The Field Notes section chronicles our adventures at home and abroad in this daily online journal. We have compiled an Archive of past years which you are welcomed to access at the bottom of this page by clicking HERE. As the seasons sometimes pull us in multiple directions for extended spans of time, please understand if updates are not daily (or even weekly if on long adventures but be rest assured―we'll catch you up as soon as we return!

5/12/08 Monday

 It's snowing here this morning - not much is visible above the level of town. Two black wolf pups have been seen at the Slough Creek Wolf den so far this season. I also heard from friends that the sandhill cranes have laid two eggs on the nest at Floating Island Lake in the Park.

5/11/08 Sunday

 Took a few minutes up in the Park around Mammoth to do a small oil study of some juniper trees I've been eyeing for some time. Some recent research has shown these trees to have attained amazing ages... one tree in fact, was aged at ~1500 years old. One small juniper removed during a sewer line installation in the Park was ~800 years old - it was only 6" in diameter! To read an article on the findings of researcher John King relating to trees and climate change research, click HERE.

Juniper trees near Mammoth Hot Springs Campground. Oil 4x6".

5/9 - 5/10/08 Friday-Saturday

 Jenny and I went for an overnight backpack down into Hellroaring Creek in the Park. This was the first backpacking get-away we'd had just to ourselves in a while.... will fill in details and sketches from the trip when I get a moment.

5/8/08 Thursday

 Jogged with the pups this morning... they don't like my pace. Either I'm going too slow for the gear they have allocated to that speed range or I don't stop enough to sniff the local marking spots. It's amazing how many points of interest a dog, much less two dogs, can find along a 3-mile stretch of road. Needless to say, there are several bison still in the Gardiner area who have yet to go back up into the Park. The bison researchers were sitting on watch over a cow they had radio collared. One of the big motives for marking these bison is to get a sense of their birthing behavior as this is one of the major avenues for the disease brucellosis to be transmitted (through the fetal material). They started up the truck and drove off about the time I turned around; sitting and waiting for a bison to birth is about like sitting around to watch water boil...

5/7/08 Wednesday

 The skies opened up this evening... pouring down rain... you can almost hear the grass and trees sucking up the moisture. Snow levels in the Park are beginning to retreat, especially on south-facing slopes. What was, the previous day, a settling embankment of white is little more than a plot of wet soil today. Jenny and I walked the pups up at Eagle Creek on the National Forest and had to divert around a few bull bison about mid-way along the hike. Back near the truck was a nursery herd of cows and their new calves - the calves are just so much fun to watch with all their excited, reflexive movements.... at one moment they are stock still - flat out on the ground, the next they are leaping strait into the air or jouncing about on all four legs. Then the rain started - and we continued walking at our usual pace enjoying the heightened sense of smell that spring rains bring, finding out where our raincoat hoods leak, watching the dogs shake themselves out of a halo of water droplets and seeing the veils of rain sweep up the Yellowstone Valley and merry the low-shot clouds to the ground.

5/5/08 Monday 

Spent this morning in Lamar Valley in Yellowstone with friends Deb and Jason from Virginia, and their friends Ron and Margaret. We rendezvoused at the Midpoint Pullout in time to see a long-legged grizzly strolling away towards the south side of the Valley. We expected the dark furred bear to 'post hole' through the snow banks as he crossed them but they must have frozen enough over the night that he had little trouble. Work 'had it' that the Druid Pack yearling wolves were digging out another coyote den to the east (we later did hear that they did get on of the pups and carry it back to their den area), but once the bear went out of sight we scooted westward over to Slough Creek to see if we could spot the first pups emerging from the den. No one had yet seen a pup from the Slough Pack's litter outside of the den and we were determined to put in some time watching. From ~07:30 until ~11:30 we stayed with our scopes on the den area and scanning the surrounding landscape. We watched as 4 different female adults entered and exited the den hole in the slope north of Slough Creek Flats. At one point we had 3 females all in the den together with the pups. the alpha female, 380, would alternately go into the den, come out, say at the entrance then lose interest. Her white feet and muzzle showed up distinctly as she lay in the dark den entrance (see sketch to right). At a few other times we saw what looked like an adult coaxing the pups to come out but the most we got as these girls poked their heads into the den was a slight tail-wag on the part of one adult... no pups though. I did hear later that at ~1pm the first pup did emerge into the outside world - a black one... damn! I missed it by an hour and half... We did see the balance of the Slough Pack out to the west near Mom's Ridge moving  some elk herds around. At one point they had about 20 cows and calves backed right up to a granite outcrop but carried on with their travels without testing this group.

Sketches including s study of William F. Buckley from a magazine image (for drafting practice) and field sketches from watching the female wolves of the Slough Creek Pack around their den. Note: the sketch of the female with her head & shoulders in the den- rump in the air (below and to right of Buckley) and that the date in the sketchbook reads 5/6... actually it was the 5th... I tend to lose track sometimes.

5/4/08 Sunday

 Two of the Druid wolf pack yearlings were close to the road this morning... way too close... In other words walking within 15 feet of people parked AND outside of their cars. The to wolves were trying to cross in order to feed on a carcass that was just north of what's known as the Midpoint Pullout in Lamar Valley. I did stop in order to do some sketching but what folks along side me don't realize, is that this is could be a death sentence for these two pack members; getting this used to being this close to people is unhealthy. They are planning on hazing them with cracker shells (noise-making bullets) or rubber bullets. If this doesn't work, they could go so far as removing the wolves (according to the Park's habituated wolf management plan), but this has yet to have happened in the Park with wolves doing similar things. More likely is that they may be hit by cars because of their road-tolerance like the previous alpha male of the Slough Creek pack.

I made these thumbnail sketches of the gray and the black yearling wolves as they crossed the road amid a sea of cars on either side of the road and amid loose crowds of onlookers and photographers. The backlight was divine!

5/3/08 Saturday

 Spotted the first white butterfly of the year today - this means, unlike the other species seen to date that overwinter as adults, this species has come out of the chrysalis (the butterfly equivalent of a cocoon). It was frosty this morning but the skies became clear and warm and lingering snows gleamed from the high country. I took some down time around the house today and did this oil paint study of Electric Peak from our deck for about 30 minutes.

A palate knife study (6x8") of Electric Peak - the tallest Peak in the Gallatin Range at 10,992' as seen from our deck.

5/2/08 Friday

 The Druid wolf pack tried to catch a bison calf this morning near Crystal Creek in Little America.

The wolves (that we initially though were Slough Pack members, then Agates, turned out to be Druid Pack Wolves) were hot on the heels of a group of about six bull elk that were sprinting in a tight cluster, along with about a dozen pronghorn that got mixed up in the fray. We initially spotted them from the Slough Creek pullout with rriends Deb, Jason, Deb and Dave. We then sped down to the Crystal Creek Pullout where we could hopefully see the outcome of the chase... no luck. They went out of view and came back minutes later looking tired and empty handed. At this point they went back to the bison herd they were harassing before the elk chase. There were about 5 cows and 4 calves. The wolves, five of them, approached from different angles as the bison clustered and

place the little red calves in the middle. Female bison took turns lunging out at the wolves as they got too close. The poor little calves didn't know what to do as their mothers left the safety of the formation - you could almost sense the "oh, no! do I go with momma or stay in formation?" These rusty colored bison babies were only days old. All the bison, including these tiny calves had their tails in the 'full alert' posture - which means strait up. With steadfast determination, and experience of instinct and years past, the female bison managed to thwart the wolves attack after about 5 minutes and once again the hunters left with nothing to show for their efforts. They headed east back over the divide south of Lamar Canyon, spooked another and much larger nursery herd of bison along the way before dropping back into their own territory and out of sight.

Some very quick memory sketches of watching five of the Druid Wolf Pack members try to catch a bison calf.

5/1/08 Thursday

 Guess who was at our front door this morning.... none other than the budding Bull Elk #6! Jenny was up before I and yelled downstairs "come and look, there's an ear-tagged bull elk!" She was right. The image below shows this very well-known and unique bull sprouting his 2008 antlers. It is good to see he has made it through another winter and I just wonder if he will reign as supreme as he has in past years during the Mammoth Hot Springs rutting season. This year he already had to share the spoils with his old enemy Bull Elk #10 and the the newer guy on the block know as "Moose" aka "Brutus" (who coincidentally is the bull that I sculpted from life in September 2007 for the bronze "Intermission" - see the Gallery link). It is worth noting as well that #6 is developing his antlers much earlier and faster than other bull elk - most of the elk in the Park only have budding antlers the size of light bulbs or with minimal branching beyond that. To see Bull #6 with is full set of anters on AND off this year, click HERE.

Bull elk #6 near our front door this morning... friends had seen him about half way to Mammoth Hot springs a couple weeks ago and I had assumed he had made his usual journey back to his summering grounds near Blacktail Plateau. Maybe he saw the snow accumulations that are still lingering and had second thoughts...

4/30/08 Wednesday

Storms roll in and out all day... as I write (8:30pm) a heavy squall of flowery white flakes drift to the earth on a slight angle from above and west... this shot is from this morning as a snowy front moved through around 8am. This view westward down the Yellowstone River Valley includes the Roosevelt Arch and the old Cecil's Fine Foods building - now owned by the Yellowstone Association.

