Two coyotes howling in Yellowstone National Park.

I Love Yellowstone in the Winter!

Joshua Rutledge February 25, 2024

Over the weekend of February 17, 2024 I had the chance to spend some time in Yellowstone National Park again. It was on our radar that we wanted to visit the park again this winter, but with an abnormally low snow pack this year, we were not sure if it was worth the trip. Finally the last few weeks we have had some colder temperatures and some snow, so we thought we would give it a try. There was definitely still a lack of snow in the park, but it was better than the reports we had been getting earlier in the winter.

We left early on Saturday morning on our way to Gardiner, Montana. The North entrance to Yellowstone National Park is just outside of Gardiner and is the only entrance open during the winter months. The traditional road from the entrance through the canyon to Mammoth is still washed out, but they have a new winding alternative route up and over the hills into Mammoth. While there is a national park hotel in Mammoth we were able to find a cheaper hotel in Gardiner and that worked out well. The Roosevelt Hotel. If you are interested in doing any tours in Yellowstone during the winter, most of the tours leave from the Mammoth Hotel.

A panorama of the sunrise hitting the Crazy Mountains.

With the recent snows, on our way to Yellowstone we were greeted with some amazing colors on the Crazy Mountains during sunrise. The colors were getting better and better, but with the drifted snow on the sides of the road it took us a while to find a safe place to pull over to get some photographs. While we just missed the peak of the color on the snow covered mountains, they were still pretty spectacular. We made quick stops in Big Timber and Livingston and then it was through Gardiner and into the park. I think we got through the entrance of the park by around 9:30 AM Saturday morning.

Frost on a barbwire fence with the Crazy Mountains out of focus in the background.

It was a very warm day (by February standards in Montana) and there was not a cloud in the sky. While the sunny day made for nice weather, it was not the best for wildlife viewing or photography. With the quickly warming air and the cold snow covered ground there was a lot of a mirage as a result. If you check out the video posted below you can really see the turbulence in the air, and this made it very difficult to clearly photograph subjects.

That first morning we saw elk, tons of bison, many coyotes (more coyotes than I have ever seen before in the park), moose, an American Dipper, ravens, magpies and several other species. We even briefly saw some bighorn sheep way up on the ridge. Eventually we got a tip that there was a pack of wolves hanging in the Slough Creek area. Sure enough by the time we got back there, there was a pretty good crowd forming. We had to hike about a quarter of a mile or so to an overlook. The wolves were still in the area, but they were pretty far away. They had made a kill of a young bison the day before we got there, but they had pretty well consumed most of it by Saturday morning. A fellow photographer said there had been two black wolves on the kill earlier that morning, so I was kind of disappointed we missed that. As it was, there were a couple of coyotes picking over what was left of the kill and the wolves were still up on the hills sleeping off their big meal. The bison herd was still feeding in the creek below, so that was kind of interesting to see with the wolves still so close. Even with my Canon 600mm lens and 1.4X teleconverter the wolves were still pretty small in the frame. In one of the images below I was able to get 7 of the 8 wolves in one frame. They may be difficult to point out if you are viewing this on a small screen.

You can click on the images in the gallery below for a larger view.

While the days are getting longer, they are still pretty short this time of year, so it wasn’t long until it was already late afternoon in the park. We spotted several more coyotes and a nice bull elk on our way out of the park. We got back to Gardiner and checked into our hotel then went and found some dinner at the Cowboy’s Lodge and Grille. It was a nice little spot and the food was good. We then went back to the hotel and got ready for the next morning.

A bull moose browsing on some frost covered willows in Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park.

Sunday morning was quite a departure from the sunny weather we had on Saturday. There was a heavy frost and some light snow in the air. While this caused its own challenges, it was more conducive to photography. We got back into the park right around sunrise (shortly after 7 AM) and headed back down to Lamar Valley. We did not have quite as much luck finding wildlife this morning. I am not sure if the changing weather had anything to do with that or not. We stopped where the wolves had been the day before, and they were still in the area but still too far away for any photography so we didn’t stay long. We made the decision to go back to where we found the moose the day before. There had been 6 bulls in the willows on the far end of Lamar Valley, but they were too far away for any good pictures on Saturday. I am glad we made the decision to go check again, as this morning the bulls had moved closer to the road and I was able to get some pretty good photos (and some video) of them. There was no place to park near by, so I ended up having to hike about a quarter of a mile to where the moose were. The frosty morning made for some interesting winter scenery surrounding them. With all of the snow and the dark moose, I was having to use at least two stops of exposure compensation to even things out a bit. After the moose moved into the timber and started laying down for the day, we continued towards Cooke City, hoping to maybe find a fox or something. We did not find any fox but we did find another moose, so that made 7 for the day, which is more than I have ever seen in the park before.

