Album Wildlife

Moose encounters. This guy keeps messing up my irrigation line intake. Adopted wallow. Geeezzze are those critters big, especially up close.
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The family went to the US Virgin Islands for Xmas 2024. I had seen a photo of a sea turtle and decided that I wanted to get my own, but I figured I would not be lucky. Well it turns out the Salt Pond Bay had a bunch of them hanging out ignoring all of the tourists swimming around them. The water was about 15 feet deep, so easy to photograph them once you found one.

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The rays on the other hand move fast, very hard to photograph
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The eels don't stop and pose either
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Not a bad way to spend a day in December :)
 
Earlier this year I was mowing the field behind my office building. I noticed a lot of milkweed plants so I zigzagged around the larger stands leaving a patchwork of tall/short stubble (much to my business partners confusion -- perhaps he thought I was tipsy).

Here we are a bit later in the year and I think my efforts are bearing. . . caterpillars. I've noticed a number of Monarch butterflies hovering around and I know they utilize the milkweed. :thumbsup:

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A family of 4 grizzlies provided a couple of minutes of entertainment from the car as they casually fed on berries at roadside on Wednesday.
I didn't manage to get all 4 in the frame at once as they moved in and out of view:

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Making the most of a good berry crop this summer:
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Looking to be in good shape for winter. Thankfully they are protected here in the provincial park:
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After days of seeing many Moose in several ponds in Grand Teton NP, we observed a bull and cow in rut.

We spotted them on the opposite shore and they seemed to be headed towards our lunch spot (opposite right side).
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We sat down for lunch, kept observing everything around us and eventually I spotted some furry ears moving in the bushes, close to the water edge, upwind from us. Then the cow walked into the lake. A French couple showed up next to us.
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We knew the bull was around somewhere. I didn’t like the bull was out of sight, so I tiptoed up to the trail and immediately saw big antlers moving in the trees. The bull was headed our way, so we backtracked down to the lake and he passed by

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We waited a while, then we followed and saw him again. Now the cow was out of sight, but we kept looking.
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The bull started digging a pit, then lowered his hind to pee! The four of us were “hiding” downwind behind several trees, everything was fascinating so we failed to notice the cow had now made its way to the bull. So much for keeping an eye out on the cow….
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That scent is amazing! Zoom in
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The bull rubbed his antlers where he peed
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Then she laid down next to the bull and kept sniffing, the scent was clearly irresistible. Amazing scenes followed:
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We were downwind from them during the scenes above, but we eventually continued on trail (upwind). A few more people showed up and suddenly the cow got up, walked away and settled down further away. Sadly, she clearly got disturbed, we were too close and/ or too many had arrived. He got up and slowly followed her.
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She settled down further away
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The bull shook off the debris
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They settled down again. But I wish we left earlier before she got up.
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We were finishing up breakfast at a TH and a young black bear was zigzagging straight towards us. I scrambled to remove the food bowls and get the tailgate closed up. Then he changed direction, only got an iPhone shot.

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Next up, we saw 3 moose in a pond, they were there for a couple of hours. First a cow eating in the pond with a young bull resting on the shoreline plus another young bull resting and barely visible on shore in high grass. Eventually the young bull went into the pond and finally the third followed the other two out of the pond, crossing the trail several times. Then things got very hectic, as many people had arrived. We left, as the 3 moose were surrounded from all sides by people. Here are the photos before it got crazy

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