Sept 9, Wed - day 34
West Yellowstone, Montana
Weather-low 27 (-2C) to mid 70s (24C) clear



Slow start, not wanting to overtax ourselves, but feeling rested after a good nights sleep we just pointed the Red Rocket (Yaris) toward the Park and went. One thing about the Park is you just can’t go far without seeing something to shoot: bison, osprey, mystery hawks, people, dogs, car jams, frantic Park Rangers, people fishing, ducks, geese, wading birds, thermal features, forests in an ever changing mode, and of course, elk which are showing up more frequently in the Madison Valley each day. We have yet to see bear, wolves, coyotes or cougars but we have hopes that before we leave we’ll get a shot of some of them.



Today we were able to get some better shots of our mystery hawk and really thought we might catch an osprey diving for fish. We did manage some decent shots of one osprey sitting in the river, apparently drinking (water). We saw another osprey, not diving but working its way down the river looking for a fish. A good deal of time was spent following the bird and waiting for some action. The lighting conditions were great, we had our fingers crossed for some action, and the darn thing still wouldn’t dive.



While I was hiding behind some trees, with an open shot, didn’t matter if the osprey flew north or south, some Northern Flickers showed up wanting to share the tree with the osprey. I passed up shooting them, stayed focused on the osprey. Minutes later I heard a Belted Kingfisher working its way down stream. Not wanting to be left out, the Belted Kingfisher decided it wanted some space on the tree the osprey was sitting in.

Now there had to be an opening here for some kind of shot….but not today. The flickers flew away, the kingfisher took off downstream and while I was trying to get a shot of the kingfisher, the osprey flew upstream. Feeling somewhat defeated, I crawled through the brush and got back to the car. Racine had a decent shot of the kingfisher that she was reviewing and I had zippo. In the car, off we go and WHAT! Just fifty feet in front of us the Belted Kingfisher lands in a dead tree. It was looking upstream, but eventually it turned around into great light and snap-snap-snap, finally a decent shot, at least I like it. You just never know when something will turn up.




We head for home, the adventure continues….



To see more of our Yellowstone National Park images click HERE