We finished our morning with a few more sightings of coyotes and elk, but that was about it. We had originally planned to stop in Mammoth on our way out to photograph the hot springs, but it was starting to snow pretty good at that point, so we figured we better get on the road before things got worse. We were able to make it back home without incident.

For this trip I felt like I had packed everything but the kitchen sink. Since I knew we would primarily be working out of a vehicle I was not too concerned about the weight or how much gear I was taking. Most of the time I ended up using my Canon 600 F4 version 2 lens, with and without the Canon 1.4x version 3 teleconverter and my Canon RF 100-500 L lens on my Canon R5 camera body. I also brought along my Canon R6 and my older EF Canon 100-400 version 2 lens and my Sigma 150-600 lens for my sister to use. I did shoot some video on my GoPro Hero 11 black as well.

I have really come to love visiting Yellowstone in the winter. I have just reached a point where the summer crowds make it hard to really enjoy the park anymore. Of course the park is beautiful in the summer and there are opportunities to see things in the summer that you can’t in the winter (bears for example), but I think I am willing to take that trade off for the relative quiet of the winter.

If you are interested in more about Yellowstone National Park, I do have a page dedicated to Yellowstone on my website (it needs some updating) as well as a previous blog post from a trip last year. Also, be sure to check out my video on YouTube posted below from our trip.

Video digest from my trip to Yellowstone.

Dedicated Yellowstone webpage.

Previous Blog Post - Winter in Yellowstone National Park

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A mother bear, known as 901, and her three cubs walking down in the road towards us in Katmai National Park.

Katmai National Park and Preserve

Joshua Rutledge September 9, 2023

As tends to happen, I am way behind on my blog entries again. I have had such a busy summer that I have not had a chance to sit down and post anything. I have several posts I still need to make from this summer, including a couple of trips to Glacier National Park and a trip that included Iceland and Norway. I decided that I would work backwards however and make a post about my most recent trip which was to Katmai National Park while it is still fresh in my mind.

A brown bear walking on he beach of Naknek Lake near the Brooks Camp in Katmai National Park. I liked this picture because it has the bear, the lake, the mountains and a National Park sign that says “Katmai National Park” so it kind of sums up the experience.

We (my sister Melissa, my wife Denise and myself) were in Katmai National Park September 1-4, 2023. We were there for four days and three nights. Of course the first and last days were not full days since they included travel to and from. We added an extra day in Anchorage on the front of the trip, just to make sure if there were any travel delays we would have some wiggle room. We had to overnight in Anchorage again on the way back due to the timing and availability of flights coming home.

A still frame taken from a video off my GoPro showing a mountain somewhere in Alaska while we were in flight to Anchorage.

We left Great Falls on Wednesday afternoon on an Alaska Airlines flight. Alaska is the only airline in our area that flies into King Salmon, so that was our primary reason for choosing them. There may be some more regional options depending on where you are. Luckily we had a combination of mileage points and buddy passes, so the flights were not too expensive. We had a quick layover in Seattle and then it was up to Anchorage. It was fairly late in the day by the time we got to Anchorage, so we found a quick bite to eat and then settled into the motel for the evening. The next morning we got up and decided to take a drive. Knowing we would be in town for the day we rented a car. Rental cars in Alaska can be very difficult to come by, so as soon as you know you are going, I would recommend making a car reservation if you need one.

