Trumpeter Swans on Henry's Fork

There is a special magic in observing the graceful Trumpeter Swan. This week we photographed these birds on the Henry's Fork of the Snake River, at Last Chance in Island Park, Idaho - part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

It was about an hour before sunset when we arrived at Last Chance and set up our photography equipment. More than a hundred birds were visible on the river, with the late afternoon light catching the pure white of the mature adults beautifully. 

The birds seemed wary when we walked down towards the bank, and moved off in another direction, some swimming, and some taking flight. But if we walked along the road they seemed tolerant of our presence, no doubt having seen plenty of humans and cars in that location.

Periodically some of the birds would seem to stand up on the water, stretching and flapping their wings, or would take off, fly a short distance, and land with another group of birds.

As sunset approached, the swans became more active, with more birds flying up and down the river to land in different locations.

Yellowstone National Park reported this year that "Participants in the West Yellowstone Christmas Bird Count tallied 190 trumpeter swans on the Madison River and nearby open waters adjacent to Yellowstone National Park on December 16th. The Madison and Yellowstone rivers within the park also provide favorable wintering habitat for trumpeters, most of which nest in northern Canada." 

A few thousand swans are reported to winter throughout the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Most of them are birds that nest and spend their summers in Canada. Read more about wintering Trumpeter Swans in Greater Yellowstone in my blog post of last January.

Bull Elk #10 in Yellowstone

This magnificent bull was resting not far from the road, in the late afternoon. We spotted him on September 2, 2012 near the road between Sheepeater Cliff and Mammoth in Yellowstone, and of course immediately noticed the yellow tag in his ear. He turned out to be the "famous" bull elk #10 that others have photographed and written about. 

Bull Elk #10 in Yellowstone ~ Jean Bjerke photo

As typically happens in Yellowstone, he had attracted an admiring small crowd, who wisely kept their distance. Park rules require humans to stay at least 25 yards from this massive animal.

Bull Elk #10 resting near Blacktail Ponds ~ Randy Bjerke

Curious whether we could find records of bull elk #10, we found mention of him in Beth Pratt's blog from September 2008, when her pictures showed him to be a beautiful 6x6-point bull. In February 2009 Kurt Repanshek wrote in his National Parks Traveler about the death of another well-known elk, bull elk #6, characterizing these two bulls as having been arch-rivals. In January 2011, artist and sculptor George Bumann photographed bull elk #10 near Blacktail Ponds, and by this time the bull had a beautiful, even seven-point rack of antlers. Bumann wrote "I sure hope that we will get to see him next autumn!"  In June 2012, the Guidebook of Yellowstone Wildlife reported that bull elk #10, "one of the most popular bulls in the park," was spotted near Blacktail Ponds. A google search turned up some beautiful images and several videos of this bull. What a privilege to see him ourselves!

Bull Elk #10 - Note perfect 7x7-point rack ~ Jean Bjerke

Bull Elk #10 ~ Jean Bjerke

Well, he is back! He looks good, well-fed, with his coat in good shape. A beautiful animal, he will no doubt again be one of the dominant males during the elk rut in Yellowstone. 

Bull Elk #10 ~ Jean Bjerke

Wondering how he came to be tagged? Al Nash, Public Affairs Officer in Yellowstone National Park, provided this explanation to Elizabeth Laden, editor of the Island Park News: "Several years ago, this particular elk managed to get a badminton net and poles wrapped around his antlers. He had to be darted and immobolized to remove the items. The FDA has concerns over potential impacts the chemical residue may have if humans consume the meat within a certain period of time. Tagging the animal serves as a flag to hunters to check on the history of the animal if harvested."

Bull Elk #10 ~ Randy Bjerke

Wildflowers of the Gravelly Range

In summer, mountain meadows bursting with spectacular wildflower displays create carpets of color extending for miles atop the Gravelly Range in Montana's Madison County. The rangers of Madison Ranger District lead an annual wildflower tour, which this year took place on July 8th.

Meeting at the ranger station in Ennis, the car tour covered about 60 miles round trip, mostly on gravel roads, and moved through all the vegetation zones from the Madison River Valley to the alpine zone at the top of the mountain range. After driving through the foothills, the first stop was in the montane zone. Summer flowers abounded, and showy arrowleaf balsamroot covered large swaths of the hillside.