  Went out birding this morning around the Blacktail Ponds area of the Park from ~06:30-07:30. The bird life was quite boisterous for what there was - especially the wailing song of the northern flickers, screeching bald eagle perched behind me, crows, ravens, mallards squawking, Canada geese honking, rails sounding out from the hidden corners of the marsh grass... a complete list of the ones I saw or heard in the hour or so I was there amounts to the list below.

Crayon studies for an upcoming falcon sculpture done this afternoon.

4/26 /08 Saturday

Continued with my monthly sunrise photograph this morning to track the sun on its journey across the horizon through the seasons... actually the journey of the earth around the sun and the change of the sun's angle of radiation.

A composite photograph of the sunrise, starting with the winter solstice, as it crests the horizon as seen from our driveway in Gardiner, MT

  Relaxing at home doing some larger sketches (18x24") from some reference video footage... this is a young grizzly kicking back and relaxing as well.

4/25/08 Friday

  Snow seems to be keeping many of the bison down around Gardiner where some are giving birth at lower elevation... those that survived being rounded up and sent to slaughter, anyway... flocks of juncos everywhere!

  Our first bison calves! Since being out of town we haven't seen some of the newborns ourselves... there were 4 calves with their mothers near the Roosevelt Arch loop in Gardiner, MT.

4/18/08 - 4/24/08 Friday - Thursday

  Whirlwind tour of the the northern US Rockies... from home through the snow-swaddled Park to Salt Lake City Utah where Jenny and her friend Rachael Gray ran the Salt Lake Marathon. Jenny did the half marathon in lieu of the fact that right after the run we departed for Moscow, Idaho where she defended her thesis... successfully, I might add, then it was off for home with a short stop to visit George and Pam Carlson at his studio in Harrison, ID.

Two happy runners before the start of the Salt Lake City marathon... Rachael on left, Jenny on right.

4/16/08 Wednesday

  Chilly out, snow blanketed the ground from the level of town, all the way up to the top of Sepulcher and Electric Peaks this morning. Ran the dogs in the snow, gave a talk for a Yellowstone Association class at mid-day and got to handle a dead wolf from the Park. The "light gray male" wolf that has been hanging around with the Druid Pack all winter (actually the last 5 months, and who bred with a few of the Druid females) was found dead about 2 days ago - the field crew just went in today to recover his carcass. Apparently he went up into the den area and the pack turned on him. Erin from the wolf project was kind enough to let me take a series of measurements of this wolf before they "collected" his skull for research measurements and disposed of the rest of his remains somewhere in the Park. The bite wounds that he sustain were quite severe including bite marks to his belly, chest, back and neck. Although the largest hole in the skin was only ~1.5" wide, the hemorrhaged tissue, indicative of wolf kills on any animal, extended both broadly and deep into his body. It amazes me how big these wolves can be at times... the feet especially. He weighed in at 49 kg (108 lbs) and was 6.2 feet long from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tailbone.

Yet another spring snow squall coming over the mountains to deposit on Gardiner.

4/15/08 Tuesday

  Tax day... did you get yours in? Drove up to Bozeman and Livingston to run errands amid a true spring snowstorm. I felt sympathy for the motorcycle driver I saw heading south amid the blizzard conditions and gusting crosswinds... he had no facemask on his helmet... if he had a helmet on at all...

Experimenting a bit more with conte' crayon... sketch of an Alaskan brown bear 18x24".

4/14/08 Monday

  Jenny and I took a walk up at Eagle Creek with the pups... Lots of bison in the drainage gobbling up the newly arrived green. Also spotted our first kestrel of the year after hearing the whoosh of a tiny jet plane... I looked up to see the little falcon stooping down on a flock of songbirds - it missed though.

4/10/08 - 4/13/08 A short visit to California

A view eastward to the ridges near Morgan Hill, CA, from Aunt Sally's porch swing.

  In California... Jenny and I went to help out with a Yellowstone Association event in the San Francisco area AND to visit with her aunt Sallly in Morgan Hill. I must say that the warm temperatures and the green hills of the region were quite enjoyable... so much so that Jenny and I rode up the highway with the top down on Aunt Sally's BMW convertible on the way to have breakfast with friends in Redwood City.... there was more than one other commuter, clad in winter jackets, hats, etc. that shook their heads at us as we motored along :) I guess that is what living in Montana does fore ones 'cold tolerance'.

Just the chickens... one of Sally's roosters (left), Jenny ready for a ride in the BMW (center, left), Jenny and Aunt Sally on porch swing (center, right) and one of the egg-laying hens from the coop (right).

4/8/08 Tuesday

  Yesterday afternoon and early evening was blessed with the most marvelous snowfall over our little town. With scarcely a breath of air, there came out of the sky broad, cottony flakes of white that settled to all things below with a quiet grace that leaves one spellbound - unable to leave the window... low afternoon light filtered through ether festooned with white, and off-white and for many of these large flakes, they actually blocked the sunlight that did make it through making them appear as dark freckles overhead.

Took a run with the pups this morning... for our twice-weekly, 3-mile jog. Poor pups... I'm still getting back into shape and my pace is about 1/2 way between a trot and a walk for them. They may be burning as much or more energy then I... at least the distance that their tongues begin to stick out, on would think so... I'll get there Jasper and Casey...

Made this conte crayon sketch (18x24") while working on the buffalo sculpture.

4/7/08 Monday

  Sounds like the Slough Creek wolves have yet to give birth... despite remodeling the den site in preparation, the alpha female 380, at least it still billowing at the seams with pups. Word has come of a bison calf spotted near Mammoth 2 days ago...

Carolyn Duckworth called yesterday to report that she had seen her first osprey of the year down on the nest atop the old pole north of Gardiner along the Yellowstone.

4/6/08 Sunday

  A cow bison was found dead along the Yellowstone River Trail by Jenny the other day while going out for a jog. I walked down there today to examine the carcass. Sadly, I saw the cause of death as I walked through the fetid cloud of air around her... it was a strand of barbed wire that had become ensnared around her right, hind foot - just above the hoof. She must have died of exhaustion from the long winter and then this. Her remains lay sprawled out in a muddy seep of water and I had to stand on a couple rocks as to not get my feet wet. From there I put on my latex gloves and felt her fur, and limbs, and tail. Someone had already removed her head, presumably for the skull, and left a paper coffee cup and top next to her tail. I'm working on this bison herd sculpture so any additional info is helpful, SO I pulled out my folding knife and opened the skin over her left shoulder in a line all the way down to her hoof - so I could examine her upper leg shape, muscles and boney points... poor old girl, at least she will in part be immortalized in bronze after her passing. A small bit of homage I can pay, I suppose, for the >1400 who have been shipped away to their demise this winter.

4/5/08 Saturday

  Tom Torma and I went out into the Park this morning at 06:30 just to see what we could see... or hear... We did hear the first sandhill cranes of the year in the Park in the Slough Creek area - we never did see them. The Slough Creek wolf pack is digging its den for the year - apparently the alpha female 380 had been digging/remodeling the old den in view of the Campground road... the one that they were besieged in in the spring of 2005 by the "Mystery Pack" as depitcted on the Nature program "Valley of the Wolves".

Sketch of a bull bison in deep snow (along with two thumbnails of a wolf kill scene with scavengers) from near the Lamar River/Soda Butte Creek confluence area.

4/4/08 Friday

  Took a jog by myself this morning (no dogs... Jenny took them on a run up at the Travertine Mine north of town). Clear blue skies, still chilly and windy out. Winter does not want to let go of the Yellowstone Plateau just yet. Some green sprigs are beginning to show up, almost imperceptibly, in the nooks and crannies of the Gardiner area. More bison coming down out of the Park, several thin elk with necks nearly bare from itching/scratching and ticks.

4/3/08 Thursday

  Spent the early part of the day working on the bison sculpture until it was warm enough to take the piece out into the areas of town where the bison were hanging out. There were two very gaunt cows and a herd of ~10 bulls that I used for subjects over the course of ~3 hours today. I sculpted mainly using the bull of the group as reference as they offered the best subjects. Their winter coats are still in place though a few are starting to show rub/bare spots on their hips and shoulders. Sadly, the bull group kept moving downhill and west toward the capture facility run by the Park Service... I followed them from the Arch Loop, to the Arch Park and then to the Gardiner High school football field. Each time they would localize to graze would position the truck around to that I could set up the sculpting stand and slide the sculpture out of the bed of the pickup - all 70" of it. At times I was as close as 20' to the bulls (though I had the sculpture between them and I and the open back of the truck to my back in case a quick dash to cover was needed). Being this close to them, one really gets to see the individual differences in their coats, horns, hooves, noses, hairdos, eyes... than the temperament and position on the sliding hierarchy... amazing creatures. Given the wanton destruction of these animals this winter by the Park and the Montana Dept of Livestock, I will likely title this sculpture in a way that reflects the events of the winter of 2007-08 for the bison of Yellowstone.

Sketch of one of the two gaunt bison cows at the Gardiner High School athletic field. She seemed so exhausted from a long hard winter... her head kept nodding and her eyelids would fall, her posture slump until she was shaken back to consciousness by her own flinches.