We started out going down the Seward Highway hoping to maybe spot some beluga whales or maybe see some dall sheep up on the cliffs. The morning was super windy and raining however and we did not end up spotting anything. We had thought about a few other options for places that we like to go, for example the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, but we decided that in the storm nothing outside was probably going to be a lot of fun. So we drove back into Anchorage to see what we could find. There was some shopping involved and some poking around downtown. Eventually the storm cleared and the afternoon in Anchorage was actually pretty nice. We explored a few other areas along the ocean closer to downtown Anchorage hoping to spot some sealife, but we did not find a lot. The tide was super low due to the “Super Moon” so I am sure that had some effect. We ended the day with a trip to Moose’s Tooth Pizza which is one of our favorites stops in Anchorage.

The next morning we had a few hours until our flight, so we decided to take the drive down the Seward Highway to try our luck again looking for whales. This time we did have success, we finally spotted some beluga’s! When we first spotted them they were actually pretty close to the highway, but unfortunately it was in a very busy stretch of the road where there were not a lot of pull offs to view them. We tried to keep track of them as we could find places to pull over, but due to the terrain and the trees we could never get a clear view while they were still close to the road. I guess I should mention for those that are not familiar, the Seward Highway has a stretch that is along the shore of the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet, if you are wondering why we are looking for whales from a road. Eventually we did spot some way out, but they were too far away to get a good look. If we didn’t have a flight to catch we may have stopped at Beluga Point or somewhere and hoped the whales eventually would come past us, but we just didn’t have the time. So we headed back to Anchorage to catch our flight to King Salmon.

This grainy picture is the only proof I have of us seeing the beluga whales, but hopefully you can trust me.

There are a couple of jumping off points to get to Katmai National Park (Homer is popular and some even come directly from Anchorage), but King Salmon is probably the most popular. There are a couple of float plane companies there, as well as a water taxi that can take you into Katmai. There are no roads into Katmai, so by float plane or boat are your only options for getting there. We chose to use a smaller company called Branch River Air. We had a great experience with them and they were cheaper than the more well known Katmai Air that also services the area. Branch River Air met us at the airport when we arrived and shuttled us back to their “terminal” along the river. I would guess we were in the air to Katmai within an hour of touching down in King Salmon, so I would say that’s pretty good service. This was the first time for all of us being in a float plane, so it was a lot of fun. Well, except for my wife who gets easily air/car sick. It was windy and rainy that day, so it was a bit of a bumpy flight for her, but she made it ok. Luckily it is only about a 20 minute flight. We had heard that the water taxi routinely gets canceled or delayed because of weather, so we chose the float plane option largely for that reason. And I am glad we did, as the water taxi was canceled on the day we flew out. If it gets canceled there are only a few options for places to stay in King Salmon, so you are probably better off staying in Anchorage if you can’t find a float plane to take you.

A view out the window of the float plane from my GoPro on the way to Katmai National Park.

My sister Melissa and the pilot inside of the float plane on our way to Katmai.

Upon landing in Katmai you are immediately escorted to “Bear School” which is in the visitor center just above the beach from where you land. With all of the bears in the area it is important for everyone to be educated on the procedures and potential dangers. It is a good thing that you are brought to bear school right away, since an encounter with a bear could happen at any time and anywhere so it’s good to know what to do and expect. After you complete your “bear school” the ranger gives you a pin as proof you completed the training.

This is looking up from the beach to the Visitors Center (Left) and there is a storage building for your food and gear (right.)

A picture from my GoPro inside of the Visitor Center during our “Bear School.”

The pin you get upon finishing “Bear School.”

The sign on the beach welcoming you to Brooks Camp. The building in the background is the back of the Visitors Center. There are some old moose antlers strewn about for photo ops.

We then headed over to the Brooks Lodge to check-in and get the keys to our cabin where we would be staying. You basically only have two options for staying in Katmai, it is either at the Brooks Lodge or in the campground. Since those two options are very limited, which I will get to more shortly, a lot of people elect to just fly/boat into Katmai for day trips. This makes the mornings and evenings way less busy for those staying in the park. The campground is by reservation only and it can be difficult to secure a spot. It is surrounded by an electric fence and is located maybe a ¼ mile or so from the main lodge area. There are strict rules about where you can store your food/supplies and where you are allowed to eat/cook within the campground. We knew that we did not want to camp, so we elected to try and get a spot at the lodge. The lodge reservations are given out by a lottery system due to the high demand and limited space. The lottery is held almost a year in advance, so if you want to stay at the lodge, you really need to plan ahead. It took us about three years after deciding this was something we wanted to do for us to finally get a spot. And our spot was actually as a result of a cancellation, so we were notified of the availability and we had less than 24 hours to either say yes or no. So it all happened very fast. Since we took a cancellation spot, we did not get to request a date, so we ended up going in September, which probably wouldn’t have been our first choice. But it actually ended up working out well. The crowds are MUCH smaller in September then they would have been earlier in the summer. We may not have seen as many bears as we would have in peak season, but avoiding the crowds made it worth it. We still saw plenty of bears.

