"Tres Hombres" 3 Bighorn Sheep Rams
common goldeneyes 
typical bison jam. they own the road....
Sunday - March 13, 2011
Of course, I headed straight out to the Lamar Valley. I poked along, keeping my eye out for all those darned Foxes (the little animal variety) that everyone reports and I didn't see a darned one.
My first pull-out found me with Rick McIntyre and Laurie Lyman. (Rick sort of head up the wolf project as far as keeping count on a daily basis visually, as does Laurie, and she posts on the Yellowstonereports.com) They were scanning the area after Blacktail, before Tower, where you can see Hellroaring to the west in the distance (don't know the name of that area, will insert later). They said it had been slow day for wolves. She was very friendly and shared lots of knowledge about the wolf packs that I asked about. I have been keeping my own running list of the packs, numbers, colors and numbers to refer to so I don't sound completely ignorant when talking to the Wuffies. (I guess I one of those now) that is the term used by some on the Forums to describe those of us who are wolf fanatics. I'm actually a nut for all the animals but the wolves are kinda the celebrities in the park. I gotta give equal time to the Grizzly Bears who aren't out year round.......and then the Bison, who are equally as popular, if not plentiful. then there are the elk, the coyotes, otters, eagles, ermine, beaver, Pronghorn antelope, badger, cougar and so on.........
I got passed the buffalo institute and spotted some different looking "ducks", so I decided to get a [icture. they took off, but hunted them down and finally got a pretty good picture. these are called Common Goldeneyes
That day didn't produce any unusual viewings, but I got a nice shot of 3 Bighorn Sheep on the hillside just NW of "the hitching post" (last bathroom break turnout about 2/3 of the way into the valley) I call that shot "Tres Hombres".
I got lots of elk shots, saw whitetail deer on the way in, loads of Bison and then 2 coyotes down near the river. It was just plain good to be back in the Lamar Valley, even though it was almost completely white everywhere.
I was really surprised how nice the roads were. I expected to be driving on packed snow the whole time. the roads are the worst between Mammoth and tower, and then they clear up in the Lamar. I think it's because of the altitude and also there's more tree cover to keep the snow from melting.
I stayed at the Super 8 for 2 nights. Reports were that they had the best WiFi and I didn't want to miss my computer time. I bought that little netbook just for that reason.
I have found that I don't type very fast on it, so thank goodness there are computers for the employees to use.
Be patient, I'm still trying to figure out this upload on the pics feature. for some reason it won't let me insert right where I want them......
