Golden Eagle in Yellowstone Nat. Park.

Golden Eagle

As the weather here in Cornwall has been atrocious I thought I'd dig out a few more images from my trip to the States a few weeks ago.

We were in the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone when we came across 2 Golden eagles feeding on something on the far edge of the river.

There were fishermen in the river but the birds seemed to be more concerned with fending off a couple of magpies which were giving them grief.

The river was quite wide and thus I was forced to use a 1.4 x converter on my 500 mm lens, so not the highest quality images I've taken. 

It was also 12:25 just after mid-day, so not light conducive to good photography but when a subject like this pops up in front, you have to take your chances!

Golden Eagle

Golden Eagle

Another campground , another large mammal!

Bison at Madison campground

Bison at Madison campground

I've taken a lot of photographs of bison (or maybe it's buffalo?) during our trips to the Mid-West states but this big guy just stomped through the campground one morning at Madison in West Yellowstone.

It does make me glad I was sleeping in a motorhome rather than a small tent like the green one in the second photo.

But what a magnificent animal and again another treat to us Brits!

N. American Badger

Earth flying in all directions

Continuing with photos from our recent trip to Wyoming we were watching bison in the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone when Linda asked what was going on a few metres away where we could see earth being showered into the air.

My immediate thought was ... badger!

Although we'd never seen an American badger I'd looked at lots of photos and knew what to hope for!

As I moved a bit closer I got glimpses of it's back and hind quarters until eventually he emerged from his burrow and just sat there looking at me.

In the last photo one could be forgiven for thinking that the image has been compressed vertically as we so often see in digital images but no, that's the actual shape of the face, very wide and  not very high!

Another treat and another species to add to my photo library.

American badger

American badger

N. American river otters

N. American river Otters

We were extremely fortunate to get great views of otters on 2 occasions. The first time Linda spotted a family of 7 on the Snake River in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming and a few days later she spotted a family of 4 on the Yellowstone River near Madison in Yellowstone National Park, also in Wyoming.

The family of 7 consisted of 6 youngsters playing and fishing together whilst the adult female stayed 20-30 feet away but always keeping a watching brief over them.

The family of 4 all hunted together going upstream through some rapids into calmer water and heading for Madison Junction.

Always a privilege to see otters in the wild in any country!

N.American river Otter

N.American river Otters

N.American river Otters

N.American river Otters

N.American river Otters

N.American river Otters pulled out on the shore from quite a distance.