Arrowleaf balsamroot

Flax

Parry's Townsendia

Phlox

Ball Anemone

Fields of blossoming bistort reached their white blooms above the other flowers.

At the second stop the colors were different, and the fascinating pink prairie smoke and delicate forget-me-not dominated fields scattered with lambs-tongue groundsel.

Prairie smoke

Forget-me-not

Lambs-tongue groundsel

There was a lunch stop in a lush subalpine meadow ringed with firs and adorned with tiny wildflowers, of which the most showy was the shooting star.

Shooting star

The tour then proceeded another five miles, past meadows full of beautiful blue sky pilot and other flowers, surrounded by amazing views of snow-capped peaks and ridges in every direction.

Sky pilot

Finally reaching the alpine zone at an overlook above the Ruby Creek drainage, old man of the mountain smiled his sunny smile above plants like kitten tails and draba which hugged the ground, and sky pilot bloomed its beautiful blue. The adaptable paintbrush, found from lower elevations up to the alpine zone, is quite stunted at this elevation.

Old man of the mountain

Kitten tails

Draba

Paintbrush

Island Park, Idaho

This is our second home, a place of natural beauty, where the lodgepole pine forests of most of Island Park give way to fir and aspen north of Henry’s Lake, around our cabin and near Raynolds Pass. 

Magnificent wildflowers carpet the fields and hillsides each spring. Early in June, delicate glacier lilies cover the ground, and flowers like the shooting star, western virgin’s bower, and sugar bowls bloom.

Glacier Lily

Shooting Star

              Western Virgin's Bower

 Sugar Bowls

The rare Calypso Orchid below was photographed somewhere in Fremont County. I have promised not to reveal where, as it is rare and endangered in large part due to the impact of human development on its habitat and growing requirements. The plant has very precise requirements regarding the soil and other conditions in which it grows, including the particular fungi in the soil. Even walking close to it can disturb the soil enough to jeopardize the health and reproduction of the plant. What a lovely, delicate flower.

Calypso Orchid

In contrast to the delicate beauty of the orchid is the showy, splashy bright yellow of the mules ears that bloom around early July. These are actually my favorite flower around our cabin, because they cover acres of the surrounding hillsides, and meadows throughout Island Park, with bright swatches of color. The acre and a half of wildflower meadow below our home is dominated by these flowers for a few weeks every summer - amazing us with the saturation of color that is almost more than the eye can take in, and defining my mental image of this place that I love.

Yellow Mules Ears

Interspersed in this bright wildflower meadow are sticky geranium, lupine, and paintbrush, along with many, many other flowers that will come and go in their natural sequence throughout the summer.

Sticky Geranium

Lupine

Paintbrush

The birds are all in their brightest breeding plumage in June, and the annual robin’s nest appears again under our deck. 

Breakfast for the babies!

We are cautioned by Forest Service flyers left at our door, and by the local newspaper, to keep bird feeders 10 feet off the ground and 4 feet from the nearest vertical support so as not to attract bears - or better yet, not to put out feeders at all! 

This season there have been more bears around homes and cabins here than in the eleven years we have been in Island Park, and our neighbors all have stories of a large black bear that had been regularly circulating through our area up to a couple of weeks before we arrived, climbing up on porches and decks and peering through windows. Two years ago we found big bear paw prints in the dust on our garage door, five to six feet above ground level. However, we have still only once seen a bear in our area in eleven summers, which is fine with us.

Some of the birds here are so bright and exotic looking they might look appropriate in the tropics.

Lazuli Bunting

Western Tanager

The tree swallow and mountain bluebird are both cavity nesters that readily build their nests in nest boxes provided by humans. The tree swallow seems to be more aggressive, winning out most fights over a nest box. But this one chose the more natural route, nesting in an aspen that faces the morning sun.

Tree Swallow

Mountain Bluebird

Other frequently sighted birds:

Rufous Hummingbird

Red-Naped Sapsucker

Black-Headed Grosbeak

About the third week in July, a blue-winged teal appears on the pond with 11 ducklings. In this photo they are about a week old.

Nearby, a spotted sandpiper hops along the bank, with the characteristic bobbing of its rear end.