May 13, 2016
Grizzly Bear Sow and Two COYs, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Yesterday, the day before Friday the 13th, was especially good for me in Yellowstone National Park. In the morning, I watched three wolf pups playing on an adult just outside their den. They were small in the frame through a friendly wolf-watcher's scope, so it definitely wasn't a photo op, but it was still the first time I had seen wolf pups in the wild. Then while leaving the area, I found a very cooperative sparrow singing its heart out atop a sagebrush bush. What a nice way to start the day. The afternoon was really slow until I rounded a corner and saw a traffic jam. In Yellowstone that usually means interesting wildlife, and the bear jam was for a Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) sow with at least one cub of the year (COY) or spring cub. I thought I was late though because they were close to the road and heading away rather quickly. I found a place to park and watched as they, a sow and two COYs, stopped just within shooting distance to forage. Soon they started to parallel the road and come slightly closer to it, so I moved to another parking area to stay ahead of them and I was able to get some nice shots with my 600mm and 2x tele-converter.

Note that the sow has a big gash on her head over her right eye, likely from an encounter with another bear. Maybe she'll gain the moniker Scarmom. The cubs stayed really close to her and stood up frequently to look around. I don't know if they were keeping an eye out for other bears or were just astonished by all of the humans and their shiny metal boxes — there's so much to see when you're new to Yellowstone. I moved down to another parking spot to continue to stay ahead of them and was in a good position to photograph them as they approached using my 600 and 1.4x tele-converter. They kept coming so I took off my tele-converter and soon had a cub standing up full-frame with just the straight 600! It doesn't get much better than that! Enjoy!