First Butterflies! I spotted on Milbert's Tortoiseshell butterfly as I drove down our street to observe the bison and another flew by as I was sculpting at the Gardiner High School athletic field. AND I observed some frisky cottontail rabbits... the classic courting behavior of the rabbits chasing one another, leaping into the air, then spinning around on a dime to face one another before making another mock charge and leap!

Panorama shot of snow piles and coverage on Blacktail Plateau, Yellowstone.

Jenny and I went out into the Park this evening... no bears were to be seen, though our main goal was to find sandhill  cranse... couldn't find any of those yet either. The Blacktail Ponds area, as with most of the Park above 6000' is still swaddled heavily in snow... more than we have seen in several years, but alas, in the broader perspective, this amounts to what is really only a "normal" winter based on the past several decades.

4/2/08 Wednesday

  Blustery cold, east wind this morning. I was up at 5am working on the bison herd sculpture and had breakfast with Jenny and the pups when they got up to start their day. Winter still seems to want to hang on despite the onset of April... The first bison calf sighting should be not too long into the future. Many bison are going back up into the Park, but not nearly enough.. this winter has been the greatest bison slaughter by the State of Montana and the Park Service to date. A friend saw sandhill cranes in Paradise Valley this last week. It won't be long before they are in the Park - if they aren't already.

Instead of drawing last night I decided to try my hand at a bas relief sculpture of John Lacey - the U.S. Representative from Iowa who drafted the very first legislation protecting wildlife in this country (inspired by the wanton destruction of the last wild bison herd in the lower 48 states here in Yellowstone) in the late 1890's and early 1900's. It is still a work in progress and needs some more refinement...

A few photos of field work on the bison sculpture taken on March5, 2008 by Jim Halfpenny from A Naturalist's World.

3/29/08 Saturday

  Keeping up the hand-eye coordination... with a sketch of a sculpture Jules Dalou, by Auguste Rodin, pictured in the National Sculpture Society's, Sculpture Review Magazine," Winter 2007 Issue.

3/27/08 Thursday

  Spent all of yesterday in the studio getting a new sculpture ready for the foundry... a moose. I'm pretty happy with the way it's turned out. Today was largely spent inside the park watching wolves with Bart Walter. We had some pretty amazing views of If any of you have a chance to visit the National Museum of Wildlife Art before June 23, Bart has a one man show there entitled "An Eye Toward Africa: the Art of Bart Walter," including ~50 bronzes and some works on paper. He also sculpted the monumental elk bronzes, "Wapiti Trail," that now permanently graces the entry way to the Museum in Jackson.

We took a short hike down this this bull bison carcass to take some measurements (left) down along the Yellowstone River beneath the bridge near tower and afterward took a short walk upstream of this point and spotted this amazing iron-rich stone (right)... what COLOR!

3/25/08 Tuesday

  Had a great day out in the field with sculptor Bart Walter from Maryland and film-maker friend, Sava, from Jackson.... We has some good opportunities to watch the Druid, Slough packs as well as a wonderful ivory flock of about 12 trumpeter swans. The three of us stopped for lunch at Buns-N-Beds in Cooke City. Afterwards we stopped at the Hartman's in Silvergate to see any of the pine martens were visible... they weren't... I have terrible luck with the marten sightings... AND Bob and Holly of Silvergate Cabins were kind enough to rent us a Swarovski spotting scope for the duration of Bart's stay... Do check them out if you are in need of high-quaility optics or lodging at the NE corner of the Park... these guys are great!

3/24/08 Monday

 First bear of the year! A grizzly on a bison carcass. first bluebirds and redtail hawk too...

My first bear of 2008... a grizzly on a bison carcass as seen from ~1.5 miles through the spotting scope... yep, a long ways off but definitely a bear, and a big one at that (upper left), a bull bison photographed from at ground level... I was along side the Yellowstone Bridge at Tower photographing the River when this guy made his way a cross the bridge... we met as I walk up to the road edge (upper right) and a trio of white-tailed deer in the same area - these characters are a rarity in the Park believe it or not. Mule deer are most common member of the genus Odocoileus in Yellowstone (bottom).

 A wonderful bit of sunlight over Lamar Valley and Specimen Ridge.

3/23/08 Sunday

  Happy Easter! First red-winged blackbirds???? I ran the pups in a game of fetch over at the Arch Park... until the small group of 6 elk took over the field... and I thought that, between the sounds of dog feet and wind through the spruce, I heard the songs of red-wings... though the starlings are known to imitate all sorts of things - they would have had to have picked it up somewhere... Pronghorn and more elk watched our game and ousting by the other elk from hills just over the park border to the south.

  Sounds like a grizzly was visible on a bison carcass at Hellroaring overlook yesterday morning and that the Hayden wolves were in the hills south of the road and high bridge near Mammoth/Bunsen Peak.

3/22/08 Saturday

  Finishing up the details and cleaning up the studio after making the mold of new moose sculpture... stay tuned... pics will be up on the gallery page once the bronze is out and photographed. Walked the dogs with Jenny up near the travertine mine north of town... Jasper and Casey were quite taken with all the carcasses/animals remains in the area... Casey found herself the most scrumptious bison trachea and Jasper found what I can only guess was a dehydrated bison urethra... ah, the simple delights of a dog's life...

3/21/08 Friday

  I have been taking photos at sunrise each month since the winter solstice from our driveway in Gardiner... we all know that the tilt of the earth combined with the earth's rotation around the sun gives us the seasons but to really know is what I'm after. My plan is to carry this little photo series out until the summer solstice in June... and who knows maybe back towards the winter solstice after the summer wanes. It is part of this very change in day length and sunrise/set that is bringing our spring greenery, antler drop by the elk, bear emergence from hibernation as well as brining our bluebirds back... Jenny and I saw our first this afternoon! Chickadees are singing the "seeeee saaaaawww" song of their spring nuptials.

Got to see the Oxbow wolf pack this morning - 15 strong from Hellroaring overlook in the Park. The pack was feeding on a bison carcass. I had been looking for elk, actually, I was watching one large 6x7 bull elk in hopes that maybe, just maybe, I'd get to see his antlers drop off (many of the larger bulls, including those around Lava Creek and Blacktail Creeks, among them #10, have dropped their antlers in the last week). No such luck on this day...

A photo series taken each month from our driveway of sunrise on the eastern horizon since the winter solstice.

3/14/08 Friday

  I had great visit with friends Kris and Ray near Billings today. They invited me up after meeting Kris on a program in the Park this winter. The two of them are falconers and have a bison herd on their place too. I was able to take some shots as the herd came in for their daily treats at the gate near the house. Ray was also kind enough to bring their 2 year-old female gyrfalcon so I could take some photos... what a beautiful bird! Their male gyr/peregrine hybrid was beside himself with affection for the female - now that we're nearing the breeding season - he called and danced his way around the perch for his fair maiden... she wasn't impressed... at least not yet.

Kris and Ray's group of bison come in for their treats.

One of the cows... maybe #27? comes in for her share of what Ray's about to hand out (left) and a quick oil sketch from the hills near Ray and Kris' looking east (right).

Ray with their 2 year old, female gyrfalcon.

3/11/08 Tuesday

  The first bears are out! A Yellowstone Park press release noted that the tracks of an unknown species of bear - probably a grizzly in my estimation - were spotted in the Park's interior over this past weekend!

  Doing some study sketches while putting some of the finishing touches on a moose sculpture that I'm working on.

Study sketches of moose from photos; facial and torso details (left) and view of bottom of a dried moose hoof from Jim Halfpenny's track museum in Gardiner, MT.

3/9/08 Sunday

A bed-time drawing of Jenny.

  I had the opportunity to see Bull Elk #6's shed antlers today! I stopped back by the property where #6 supposedly dropped his mighty crown this year... and had the good fortune of catching JoAn Winters at home AND, YES, he did in fact drop them in her yard and she was kind enough to show them to me and allow for a few pictures and some measurements. She is going to keep the sheds, rather than sell them... as well she should, she's had a wonderful time watching this bull over the last few years in and around her yard. Number 6 dropped his antlers in the adjoining yard last winter. ¶ People are always curious when watching this massive bull in Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone as to the weight and dimensions of these antlers. JoAn said that she had weighed the rack on a bathroom scale while holding them in her hands and reported that they added 20lbs to her weight. Both main beams to the antlers were 54" long and each of six points per beam measured between 11 and 19 1/2" long... the G4 points, or "dagger tines", as they are sometimes known, measured 19 1/2" and 16" for the right and left antlers, respectively.

Bull Elk #6's antlers being held by JoAn Winters just a few yards from where they fell off the bull on March 2nd.