Looking from the bridge back to the main lodge (center frame) and the check-in and general store building (right.) There is also a public bathroom kind of behind the brush to the far left.

The Brooks Lodge is actually kind of a complex of buildings. There is a building where you check in and is kind of the service desk. The back half of the building is actually a little general store where you can get some food and basic supplies from. Across from the check-in building is the main lodge that has a small bar, a seating area around a wood burning fireplace and the back half is set up for buffet style meals. There is a buffet line setup and then several tables with bench seating. There is also a little drink station off to the side where you can get coffee, hot chocolate, cider, tea or just hot/cold water. Those items are complementary and are available anytime the lodge is open. We took advantage of the coffee a lot. You are only allowed to eat/drink (besides water) inside enclosed buildings or designated picnic areas. So you find yourself in the lodge a lot, even just to drink coffee. You are allowed to have snacks in your room, but no “smelly foods” which they were not very specific about. We did bring some snacks along that we kept in our cabin, but they were all prepackaged low-smelling foods, so we felt like we were ok.

They serve hot meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They also have “light” options for lunch and dinner which is basically a soup and salad bar. The meals are a little expensive, but it’s to be expected. We found them all to be pretty good and tasty though. The eating area could become pretty crowded however due to the limited space. We had poor weather most of the time we were there, which I think tended to keep the lodge a little busier since many people were in there just to warm up and dry off.

A sow (female) bear with her cubs right outside our front door, I took this pictures standing in our doorway. They moved along pretty quickly, I was lucky to se them as I had just happened to open the door and there they were.

A large bear that was feeding on the grass and was just about to lay down in front of our cabin when a ranger came to scare it off. This picture was also taken from the entrance to our cabin.

Speaking of expensive, staying at Brooks Lodge is not cheap. And I realize it is out of the price range for a lot of people. They raised prices again this year due to the rising costs of everything else. The cabins all sleep 4 people (bunk beds) so if you can split the cost a few ways, it does become a little more doable. I would throw out a word of caution however, the rooms are not very private, so I would make sure it is with people you enjoy and are comfortable around. I mention that, as I have seen posts of people looking to join other groups to share costs and increase their chances of getting a room. So that is something to really think about if you are going to be staying with strangers. There is just a curtain you can pull to create a little bit of a private area in the back of the cabin but otherwise it is just one room with a small table and the bunk beds. There was a sink, a small shower and a toilet in the room. The toilet was in a small room by itself. The view from our cabin was amazing though. We could often see bears out in the river from our room and on multiple occasions had bears pass right outside of our door. And with the rainy weather it was nice to have a dry place to go, I felt bad for the people camping. And I guess I should explain why I am going back and forth between “room” and “cabin.” Brooks Lodge has several small single unit cabins but there is also a larger building (cabin) that has several rooms in it. We were in the bigger cabin that has multiple separate rooms. The size and layouts of the rooms are virtually identical whether you have a single unit cabin or a “room” in the larger one. I think it would be quieter though in a single unit as we could hear a lot of noise from the neighboring rooms in our cabin.

A bear named “Gully” fishing on top of Brooks Falls. I had two pictures in mind that I really wanted to get, this one, using a slow shutter speed to smooth out the water and a bear actually catching a salmon in its mouth.

OK! So for all of you that are just here for the bears, here we go. I wanted to include all of that background information though, as maybe it will be helpful if there is anyone that is interested in visiting Katmai reading this.

