Thursday, January 21, 2021

Yellowstone in Winter

We live near Yellowstone National Park now so it is an easy mini-vacation during the pandemic. Winter is the best time to do Yellowstone because the crowds are gone and you can actually get to the thermal features that have jam-packed parking lots during the summer. We did a snow coach tour to the waterfalls a couple years ago, and this time we did the Old Faithful tour. Along the way we saw plenty of bison, a few coyotes, and a fox off in the distance.

Sometime this winter we want to do the Lamar Valley, which unlike most of the park is driveable in winter. We would hope to see elk and bighorns in that part of the park, as we did two years ago. Click on the image to start the slide show.


Bison in a geyser field

Saturday, January 02, 2021

Photo of the Year 2020

As I was pondering my Photo of the Year for 2020, I realized I never picked one for 2019. Thanks to the miracle of backdating, I now have one posted. See below for "Yellowstone Coyote 2019." I certainly didn't have the volume of images from which to pick for 2020, in part because the pandemic cut down my travel, and in part because we completed our move from the Midwest to Montana. I ended up picking one where I wasn't even there to hit the trigger: A mountain lion on trailcam near Luther, MT. This is my second trailcam POY, the first being 2014 with the framing elk antlers. Other 2020 images of interest were the usual 4th of July fireworks in Red Lodge, MT, deer and moose in our new yard, Badlands burrowing owls and bighorns, and elk and bears in Yellowstone.


Mountain Lion
Mountain Lion

Here are my POY selections for 2002-2019.

Young red-tailed hawk Junior I (2002 edition) right outside my office window.
Junior I 2002
Gentoo penguins greet each other, Jougla Point, Dec. 4, 2003.
Gentoo Penguins 2003
Puffins on Machias Seal Island, Gulf of Maine, 2004.
Little Brothers 2004
Bald Eagle along the Mississippi River, 2005.
Bald Eagle 2005
Blue Jay, 2006.
Blue Jay 2006
Eagle with fish, 2007.
Eagle with fish 2007
Great Horned Owls, 2008.
Great Horned Owls 2008
Custer State Park Bighorn, 2009.
Custer SP Bighorn 2009
Keokuk eagle, 2010.
Keokuk Eagle 2010
Sertoma Butterfly
Sertoma Butterfly 2011
Dark Morph of Broad-Winged Hawl
Dark Morph 2012
Yellow Crowned Night Heron
Night heron 2013
Elk Frame
Elk Frame 2014
Squaw Creek Geese
Squaw Creek Geese 2015
Elk
Elk 2016

Eclipse
Eclipse 2017

Eagle
Eagle 2018

Yellowstone Coyote
Yellowstone Coyote 2019