3/8/08 Saturday

  On the Trail of Bull Elk #6's antlers- As with past years, Bull #6 was one of the first elk to drop his antlers - usually around the first week of March; this year it was on March 2nd... and I'm presently trying to get my hands on them in order to measure/weigh them for the sake of curiosity. We have been watching him for the past several years as he has been one of the prime players in the Mammoth Hot Springs elk mating season. Many of us have assumed that the pattern of older bulls dropping their crowning headgear earlier than the younger bulls was a factor of the weight of those antlers pulling down on the ever-weakening union with the skull... As we have observed in the past, when Bull #6 had his antlers sawn off by Park officials, he still dropped the remaining stumps at the same, early time. The conclusion from this one case would lead one to believe that the drop time is physiologically-related; in other words, it seems that the need to begin growing the next year's crown necessitates the disposal of the old. Unlike one of this past rivals, Bull Elk #10 who winters on Blacktail Plateau in the area of Blacktail Creek, Bull #6 has wintered in Gardiner... so we have a better diary of his late-winter doings.

Here is a shot I took through my spotting scope of Bull #6 in velvet on May 9, 2007 on Blacktail Plateau - you can already see the extraordinary width of his rack taking shape even at this early stage of growth (left) and two shots of Bull #6 in Mammoth shot by artist Kyle Sims on September 19, 2007.

A shot of Bull Elk #6 on March 10th, 2008, just 8 days after dropping his crown (left) and another shot of Bull Elk #6 in velvet a little further along this past spring 2007 growing the very same rack that he just jettisoned (right photo by Kevin Leatham- as posted on www.Yellowstone.net)

  This afternoon I spoke with the woman, who, while walking to work down the back alley of Gardiner, watched Bull Elk #6 drop both of this antlers. Apparently a van drove up and #6 leapt up into a adjoining yard which directed him between two lilac bushes which cleanly plucked both sides of this headgear from their seat on his head.

  Additionally today, artist friends Shirl Ireland and John Stacy reported to me that John witnessed a pack of wolves kill a pronghorn buck right across the Yellowstone River from their house yesterday afternoon here in Gardiner! John got to watch the whole thing from his perch high above on the upper levels of some construction he is working on next to the house. This is quite a rare thing to have happen in the first place (only ~ 0.5% of ~3000 kills made by wolves recorded to date in Yellowstone have been kills of pronghorn) and even more unusual for someone to get to see it... congrats John! John, Shirl and the kids took a walk over to that side of the River today and found the carcass of the pronghorn... it was completely cleaned. There was some speculation as to whether the pronghorn may have been sick or injured as it was all by itself and as Shirl put it, "it didn't go into turbo speed," when the wolves were in pursuit. Usually, a pronghorn with a top speed of 60 mph is no match for a wolf with a top speed of 30 mph.

3/5/08 Wednesday - Sketching and sculpting bison from life in Gardiner.

  I'm working on a sculpture of a herd of five bison going through deep snow. With the bison traveling through town today, as they have been doing a lot this winter, I simply put the sculpture (all 70" of it) in to the back of the truck with my sculpting stand and followed them around town.... amazing to watch these creatures, and, as a bonus, one gets to find out where all the best grass is in town at this time of the year....

  Studies from life of geometry and forms of cow and calf bison faces.

... and another bed-time sketch of Jenny...

3/3/08 Monday - Watching with Kirsty & Alan Peak and friends from the UK

  It was one of the best views I've had at the Slough Creek pack in quite some time. The pack had made a kill on the western side of Lamar Canyon. We had good luck in that the pack came back down to the carcass of the elk for another meal before going back up onto the hills to the north to rest and wait for dark... the people along the road were scaring them from their hard-won feast.

Sketches of the Slough Creek wolf pack from life.

3/1/08 Saturday

  It was a great day in the Park with Kirsty and Alan Peak and their friends Jo, Sheila and Iris from the UK. They were here for wolves and wolves we saw... as well as a few other things...

2/28/08 Thursday

  It's another day catching up on errands and things in the office... including working out an illustration for the cover of Ursus - a journal dedicated to international bear research.

Doing some preparatory sketches for a bear illustration for the cover of Ursus.

2/27/08 Wednesday

  Spent the day out painting on location in the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone Park with friend Aaron Schuerr....

Bison herd near where we were painting at the confluence of the Lamar River and Soda Butte Creek.

Aaron with his last piece of the day as our light slipped away with the sweeping veils of snow above.

Hard at work, Aaron steps back to check his painting... as a group of cow bison have a look at he and I... don't worry... Soda Butte Creek separates them from a up-close visit.

2/26/08 Tuesday

  It was a day for foundry work and errands in Bozeman. While walking the dogs this morning down on White Lane in Gardiner, Jasper, Casey and I were 'pushed off' of our game of fetch by a herd of 14 cow bison... beautiful creatures, yet sadly doomed to be sent to the rendering plant if they cross back to the south side of the Yellowstone River. As I drove down the highway towards Livingston I had to pause as a caravan of government vehicles, rangers, horse/cattle trailers and a county sheriff squad car entered the highway at Corwin Springs - they were transporting another load of bison from the Stephens Creek Capture facility in the Park, bound for the rendering plan. I followed them all the way to Livingston where they entered the Rt. 90 going east. Wish there was a better solution to this problem... I almost rather see them hunted in greater numbers than trucked for how-ever many hours, just to be killed elsewhere after they've had a chance to batter each other around in a stock trailer.

 On the ride back into Gardiner tonight, near dusk, two young bull elk sparred in the road near the Forest Service Office as big bull elk #6, of Mammoth Hot Springs renown, grazed and quickely put the youngsters in their place as they got too near to 'his' grass in the lawn. Bull #6 still has his antlers on BUT, very soon the crown will fall... a thought not lost, I'm sure, on the person sitting, you might say waiting, in the parked car across the street from the bulls.

2/19-2/21/08 Tuesday-Thursday - True to Life Drawing Class in Yellowstone at the Lamar Valley Buffalo Ranch

  What a day to finish the drawing class - True To Life: The Art and Science of Drawing Animals... We went out for some watching this morning, as we did yesterday, bypassing the wolves and wolf watchers on the hunt for red foxes and moose. The weather continued to be chilly, about 1-2 below zero F and cooling a bit more as the morning sun rose, before warming the valley and breaking up the temperature inversion. As luck would have it our eagle-eye spotter Ivanie spotted two moose, cows - one near Silvergate bedded beside the road and the other standing and feeding near the Barronette Peak  area inside the Park. AND, while driving back to Lamar from the latter cow, we came upon another cow moose standing in the road... this one with a calf! What luck - I haven't seen a moose a several weeks and here we find 4 in one morning drive... if this weren't enough, back near Soda Butte cone we found our ever-elusive red fox... amazing little fellows. They have been seeing up to 3 different individuals on the elk carcass north of the Hitching Post pullout in Lamar... but we've just missed each one until this one. We watched as the fox walked in the tracks of a bison until it got as close as it deemed appropriate to the maker of those tracks, then veered off for points untrammeled - floating across the deep snow like a water-strider over a pond top.

2/18/08 Monday

  An incredible sight with friends Aaron and Lynell Schuerr and boys in the Park at Blacktail Pleateau.... two intruding male wolves get in a fight over the ladies they've lured away from the home-town, aka Leopold, wolf pack... the cartoon below recounts my recollections of the scene that unfolded right before our eyes at a distance of 200-800 yards.... in fact, the main chase of the losing male came right toward us at the road pullout where we were parked.

Cartoon of the events surrounding one male wolf chasing off another, then stealing his girls...

2/11/08 Monday

  Jenny and I were slaves to the office today but did break away to go for a ski up in Jardine,~ 7 miles up the road. Just before leaving the last few houses in Gardiner we, or I should say, Jenny spotted 3 bighorn rams right down near the road (3/4 curls or better)... and quite low in elevation too I might add. The usual elk and mule deer girded our route as well as a few bison up in the Eagle Creek campground. Folks from the Buffalo Field Campaign reported that the Park has capture 53 bison at the Stephen's Creek capture facility. Four additional ones were killed in and around the campground as part of the Montana State bison hunt in the last few days. The place is alive with eagles, ravens and magpies. I'd much rather see those bison shot here than shipped to a rendering plant hours away, which is what will happen to those in the capture facility - it would be a much more compassionate thing to do if these animals are going to die.

2/10/08 Sunday

This was a very quick sketch in oil on canvas using only a palate knife very thick paint. This 6x8" study is of sage and fir trees on slope on the west side of "Yankee Jim Canyon" 14 miles north of Gardiner, MT. I was waiting the truck for Jenny to finish her longest run to date in preparation for the Salt Lake City marathon... 16 miles.

2/9/08 Saturday

 A day at home together after a spell of traveling. House work, office work and all the rest gladly slid out of the way as Jenny and I loaded up the pups and took off for a ski up in Jardine... the snow is wonderful and the dogs were in seventh heaven. Each black dog took turns diving into the airy white stuff and immerging, leaping or swimming out more alabaster than black. With a shake they become our familiar black dogs again and turn for more of the white stuff. Driving home the mule deer along the road took turns leaping up the drifted banks to graze on some of the south facing slopes. I stopped the truck so they wouldn't be rushed and burn more energy than required. Does and fawns alike waded, and at times, partially bounded through snow that reached part way up their bodies.

