May 15, 2012
Bull Elk Running in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

OK, so I'm not very good at waiting. You may recall that I found an orphaned Bison calf two days ago along Soda Butte Creek beyond the Lamar Valley and that I returned at first light yesterday morning to be there when the action happened. Well, here's a glimpse into the exciting life of a wildlife photographer.

• 4:40 am – wake up
• 5:05 am – depart for the commute to the action
• 5:50 am – to the calf before sunrise (around 6:00) and it was still alive out on the gravel bar
• 6:30 am – a bison cow, probably the mother, came down to look around the area where the calf likely got separated
• 7:00 am – leave to check out other things because the sun had crested the horizon around 6:50 and the backlighting was terrible
• 7:50 am – found some elk running to photograph
• 8:12 am – back to the calf, get out my laptop and work up a blog entry
• 9:45 am – leave to look for something to photograph before the light gets really bad, and didn't find anything interesting
• 10:50 am – back to the calf and it was still out on the gravel bar
• 11:23 am – leave to go to an area with cell reception and post the blog entry
• 12:50 pm – back to the calf and it's off and gravel bar and in the grass, sagebrush, and willows — other photographers told me that it had been running around and had even tried running after an adult — shoot, I missed some real action
• 2:40 pm – leave and check the area — didn't find anything interesting
• 3:43 pm – back to the calf and it's calling, the bison herd has moved a bit closer to it
• 4:48 pm – leave and search for bears almost as far as Norris — didn't see anything
• 7:44 pm – back to the calf and there were a whole lot of people there and some were leaving — ut, oh — a wolf had run by around 7:30, but the calf was still doing fine
• 8:00 pm – depart and try to find something to photograph before sunset (around 8:40) — didn't find anything
• 8:55 pm – back to the RV, download images, downselect images, take a shower, process an image for the blog
• 10:30 pm – go to bed

So, the calf survived another day and this photographer was quite frustrated to have missed two key events.

I got up at the same time this morning to go check on the calf and sit vigil all day if I had to in order to get the action today. Shortly after I arrived, and joined some other folks who were waiting, two videographers stopped and said the show was over. Last night, around 8:30, a wolf came down from near where the herd had been, discovered the calf, fought with the calf for about 40 seconds, the mother bison came charging down to the calf, drove off the wolf, nursed the calf, and then took it back to join the herd. So, there you have it — it's important to get up really early in the morning so you can hear about what you missed. :)

I photographed this bull elk running during my first excursion away from watching the bison calf yesterday morning.

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