So, as I have already alluded to, there are bears everywhere at Katmai. I would say at least several times a day rangers were chasing bears away from the lodge area. And almost every time we left our room we would see a bear somewhere (and oftentimes we didn’t even need to leave our room to see bears), it was pretty awesome. While Katmai National Park is huge, the main area most people think of as “Katmai” is actually pretty small. It consists of the Brooks Lodge area (and the Visitor Center is close by, along with the campground) , the main trail to Brooks Falls, the Falls itself of course and Lake Brooks.

A bear passing between the lodge and entrance to the bridge over the Brooks River.

Brooks Camp is actually on the shore of Naknek Lake. And then the Brooks River connects Naknek Lake to Lake Brooks and Brooks Falls is on that river. You might want to bring up a map to try and make sense of all that. There is a river, the Naknek River, that connects Naknek Lake to the ocean in Kvichak Bay for the salmon to navigate to get all the way up to Lake Brooks from the ocean. It is actually pretty impressive how far they have to go. The majority of the bear viewing action happens in and around the Brooks River, including the shores of Lake Brooks and Naknek Lake.

Looking out over where the Brooks River runs into Naknek Lake.

A sign marking the picnic area at Lake Brooks. Just off frame is a covered area surrounded by an electric fence were you can picnic.

A not very good panorama of Lake Brooks. It was storming pretty good so I wasn’t able to capture any good images of the lake. It was actually a lot larger then I was expecting.

They built a bridge over the Brooks River with several viewing platforms known as the “North” and “South” viewing platforms. From the bridge you can see a good portion of the lower Brooks River, which is kind of slow moving water and the shore of Naknek Lake. The salmon runs while we were there were kind of in between the sockeye and the silvers, so we saw more bears in this area then we did at the falls. The sockeye were done spawning and were kind of on their last legs and they were congregating in the backwater areas around the bridge, so the bears were there too. The silver salmon were just getting started but not in large numbers yet at the falls. We did see some fish jumping the falls, but not a lot. As a result, the most bears we ever saw at the falls was 5, but usually it was only 2 or 3. And sometimes when we went there were none. On a good day during the peak of the salmon runs you can see over 30 bears at once at the falls for some comparison. The salmon runs were a little late this year because of the cold spring, so I think things were kind of off this season in general.

A view from the bridge looking back toward Brooks Camp and one of the viewing platforms.

Looking at the bridge the opposite direction from Brooks Camp including the other viewing platform.

Looking down the bridge to Brooks Camp. The Brooks River is to your left and Naknek Lake would be just to your right.

My wife Denise taking a picture of a bear from one of the bridge viewing platforms, this give you some perspective on how close you can view the bears.

From the start of the trail/bridge it’s a little over a mile to the viewing platforms at Brooks Falls. There are actually two platforms there. One is overlooking the falls themselves and one is just down stream called the “Riffles Platform” that kind of looks up river to the falls. Of course the platform at the falls gives you the iconic up close and personal views of the bears at the falls, but the Riffles Platform gives you kind of a wider perspective of the falls. So both are worth visiting. The boardwalk kind of splits at a place called the “Treehouse” to go to either of the viewing platforms. This is a covered area with some benches and informational materials posted. It serves as kind of a staging area during the peak season to control traffic to the platforms. When the crowds get too large they will limit how many people and for how long you can be at the platforms so everyone gets a turn. It was so nice going in September as that was a non issue for us. A few times we even had the platforms to ourselves and at most there were maybe a dozen people at any given time.

Looking down the raised boardwalk leading to the Falls and Riffles viewing platforms.

A view from the “Riffles” platform looking up to Brooks Falls. There are 4 bears in this picture. The most we saw at one time was 5.

The classic view from the Falls platform. The bear on the right was starting to encroach on the bear above the falls and it was not very happy about it.

Please Check out the gallery below to view some of my favorite images from the Falls. As with all of the pictures in this blog, depending on your device you should be able to select the picture for a larger view.

This next gallery below are pictures taken from the bridge viewing platforms or areas not immediately near the falls.