2/5 - 2/7/08 Tuesday - Thursday

 A great time was to be had the last few days as I and Brad Bulin taught/guided a group from the Greater Yellowstone Coalition in Lamar Valley. With a comfortable bed and great food at the Buffalo Ranch we were treated to 3 days of amazing wildlife viewing including 'doorstep' wolf watching of the Druid Peak Pack. On our second morning the Druids spent quite a bit of time chasing off one of the two intruding males that has been in the Valley for almost 3 months now. Later that morning they made a new kill not 1/2 mile from the back porch of The bunkhouse... in full view of the Buffalo Ranch and the Road. Another unique sighting, which I caught a lot of grief for, was a group of 6 white-tailed deer along the Yellowstone River; all females. This is a very unusual sighting which I tried to convey to the group, which had amassed from all corners of the US where white-tailed deer are certainly in no shortage, they weren't as impressed as I. Truthfully speaking, white-tailed deer, raccoons, skunks... creatures that are common as "common" gets are actually quite rare here in the Park - this is probably related to the severity of our winters.

A memory sketch from this morning's view of the Druid wolf pack on a kill... an elk calf... we had just gone inside the Bunkhouse at the Buffalo Ranch for breakfast and word came that the Druids had just chased this calf over hill, right into view and made the kill with remarkable swiftness; it fell not 1/2 mile from the Bunkhouse and the road... quite close viewing. The beta male, wolf 302 (the black wolf on the bottom of the sketch), was the principle player in bringing the calf down.

2/1 - 2/4/08 Friday- Monday  A Family visit in Maryland... and a conference for Jenny.

Man waiting at counter to reschedule a missed flight... we were in the same boat.

 A proud "Pappy" aka John Golding Sr., aka, Jenny's dad, with Ethan and Bella (left), the Joey "the Glenelg Slugger" Buscher - Jenny's nephew (middle) and John Jr. with Ethan - Jenny's brother and his son Ethan.

Sketch of old aqueduct along Potomac River at Cushwa, Maryland.

1/31/08 Wednesday

Sketch of a golden eagle pair perched over one of their favorite duck hunting spots

at the confluence of the Lamar River and Soda Butte Creek in northern Yellowstone.

Yawning alpha female of the Druid Peak pack, 569F, and a simple sketch

of the entire pack of 15 wolves stretched out along the Valley.

1/30/08 Tuesday

This is an oil study (6x8") that I did of a cow elk and her calf entitled "Wolf Watchers". These two were frozen in place as the Druid Peak wolves moved through the foothills east of Rose Creek. I painted this from the front door of the Buffalo Ranch Bunkhouse while looking through a spotting scope.

Jenny is getting into the oil painting act and when I got home, she had this nice study from our front window of Sepulcher Peak and the underlying foothills.

1/29/08 Monday

  Love is in the air... wolf love that is. This is Day 2 of a program out in Lamar Valley with the Montana Wilderness Association. The mating season for Yellowstone's gray wolves is upon us and the wildlife viewing has taken a turn for the 'peeping tom' variety. We spotted the Druid Peak wolf pack south of Soda Butte Cone this afternoon and as one would expect, the Druid alpha pair were parallel walking (a sign of pair bonding that has both animals walking in unison with their flanks pressed together). The first observed "tie" between the pair did not come until February 2nd but we were getting close none the less. Afternoon conditions were still blustery but the amount of snow in the air has thinned out to the point where we could see the surrounding hills, as part of the group from the Montana Wilderness Association and I, skied the road out toward the Slough Creek Campground. We tried to make a loop of the ski but the alternately crusted and powdery snow made for difficult navigation as we all kept falling through up to our knees, or more, the further we ventured from the road.

1/28/08 Monday

....well.... nobody got out into the Park as the winter weather has become so severe that the entire Park is closed, over-snow travel (including snowmobiles and snow coaches) and automobiles included. The snow and drifting has deleted visibility and outpaced the snow plows en route to and from Cooke City. This is a far cry from some of the past winters that we've had that scarcely cover the sage brush... The Park's automated road report says that no one will be able to get in until after 10am tomorrow.

 Blowing like the dickens outside! A front is moving in and bringing with it snow and promises of more cold temperatures. Jenny and I drove home from Mammoth last night and could scarcely use the high-beams on the truck for all of the snow in the air... big poofy flakes of it. Luckily though we were able to spot the red fox sitting in the middle of our lane in time to slow an allow it to disappear in to the sagebrush. I'm heading out to lead another class for the Yellowstone Association/Montana Wilderness Association in Lamar Valley... a great place to get snowed in!

1/25-1/26/08 Friday & Saturday

 Had a wonderful time out leading a two-day trip into Yellowstone for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. The weather was much more amiable as of late now that the sub-zero Fahrenheit temps are over. The group was staying out at the B-Bar Ranch up in Tom Miner Basin, a 45 minute drive west of Gardiner. My partner and Brad and I drove out, picked up the group each morning than drove out into Yellowstone's Northern Range for wolf viewing. The first morning was a success almost off the bat as we found the Oxbow Creek wolf pack (with the help of a wolf watcher named Alan) lounging after its meal of fresh elk meat. The carcass was quite close to the road, and covered with birds, which probably resulted in their leaving the area as soon as the first cars began driving by. Five or six of the pack were clearly visible out of the 17 in this group right now - all gray with one black individual in the pack. From there we had good luck finding a break-off group of the Slough Creek pack known as 527's group. This female wolf for which the group is named has apparently gotten tired of the harassment by the Slough pack's alpha female and separated from them with the company of the female known as "Sharp Right", another black wolf and her new beau, a large gray male. Minutes later we were able to watch one of the unknown gray males that has been hanging around the Druid Pack on a carcass in the south side of Lamar Valley. There were actually 2 carcasses not far from one another... not sure if they both were wolf kills or not. Despite the wolf presence there were coyotes at almost every turn. Ravens, eagles, magpies and more filled out the cadre of scavengers at the carcasses. A couple bighorn sheep were visible near the confluence on Friday - though only a single ram and a ewe. There has been many fewer sheep on these hills to the north of the Lamar River/Soda Butte Creek confluence area in the last couple years.... not sure why either. The ram, as seen through the spotting scopes, looked to be a 7-year old with a slight bit of brooming to the tips of his horns (brooming is an attempt of the bighorn rams to get the curling horn tips out of their peripheral vision by smashing and breaking them off on rocks and other hard surfaces which results in a shattered/broken look to the horn ends). On Saturday we had a wonderful view of the Druid Peak wolf pack along Soda Butte Creek where they have been making so many kills this winter... yet again, they had a downed bull elk and, by the time we arrived, had filled their bellies and were sleeping it off on the far side of this small valley. It sounds like all 16 were there though we could count only 13 initially. AND the grand finale was finding a Barrow's golden-eye duck for Carol... all these wolves and stuff were nice BUT she had never seen a Barrows SO look and look we did only to find Common golden-eyes until FINALLY we stopped at the new bridge at Corwin springs just north of the park and found a raft of ~75 golden-eyes- of which, about half were Barrow's! Mission accomplished!

1/21/08 Monday

 Happy Martin Luther King Day! When Jenny got up this morning to let the dogs out the thermometer read -17°F. By breakfast it was a staggering 0°F... and ultimately got up to a high of 12°F at about 3pm before beginning to dip down again. The blustery winds of yesterday have ushered in a fine front of cold weather to compliment the last few days of snow we've been experiencing. Walking the dogs up at Eagle Creek today the snow gave forth a symphony of sound that only super dry and cold snow can have. As one plants the heel of a boot or shoe into this dry whiteness it gives a grunt, not unlike that of a little piggy, and as the ball of the foot follows through with the step there emerges a high pitched squeak - the mouse of my gate. As the dogs bound by the powder shooshes across more powder with the the whisper of beach sand amid the hot afternoon sun. So our afternoon walk went with slanted light, shadows of blue and purple on the hills and mountains and pigs and mice, pigs and mice and the conversations of winter sands underfoot.

1/20/08 Sunday

 A weekend day together... sort of. Jenny was supposed to run a 15 mile training run for her marathon preparations. The winds were choked with snow and howling from the west and the temperatures were frigid. After driving the Old Yellowstone Trail through Yankee Jim Canyon (through drift and clouds of snow) we realized that the conditions were just not conducive to a long distance run today. She opted for a 7-miler and called it short at that... the cold had soaked through to the point at which J made the 'alright-come-get-me-now-I've-had-enough' cell phone call. I on the other hand, passed much of the day pouring waxes for pieces that are due at the foundry... the dogs and I erred on the side of warmth. Before bed I made a quick oil painting sketch of Jenny asleep in bed (shown below). I am really enjoying playing with these oil paints... no aspirations of painting much, just having fun with it. They are so forgiving (compared to watercolors) and for me anyway, they are like sculpting with paint... color, texture, perspective, atmosphere... so many things that it can convey that eludes the medium of clay... If you see one you'd like to have, give us a call, we're selling these for a modest amount (prob ~$25-$30) so we can continue to purchase supplies. Each of those below are 6x8".

Experimenting with oil paints (clockwise from top left): Still life -vase and fruit, View west from Specimen Ridge Trailhead in Yellowstone, Jenny in bed and Winter view across Lamar Valley, Yellowstone Park. These are quick/simple studies done from life on canvas board (6x8"). We'll probably post more of these as time goes on (with the motive of selling them for $25 or $30 just so we can buy some more supplies... Jenny is at it too... and doing some nice work!)

