted at 6:30AM so we “just missed” them again.  After waiting a bit longer we decided to head up the Beartooth.  Driving East a little bit later in the morning turned out to be a good thing since the sun had risen enough so that it wasn’t blinding us as we drove.  Besides checking out some new territory, the Beartooth was our last hope of finding Pikas.  The only people that had seen any Pikas had seen them along the Beartooth and we had a general idea of where to look.  The drive along the Beartooth was spectacular.

We did see some wildlife along the way including multiple Yellow-bellied Marmots:

We stopped at all the pullouts that were near good Pika habitat.   I got out at each of them and scanned for movement as long as I could (it was cold AND windy) but we saw nothing.  Finally, Karen got a glimpse of one but it disappeared before I could see it.  By this point, we had run out of good Pika Habitat so we continued up the Beartooth admiring the scenery.

We turned around before Red Lodge because we had Fox Kits to find.  On the way back down, we repeated the process of stopping at all the turnouts and scanning for movement until my fingers turned numb (Did I mention that it was cold?).  Finally, this process paid off.  I spied a Pika down on the rocks and beckoned Karen out of the warm car (only MY fingers were the ones getting numb). The Pika darted from rock to rock but was too far away for decent pictures and the wind prevented us from hearing it’s cool “Eeeeeeee” call.  Our Pika mission was finally accomplished although I had hoped for a closer experience.

After enjoying more sandwiches at Buns and Beds in Cooke City, we staked out the fox den for a while but no kits made an appearance.  We then headed into the park for a few hours.  As luck would have it, “Hot Ranger” was manning the entrance booth as we entered the NE gate which was obviously a good omen.  In the Lamar Valley, one coyote pup was hanging around the entrance to the den.  We saw a Black Bear at the Yellowstone River Bridge and another at Elk Creek.  The second might have had a cub but we didn’t see it.  

On the way back to Silver Gate we stopped in to check out the Golden Eagle nest at Slough Creek.  Both parents were around and we got a good look at the chick as well.  We also saw two coyote pups out and about around the den site in the Lamar Valley.

We met our guide at around 5PM.  The plan was to look for a Great Gray owl that was making appearances at this time of day along the Beartooth.  So, off we went.  The light along the Beartooth was great but the owl didn’t make an appearance.  On the way back to Cooke City, we did happen across a nice Red Fox

It was still light enough for us to go check out another fox den site that the guide knew about and we are so glad that we did.  Not only did we see all three kits for a while, one of them entertained us for at least an hour.  We watched this kit as it played with bark, practiced pouncing and digging and even saw it catch some bugs and a worm.  The latter was especially nice to see given that these foxes were orphans.  Their mother had recently been killed by a car and the father had long ago left the den site. 

These darling little kits will need to grow up very fast if they want to survive.  We were so excited to get great looks at our first fox kits but heartbroken at the same time knowing that these kits faced long odds at survival.  For now the neighbors are helping to feed them and we hope that is enough.

After a great experience like that we celebrated by having dinner with our guide and his girlfriend at the Log Cabin Café where we made plans to meet up tomorrow early to continue our search for a Great Gray owl.

Today’s highlights:

• 4 Red Fox (3 Kits)
• 3 Golden Eagles (1 chick)
• 2 Black Bears
• 2 Coyotes (2 pups)
• 2 Pika