If you don’t take the trail to go to Brooks Falls (there is a pit toilet at the fork if you need it) you can stay on the road and end up at Lake Brooks. This was supposed to be a little over a mile hike as well, but we all agreed it seems farther than that, as compared to going to the falls. We saw several bears on the road to the lake and we saw signs of bears at the lake, but none at the lake itself. It is also common to see lynx on this road, so that was largely why we made the hike, we did not see any lynx, but talked to people that had. There is a large population of snowshoe hares in the area, so that’s what attracts the lynx. So, as I mentioned, there is a road between the bridge and Lake Brooks. This road is the start of the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes tour you can do, and is the only road in the park. There are some buildings near Lake Brooks and the National Park Service housing is in this area. Since there are no roads to the park, the few vehicles that are there had to be brought in on barges. They have some information posted about that in the visitor center I think it was, so that was kind of interesting. We did not feel like we had time to do the tour, as it takes up a pretty good portion of a day, but if I ever get back there it is probably something I would try. The tour takes you to where the last volcanic eruption was (1912) in the area and kind of explores the geology of the area and looks at the aftermath of what was left behind.

We spent our days kind of going back and forth between our cabin, the lodge, the bridge and the viewing areas looking for bears and taking care of what we needed to. I don’t think we tracked every day, but most days I think we put in at least 10 miles going back and forth to everything. There may have also been some naps and downtime involved in there too. It pretty much rained (and sometimes there were heavy winds as well) the first three days we were there, so it was difficult to stay out for long stretches of time. If it had been nicer weather it probably would have been easier to just camp out at some of the locations for longer periods. We did take in the ranger lead Cultural Walk that was interesting. There were some evening ranger lead talks similar to other National Parks as well. Oh there was an auditorium building there too I forgot to mention, where the talks were held. We also spent some time looking for non-bear viewing opportunities. For example I found a lot of interesting mushrooms and fungus growing like I had never seen before. There were usually small mammals and birds around to view as well. The one upside to the cool rainy weather was the lack of bugs. The few times there were breaks in the weather however, the bugs did come out. We had been warned of this so we brought head nets to wear. I am glad we did. We didn’t need them often, but when we did they were nice to have. Obviously it is also important to bring good rain gear with you too.

Please check out this gallery for some of my non bear pictures I was able to capture.

As far as gear goes, we all packed as light as possible for this trip. There is a weight (and space) limit on the small float planes that bring you in. We also did not want to risk having any bags not showing up from checking things in with the airlines, so we traveled with only carry-on luggage. Since all of my camera gear (I will go over that next) pretty much took up my carry-on luggage and personal item, my wife and I split another carry-on bag and backpack for everything else we needed. I think I ended up stuffing a sweatshirt into my sister’s luggage as well at the last minute. And this was fine, I did not find myself needing anything I didn’t bring. It is actually pretty amazing how few things you actually NEED. As I mentioned, we did bring rain jackets, bug nets, we both had zip up hoodies, of course undergarments/socks, a couple changes of shirts and pants and a few bathroom essentials. And we still had room for some snacks and a few other personal items.

For my camera gear I brought my small ThinkTank Backstory 13 backpack I have been using and have mentioned in some of my other blogs as my personal item. I had my Canon R5 and Canon RF 100-500 L lens in there along with my Canon RF 24-105 L lens. I also had my extra batteries, memory cards, lens clothes, my GoPro 11 (and extra battery) and a few other accessories in there. And then I brought my big Canon 600 F4 L version 2 lens, my 2nd Canon R5 body (with the battery grip) and my larger tripod and gimbal head in my Tamrac bag as my carry-on. I don’t think I have talked about that bag before. I was also able to stuff my rain jacket, lightweight hat/gloves, and bug net into that case. It acted as some extra padding as well, which was good.

With hindsight being 20/20 I am not sure I really needed to bring my big 600mm lens. You can’t beat the quality of it, but in all honesty there were only a few times I really needed it. When you are at the falls for example, a 600mm lens is too much, except for some really tight shots. I may have been better served to have saved that space for some other options. Maybe my 70-200 2.8 for example? It certainly would have been easier to get through the airports not carrying the big stuff. But with that said, if the salmon had been running better and I had a chance to get the iconic bear catching a salmon in its mouth on the falls shot, I might have wanted it for that. Spoiler alert, I did not get that shot. As it was, 90% of the time I had my R5 (no battery grip) and the 100-500 on. Which was nicer to walk around with anyways since we were putting on so many miles everyday. With the clouds and rain most of the time there were not very many opportunities to break out the wider 24-105 either. I think there was one afternoon and a few hours on our last day when I did get it out to finally get a couple wider shots. But I guess there is the old adage about it being better to have something and not need it, than not having it and needing it. So who’s to say.