1/18 - 1/19/08 Friday & Saturday  - Guiding the Websters at Old Faithful

Snow coaches are ready & waiting outside the Old Faithful Snow Lodge. They will soon be taking skiers out for their 'daily glide'. Jim and I opted to ski up the road to our trailhead for a ski out along the old gaited road to Lone Star Geyser.

One cannot beat the Yellowstone interior in winter. The mix if snow and thermal features - part of the "fire and ice" of Yellowstone, if you will. On the snow coach ride down to OF we drove past the Lower Geyser Basin where I snapped the photo to the left. The contrast of the dead tree trunks against the billowing steam of geysers and hot springs was just too irresistible to pass up. After darting through my over-stuffed day bag I was able to extract my camera for a few quick shots before we passed the basin by. Below is the 'parking' for the snow lodge. No one has their own vehicle down here and many of us get around the complex on cross-country skis.

1/15/08 Monday

 Images and sketches from the "Wolves of Yellowstone" program I taught in Lamar Valley. Photos are compliments of Regina Kolc.

We watched as the Druid Wolf pack alternately chased and waited for the elements to take their toll on this bull elk in Soda Butte Creek. He later fell to the wolves as did the bull who left his skull imbedded in the snowy bank to the back and right of the elk in the water... see the antlers sticking out? Photo by Regina Kolc.

1/14/08 Monday

 Preparing to teach the Wolves of Yellowstone Class out in Lamar Valley in the Park... so, this means a good bit of office work preparation... I did walk the dogs this morning and we had a hard time getting back home as the big bull elk #6 (because of the ear tag in his left ear) from the Mammoth Hot Springs autumn mating season melee, was in the road... just ambling along. For those who know him, or those who don't, his is the bull that had his antlers cut off a few years ago after ramming one too many tourist cars, Park service vehicles - some of which were parked AND goring a foolish tourist/photographer near the steps of the Mammoth Grill. SO, you can see why we chose to give him as wide a berth is possible. ie. he was on one side of the street and we squeezed our selves along the fence (with my hand on young Casey's collar) and back to the house.

A cow moose and a calf at Floating Island Lake in northern Yellowstone this evening! What a sight... they were side-by-side on the ice of the lake, standing there as the last remnants of evening light faded away. It is especially nice to see a calf alive and apparently doing well. Moose numbers took a big slide since the fires of 1988 and it will likely be a while before they recover to the point of pre-fire numbers ie. when the forests finally grow back... and in this country, it could be a long time.

1/5 - 1/9/08 Coors Art Exhibit & Sale at the Denver Stock Show.

 What a wonderful trip!... a great show, and great friends... this was my first showing at the Coors event and I was quite humbled by the outpouring of kindness from everyone involved with the event, along with the chance to be among so many outstanding artists, and the opportunity to see several friends from the Denver area and meet so many more new acquaintances. Our first night out Jenny and I stayed with John and Judy Scarlett in Johnstown, CO. John is one of our finest volunteers for the field seminar courses I teach in Yellowstone for the Yellowstone Association Institute. An added bonus of the stay with the Scarletts was Judy's otherworldly apple pie (seriously, I haven't had pie like that since my grandmother passed away some years ago) and learning to perform the impossible... folding a fitted sheet. Somehow the insanity of trying to fold these unruly bed coverings came up during our breakfast conversation and lo and behold... John and Judy knew how AND were patient enough to share this kernel of ancient wisdom with us... pictured below is my 'not-so-successful' attempt.

Judy, myself and John pose during my failed attempt at folding a fitted sheet (left)... and a photo Jenny took of Hugh and Nancy Grove and I with "Valley Vigil" - Wolf 42 at their home in Evergreen, CO.

 Jenny and I were very delighted to also have the chance to also stay with friends Hugh and Nancy Grove. We met initially during one of my wolf ecology seminars in Yellowstone and have stayed in touch ever since. An added bonus of staying with the Groves, outside of the superb dinner and great conversation was seeing the "Alpha Pair," - my life-sized wolves, installed for the first time at their home. If this was not a enough, the Groves have an amazing menagerie that comes through their yard and feeders including turkeys, mule deer, gray foxes, black bears, elk... below is a shot Nancy passed along of two tom turkeys sidling up to "Border Patrol" - the sculpture of Wolf 21.

Wild turkeys use the life-size sculpture of "Border Patrol" - Wolf 21 as a perch and display stage at the home of Hugh and Nancy Grove in Evergreen, CO.

 Following a wonderful stay with our friend Marilyn's in downtown Denver, Jenny and I donned our semi-formal attire for the Red Carpet reception for the Coors event at the Stock Show grounds. On top of seeing many new and old friends, we had the opportunity to meet Rose Frederick and Anni Bengtson (the hardworking women responsibly for pulling everything together for this event), several patrons and supporters of the Show and artists such as Ken Bunn, Len Chmiel, George Carlson, Jim Morgan, Steve Kestrel, Kent Ullberg, T.D. Kelsey, Walter Matia and many, many more...

Jenny and I at the Red Carpet Reception for the Coors Art Exhibit & Sale with two of my pieces on display.

1/2/08 Wednesday

 Blustery winds in Gardiner today. Blood in the urine of a coyote, up at Eagle Creek this morning while walking the dogs... this means the female is in pro-estrus, and the breeding season is drawing near for coyotes and wolves.

12/31/07-1/1/08 Spent the New Year with the crazy crew from Boise, ID.... the AUSTINS!

Sunrise in Lamar Valley in northern Yellowstone.

 It has become a bit of a tradition for this fun-loving group that we get together at the Lamar Valley Buffalo Ranch out in the north end of Yellowstone.

A snowshoe hike in a hidden nook, girded by cliffs of limestone, in the northern range of Yellowstone (left) and the 'gang' looking up the hills near the confluence of Lamar River and Soda Butte Creek (right) at...

...this magnificent golden eagle and bighorn sheep ram perched above us.

Sunset in Lamar Valley of Yellowstone Park.

12/28/07 Friday

 A swirling mobile of magpies, ravens, bald and golden eagles spins loosely above the grassy meadow north and east along Eagle Creek. Realizing that another bison must have been harvested, I drove a little further than usual before hopping out to hike so that pups would not go strait for a mouthful of bison entrails... and luckily they didn't. Overcast rules the sky and temperatures hover in the low teens. Birds are in the trees, birds in the air, young birds, older birds, birds on rocks and in the grass. Eagles sit aspen-top looking; beaks dotted with dry blood; their postures take on that of hunkered sentinels cloaked in plumed trench coats. Heads of the watchers, eagles and ravens alike demurely turn to watch the upright creature in green and the two collared black wolves walk the roadway. We're sticking closer to the road lately as a friends yellow lab was killed not far from town on Monday, on a route that we commonly take our pups for walks, in a snare set for coyotes. It sounds like the snare was legally set ~80' off the roadway, though it lacked a tag identifying the owner as required by law.

12/27/07 Thursday

 The bull elk known to the townsfolk of Mammoth as "Moose" - named so because of his unusually massive antlers, along with a few other bulls of the Mammoth Hot springs area, has been hanging out in the Gardiner area.... This is the bull that I sculpted from life last September for the piece "Intermission" that is currently in the Society of Animal Artists and Coors Art Exhibit and Sale shows. As the pups and I walked down for our morning fetch session "Moose" was grazing in the church yard all by his lonesome... what a great look at him, and those two broken points near the end of his right antler beam make him unmistakable. We politely left him lots of space as we threw and fetched our toys on the other side of the yard. He looked up at times, but contented himself more with the labors of survival in winter... i.e. paw the snow, expose some grass, eat, paw some more snow...etc. etc.

12/23/07 Sunday - 12/25/07 Wednesday - Merry Christmas to all!

 We escaped to the wilds of Silvergate and Cooke City Montana for Christmas time. We stayed at Pine Edge cabins and had dinner with friends Shauna Baron and Missy Miculka the first evening. Our drive through the northern range of Yellowstone to Silvergate was delayed for a few minutes as we stopped to watch the Druid Peak wolf pack feeding on a bison carcass north of the road... actually, they were feeding on it when we drove home as well... this is when the image below was taken through our spotting scope. Jenny, Shauna and I skied the Bannoch Trail with the pups and then stashed them in the truck so we could go for the 3.5 mile ski in the park along the Barronett Trail. The next day Jenny and I took the pups up the Republic Creek Trail out of Cooke City AFTER we called home to wish everyone a Merry Christmas from a pay phone in Cooke. We were delighted to take our friends Phil and Patty Washburn and Barb and Lou Lanwermeyer, and their families, up on an offer to have Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner with them during their stay at the Lamar Valley Buffalo Ranch.... THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!

Druid wolf pups feeding on a dead bison (top), Jenny and Shauna Baron skiing Barronett ski trail (middle, left), Jasper and Casey wading through the deep powder snow along the Republic Creek trail (middle, right) and the view westward down the busy main street of Cooke City, MT (bottom).

