The most entertaining sighting of today actually occurred on the way home after leaving the Park. More on that later…
Today Mom and I traded places in the vans. I rode with Laura, the girls and Bridger in Laura’s van. We started off headed for Blacktail Lakes where there is a partially exposed bison carcass in the water that, to date, has been too frozen for the carrion eaters to break into, apparently. It has quite a bit of bird poo whitewash and the eye has been pecked out. Sooner or later there’s going to be some action there. Alas for us, today was not the day. However, the black bear at Floating Island Lake that had been the headline event of the preceding day was still hanging out at Floating Island Lake, napping on the far shore.
We drove east as far as Soda Butte Creek Picnic Area before turning around. On our way east, approaching the Buffalo Ranch, we ran into the other van. Stacy told us to go slowly and look to the north as we proceeded past the next speed limit sign to the west of the Ranch (which faces east) and be on the watch for a badger. We crawled past going both directions but were defeated in our attempts to spy the badger.
A winter kill bison at Swan Lake Flats that had been frequented by the Quadrant Pack Friday and Saturday was in the possession of a grizzly today. He was covering it with dirt, laying sprawled out on it (much like a bearskin rug) and jealously chasing off ravens.
Today we were treated to ever changing weather. Sun, snow, blow, calm…
We proceeded south then west out the Madison without much in the way of notable sightings but enjoyed the beautiful day nonetheless.
At Quake Lake we stopped to enjoy a herd of bighorn rams.
THEN, driving north on 287, south of Cameron, glancing at a herd of antelope, I spotted a brown carpet floating rapidly over the field to our right. I hit the breaks. “Laura, I think we get a badger today, too!” Get the binoculars out. Sure enough. It’s a badger. We watch it run further away. Stop. Run more. Stop again. Then we noticed that the herd of antelope was approaching the badger, slowly but every so surely. The badger froze. The herd of antelope come up on the right, examined the badger, walked slowly past, stopped, turned around, walked slowly back to the badger, past, stopped, turned around, walked slowly past, back and forth, back and forth. The badger was clearly badgered. Now and then one antelope or another would give the badger closer examination.
Of course, all of this happened against a magnificent backdrop.
Laura and I watched giggling like a couple school girls.
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