12/22/07 Saturday

 Today is the second anniversary of my dad's passing. This has been a wonderful year and one that we have greatly enjoyed... I'm sure he's been shining down on us. I am also certain that he would have loved to have been on the ground for my first successful elk hunt earlier this month. It did feel like both he and my grandfather were there to share in the experience in other ways. It is also the day after the winter solstice... the day following the longest night of the year, and demarcating the progressive lengthening of days from her until June. I called my mother to chat on this special day as the sun rose through a lens of clouds over Mt. Everts to the east and graced Electric Peak to our west in a wash of pink illumination.

12/20/07 Friday

Today was spent finishing up some odds and ends including some last reference/study sketches of the bull elk's skull and nose cartilages... endlessly fascinating! For the full account of the hunt all the way through readying the meat for the freezer, scroll down to December 5th.

Pencil studies of elk skull and nose cartilage

12/19/07 Wednesday

 I spent the better part of today amid the highly unglamorous, yet incredibly interesting task of dissecting the head of the elk I got earlier in the month. It had been frozen stiff up until I placed it in the studio overnight to thaw for this work... the dogs loved the prospect of having their very own elk head inside the house... What intrigued me most were the muscles of the face and ear of the elk. There were no less than 12 muscles controlling the movement and expression of the elk ear which is remarkable when one considers the range of expression of the human mouth for example - which has 14 muscles controlling it! We by comparison have 6 major ear muscles which, if you're good, can manage to get a bit of a wiggle out of your ears... a mere shadow of the range of motion, mood, intentions and health shown by an elk and other members of the deer family.

12/16/07 Sunday

 We went skiing up at Eagle Creek amid a nice batch of new snow!

Jenny and the pups and a closer-up of a happy skier :)

12/15/07 Saturday

 Went for a great ski in the Park with the Schuerr family along the Blacktail Drive... we were really impressed with the "Chariot" kid sled, actually this sled for two youngins converts into a great jogging stroller and bike trailer... who knew.. I was so impressed with how easily it pulled through the snow with Issak and Jasper in tow!

Clockwise from top left: Lynelle Schuerr, August Schuerr, Jenny, Issak and Jasper Schuerr and me and the boys.

12/13/07 Thursday

 Its chilly out, has been for a few days. We're getting a dusting of more snow - it's not much for accumulation but it obscures our views of Sepulcher and Electric Peaks to the south. The dogs and I just went for a run out along the Old Yellowstone Road. I particularly enjoy when, despite jogging with two 'wolves,' that the mule deer bedded in the Arch Park and pronghorn on the flats along the road stay bedded or continue grazing - thankfully, this is the usual case, otherwise we'd need to run elsewhere less disruptive... and less enjoyable. There were bison tracks coming up the Jardine Road past the end of our street... must have been the same bunch of 5 bison that I saw from the front window crossing the bridge over the Yellowstone River in town this morning... stopping traffic in all sorts of unusual ways. Sadly, this may be a rough winter for our bison and elk and we hope that another 'round-up' and destruction of the Park bison will not be in store as in 2005/2006 where 1016 were done away with.

12/12/07 Wednesday

 Public meeting proceeded tonight with the Alltel Company in the community center in Gardiner regarding a new cell phone tower. They had proposed putting a 150' cell phone tower along White Lane to cover Gardiner and Rt. 89. Needless to say they got a lot of comments... in fact, more then they have ever gotten on any other project. The packed house at the Community center was overwhelmingly against the original proposal because of historic status, aesthetic impacts to our viewshed. Alltel put on a very informative series of slides with alternate sites around town including using a 50' pole and most approved of by the citizenry, the use of an existing building in town where a "tower" or "pole" would be completely concealed within, or along side a building without projecting above. It was nice to know that there were other options to the seemingly ubiquitous, and in my mind, obnoxious, "Eiffel Tower" structures, including things such as a flag pole... yes, a flag pole can be replace with another flag pole of comparable height that also serves as a cell tower... go figure. Glad that our townspeople were heard. So, until the next cellular provider comes through with another bright idea, we won't be marred with another trapping of 'every town USA' here in Gardiner... luckily there are better ways to meet everyone's needs.

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12/5/07 Wednesday

 Harvested my very first elk today. This is something I relay with a slight bit of reservation in that many of you who read the Field Notes may, or may not approve of hunting. I have chosen to do so because this is part of who we are and marks part of the passage of our seasons. We hunt to feed ourselves, with the major emphasis upon knowing where our food comes from and what has gone into it... is it hormones and 'mystery' meal of bone or feedlot corn? Quite to the contrary, when we have a meal from foods obtained around our home, we taste the mountains, the greenery, clean air... nothing added. It is my personal philosophy that everyone who chooses to eat meat, or wears leather, fur, etc., should participate in the harvest and/or butchering of an animal at least once in their life as a way to bring our consciousness back around to the very acts that sustained our predecessors, and most importantly to comprehend what our consumer dollars are truly paying for.

Pencil studies of the bull elk's face for use in a current sculpture-in-progress.

I relay the tale of the hunt and ensuing duties here in short with significant details added for those who don't hunt to have a sense of what it is like to go through the entire process from tracking ones quarry to butchering/packaging meat for the freezer, and for those who do hunt, an interesting window into this particular outing on the western side of Paradise Valley in Montana.

6:30am - Left the house in Gardiner before light heading north on Rt. 89 to an area along the west side of Paradise Valley (south of Livingston, MT).

7:26am - the earliest time of the day one can legally shoot at game on this particular day of the year

7:30am - I closed the door on the truck, put my binoculars around my neck and hoisted my rifle and daypack (containing warm clothing, food, rope, water, a small spotting scope and tripod, plastic garbage bags, first aid kit, extra knife and sharpening tool, head lamp, etc.). Clothing for a day of hunting on foot, in my case, is quite modest: hiking boots, long-johns and wool pants, a few shirts beneath an outer shirt of wool, light cloth gloves, my usual wide-brimmed hat AND as always, an orange vest (as required by law, and common sense).

8:30am - While hiking along a sparsely traveled hiking trail I crossed a pair of elk tracks about 1/2 mile from the trailhead. This was the only, remotely fresh, elk sign I had seen up to this point in the morning. It was clearly fresh as the elks hooves where breaking through the thin crust on top of the snow. Previous days had been warm enough that the surface of the snow melted - only to freeze back to solid during the chilly nights. Also confirming the freshness was the fact that these tracks were on top of a set of hunter's boot tracks from the previous morning ~24 hours ago. Though the crumbled snow and ice within each track had frozen to the bottom of the track itself and the bull's urine (it was evident that this was a bull because of the large size of the track and the 'directed' pattern of the urine into the snow), was also frozen hard - BUT- this was pretty fresh considering. My day was set... following these tracks to wherever they took me...

For the next 2 hours I followed the bull's trail - snow blanketed the entire route ranging in depths from ankle deep to above my knees... which is especially nice when the latter manages to find its way down into your boots. Whether I found this elk or not was irrelevant; this day was spectacular. Overcast skies and intermittent snow flurries broke out into bluebird weather. It was cool enough for moderately heavy clothing but still pleasant enough for bare hands.

The bull's tracks crossed a few small drainages then up, up and up almost 800' into the steep country to the north. I was hoping to come upon a freshly abandoned elk bed (meaning I would be on the current days tracks and sign) but he kept on going. Periodically I would leave his tracks and walk to the downwind side and make a loop through likely terrain that he maybe bedded or feeding in. Alas, the tracks continued on and I followed 'in step,' quite literally - the crusty snow was noisy, but by stretching my own gait, I could place my feet into his tracks and therefore minimize some of the crunching. I must say, by walking in his tracks, I gained an even greater appreciation for his sure-footedness, strength in steep ascents, and overall size (as the distance between consecutive tracks, while an animal is walking, is proportional to the actual size of the animal itself). It wasn't long before I needed to take off some of my layers of clothing so I wouldn't drench everything in sweat.

Things began to look promising when I knelt down and picked up an elk pellet - instead of being hard as a marble like all those before it (indicating it was old enough to have frozen solid) this one easily compressed between my fingers... fresh, within the last couple hours. Added to this was the presence of at lease one other elk's tracks - so I may be walking towards more than one elk ahead. Slowing down even more, I would walk 3-4 steps at a time then pause for 5-15 minutes and use my binoculars to scan each and every nook and cranny for signs of elk, but not for whole elk - pieces of elk: a flickering ear, glint of light from an antler, passage of a leg through a window in the brush, that sun-bleached tan color of elk fur against snow... then another couple steps and scan everything all over again.

With my peripheral vision open is wide as possible, the step, stop, step, stop continued until all of a sudden a massive pair of antlers, and the large bull elk beneath them, rose from its bed only 70 yards away! A tree between us obstructed any sort of shot. As alert as the elk was, it still wasn't sure what was going on, or where this disturbance was... a crosswind was blowing upslope and it kept him from identifying me. After a few seconds - that lasted an eternity, the bull slipped away from me in a slow trot and behind a slight knoll - at which point I ran to the high point between us. There standing on the other side of a patch of some blown-down timber, only 90yds away, were two bull elk.

10:24am - I steadied the gun against the side of a tree and fired. The two bulls ran together for ~60 yards but the shot proved true. One bull departed alone.

11:00am - Waiting since the time of taking the shot, I now departed to recover the downed elk. The bull went down within sight of where I had shot, some 200 yards away, but I stayed back out of thoughts of safety and respect. From the point of first encounter (with his tracks), the bull's trail led over 1.5 miles to this point; and now this massive animal's form lay before me - still as the logs beside him. As is customary, I made sure that the elk had in fact expired with a touch of my rifle barrel to his eye - this was met without response... then I just sat down for a few minutes. Running my hands over his coat I was struck by silvery glint of his khaki and gold-tinted coat. His ribs were raised as was the ridge on his shoulder blade... the long season of fighting and mating had taken its toll on this old bull, he had hardly any body fat on him before the hardest part of winter had yet to begin. The bull's antlers and head were enormous, yet the fur and features of his face and nose were soft and supple. I stood in awe of this animal, so fine, built to endure, perfect in all the ways these mountains demanded of him. Like beholding the beauty and perfection of a falcon, its plumes so crafted and divine, this elk seemed untouchable in an ethereal sort of way.

Photo of the bull elk where he ultimately fell (left) and skeleton - completely cleaned of meat - sorry ravens..., with quarters

and gear all ready to be packed out following two full hours of field dressing/butchering.

Sadly, time for admiration and giving thanks is forced into the ephemeral realm... by bears. Grizzly bears have learned to go towards the sound of a rifle shot... because they know there will be a meal there. Being that I was alone with ~600 lbs of fresh elk, the need to remove all the meat as soon as possible... at the very least, get it all away from the kill site before any large scavengers could show up.

11:30-1:30pm - I tried to drag the elk downhill after removing the entrails. I had never harvested anything so large and I was more curious about the weight/difficulty of manipulating it than I was determined to move the bull intact. This endeavor ended a few seconds later, after a mere 30' drag downhill. This resting spot now assumed by the elk would be the field butchering site. With the skin still on, I removed the inside tenderloins (two muscles about as long and big around as the large end of a baseball bat that lie inside the body cavity and up against the spine and near the pelvis), then the hind quarters and shoulders after detaching the hooves at the wrist and ankle joints. Peeling back the skin, the next job was removing the back-straps which I chose to keep, in one piece, that section of meat running along the top of the back (otherwise known as the prime rib or t-bone cuts of meat) all the way through the meat of the neck at the base of the skull. With both sided of the elk taken apart this way I then sliced out all of the meat between the ribs. In the process of removing the rib meat I found 4 or 5 broken, and re-healed ribs on the animal's left side; apparently, the bull must have had taken a hard fall or a injury in a fight to sustain that level of damage resulting in the large, swollen knobs on the lower sections of those ribs that I saw. With the butchering all of the meat had been removed, leaving only a clean skeleton with only a few hamburger patties-worth of meat left behind.

2pm - The elk meat was now ready for transport from the butchering/kill site. The shoulder and a hindquarter from each sided were tied together with rope to be drug on the ground behind (thank goodness for snow!) and the back-straps/neck meat and inside tender loins were placed in 2 large plastic bags. With the head and all my gear this would amount to 3 loads that would have to be taken down the mountain in stages. Two of those loads consisted of one bag of meat in my day pack and a shoulder/hindquarter drug behind (the weights, determined later, of the various items was: shoulder #1 = 69 lbs,  hindquarter #1 = 67 lbs and bag of meat #1 = 45 lbs for a total load weight of 181 lbs, shoulder #2 = 68 lbs,  hindquarter #2 = 87 lbs and bag of meat #2 = 42 lbs for a total load weight of 197 lbs), and then the bulls head/antlers (which weighed 50 lbs, I had considered leaving the head in the woods but this was my first elk and since I was working on a bull elk sculpture, this would make for very timely reference material) and my gun, clothing etcetera, as the third... and the only way to go was downhill... wherever that led. (the total weight of elk moved down the mountain was 378 lbs.)

4:45pm - It is getting dark and I finally made it out to bottom of the drainage I was descending. As luck would have it, the route came out right at the truck; this was good since I had with little energy to spare... I dropped to my knees, allowing the elk's head/rack to fall off my shoulders and rolled out of my backpack. Most of the elk meat and quarters were still in the woods further up the trail and I would have to come back later and retrieve the rest of it... preferably with some help. Outside of my gun and other gear, I managed to bring out 95 lbs of this massive animal on my back (this included the head and a bag of back strap/neck/inside tenderloin meat and amounted to carrying out ~60% of my own body weight in that last leg of the hike out). After backing the truck up to the pile of trappings and loading, I took off my soaked hiking boots and socks, wool pants and coat and drove out into the valley headed for home - and called Jenny, as soon as cell reception allowed, to tell her I was still alive and one my way back.

12/6/07 Thursday

Our good friend Shaun Miculka helped me retrieve the last of the elk with the aid of some plastic sleds... what a god-sent... on both accounts - Shaun AND those 2 sleds. The latter made it easier to move those heavy loads with greater ease on small up-hills than it was to drag those elk quarters downhill! In fact, there were points that the sleds threatened to run us over on the down hill portions and our energies turned towards braking the runaway loads. We were also glad that we lashed the elk pieces down to the sleds with rope as they really wanted to twist and roll at times and it surely saved us a lot of time that may have been spent putting the loads back into the sleds. We began walking into the woods at 11:45am and were out and on our way back home at 1pm!

A quick memory sketch of how the elk quarters were lashed to the sleds for removal from the field.

12/8/07 Saturday

With the help of our good friends Rebecca Kreklau and Tom Torma, and 8 hours of labor, we took all 378 lbs of elk and reduced it to 220 lbs of boneless, packaged meat including: 49 lbs of stew meat, 5 lbs of rib meat, 22 lbs of roasts, 37 lbs of steaks, 69 lbs of elk burger, 20 lbs of back strap steaks and 18 lbs of fajita strips.

Two very hopeful pups looking longingly up at Rebecca, who holds two elk bones (left) and

Jenny pictured with the final yield of all our efforts - packaged elk meat ready for freezer and

distribution to those friends that helped us procure and process it (right).

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12/1/07 Saturday

 Our first ski of the year!!!! Jenny, I and the dogs went up to Jardine to ski the road up to Timber Camp... beautiful fluffy white... enough that you have no fear of that nasty sound of stones on ski. We had 3" of snow at the house and 6-7" up in Jardine. The dogs went nuts! This was the best day of their lives... racing back and forth and taking turns assuming that crouched 'come get me' position while the other raced headlong towards.

11/27/07 Tuesday

 Its a winter wonderland today in Gardiner... at least for a little bit. I had time before the snow began falling to go for a well-needed jog with the dogs this morning. A weather front has been building over the last two days - changing the clear blue skies to clouded veils of overcast air. Mom and I were going to travel over to Cody today to see the Buffalo Bill museum - she hasn't been able to visit it yet- but we decided that having to drive all the way up toward Billings and around (given that Cooke Pass east of Cooke City is too snowed in to get over to Chief Joseph Hwy.) would be just a little too much driving. Sooo, here we are, enjoying another relaxing day of working at home enjoying the snow and conversations of the magpies outside.

11/25/07 Sunday

 Gave a lecture out at the Lamar Valley Buffalo Ranch for one of the classes going on out there. Mom went with me and it took both of us to get out there and back as driving in the dark in Yellowstone, especially in winter, is especially risky with all the wildlife on the roads. Whereas the trip from Mammoth to Lamar would have produced very few, if any elk between the months of July and August, there were literally hundreds of elk in bands on, crossing, and beside the road. The full moon was out and intermittently veiled by clouds giving the whole valley an ethereal glow.

11/24/07 Saturday

 Kyle and Joy Sims came down from Bozeman today to watch the bighorn sheep... the main portion of the breeding season is in full swing right now. We had at least four females in estrus... needless to say, they were very popular with the boys. My ;mom is in town until Wednesday and she had a good time out with the Sims' and myself from about 11am-5pm. Things have been chilly - down into the single digits and even less with a little bit of wind (which was blowing for a bit from the east) but this seems to bother the sheep little. We were hoping for some intense head-knocking by the rams but there was seemingly little of it. I'm guessing that with the abundance of females in season, the need for combat was much reduced. I took some photos through the scope, made some sketches and shot a little video as well.

Bighorn rams on cliff in Park (left) and sketch of a bighorn ram in action (right).

11/23/07 Saturday

 Tom Torma and I went out to the Rock Creek area north of Gardiner to try to fill his deer tag before the hunting season ends on Sunday... needless to say we were jinxed from the start when a sizable mule deer buck greeted us right near our planned starting point of the hunt. The only catch was that the deer was about 60 yards over the line on private property - and completely safe; where upon the deer watched us and leisurely grazed away. We watched, admired and hunted our tails off in other areas to no avail... so it goes - this is why its called hunting and not shooting.

11/21/07 Thursday

 Happy Turkey Day! My mom is in town from New York (no not the city...) and we had a wonderful feast at our friend Rebecca Kreklau's

11/17-11/20/07 Sunday -Wednesday

 Jenny and I traveled over to Moscow, ID so she could meet with her Graduate School advisor. While they were deep in the throws of data analysis, I went over to Washington State University's Veterinary School Anatomy museum/lab to draw. I also drove past the captive bighorn sheep facility where I had sculpted these same sheep as lambs 1 year ago... look how they've grown!