Our last view of the beach at Brooks Camp, including the water taxi and all of the float planes. We actually left on the silver plane just coming into dock in the background.

After our awesome few days in Katmai we boarded our float plane and took off back to King Salmon. The sun was actually out on our flight back to King Salmon so we could finally see and enjoy some of the landscape surrounding the park. And that ended our time in Katmai National Park. After that it was flights home and back to reality. I took a lot of video footage on this trip as well, but it might be a while before I get that put together. If you are interested, please check back on this blog as I will update it if I get it posted, or keep an eye out on my YouTube channel for it.

I have been asked several times if I was ever scared of the bears, and the honest answer is no. Of course your heart jumps a beat when you have an unusually close encounter with a bear, like we did on our first day with the mother and three cubs coming down the road right in front of us. But if you follow the guidelines they teach you in “bear school” the bears are very tolerant of having people around. You still have to do your part to not have food around and give the bears some space, but I always felt comfortable around the bears. The situation in Katmai is very unique however, and you should not expect that kind of behavior from bears anywhere else in the world.

(Edit from March 3, 2024)

I was finally able to put together a video from our trip and I posted it on my YouTube channel. It is posted below. It is a fairly long video, but I wanted to make sure I covered most aspects of our trip. I may do shorter, more focused videos in the future. I will try make a note of that if it happens. I have also added an additional gallery of photographs as I have gone back and given a second look at things since my original post, and found a few more images that I liked. As always, you can select each image for a larger view.

A video documenting our trip to Brooks Camp in Katmai National Park.

Snow geese feeding in a field with the Highwood Mountains in the distance.

A Morning Out and About

Joshua Rutledge April 26, 2023

A couple weeks ago now, I spent the morning out just seeing what I could find. I initially had plans to be out of town that weekend, but winter in Montana does not want to go away this year, so I ended up not going since we had a big snow storm heading into the weekend. I still wanted to get out and do something, so I loaded up some gear and headed north to the Benton Lake NWR.

The morning started kind of slowly. The ice was mostly gone from the ponds, so there were a few ducks and geese around, but not a lot. I was actually hoping to maybe see some short-eared owls as I often see them in the spring out there, but I did not see any this time. I did see one Northern Harrier, but I was not able to get a picture. I did stop and get a few pictures of a horned lark that I was happy with. I also saw some snow geese out in a field, some swallows and a couple of Western Meadowlarks. Eventually I came across a Northern Shrike. I had seen them briefly before in other places, but never out there, and I had never had a chance to photograph one so I was pretty excited to see it.

When I found it, it was flying back and forth between a couple of different trees and it didn’t seem super happy about my driving by. It would never sit still long enough to get any good pictures, so I actually kept going after a couple of minutes of observing it to see what else I could maybe find. After a while of not seeing much else, I drove the loop back and actually parked my truck where I had seen it earlier. My thought was that maybe if I was not moving it would feel more comfortable and would eventually return to the tree. I parked there for a while and waited, and sure enough it did eventually show up. And not only did it just show up, it came back and it had caught a small rodent, I am guessing maybe a mouse. I watched it for a while waiting for it to get into a position where I could get a clear picture, sort of amazed that such a small bird was able to not only catch, but fly with prey that was almost as big as it was.

Northern Shrike resting on a tree branch.

As I watched it for a while, it was kind of maneuvering the caught mouse around between branches and at one point had even dropped it to the ground and had to retrieve it. I finally realized what it was doing. It had found a sharp branch sticking out of a limb, and it was using the stick to repeatedly impale the mouse on it. At the time I was not aware of this behavior so I found it very interesting (and a little disturbing.) After talking to some other birders, I was told this is actually normal behavior for a Northern Shrike, and as a result, sometimes these birds are called “butcher birds.” I assume that maybe by doing this, it makes it easier for the bird to consume its prey, but I don’t actually know that for sure.

Northern Shrike with a mouse impaled on a branch. Click on images for larger view.

Northern Shrike with the bloodied mouse and branch it was using to impale its prey.

Since I didn’t see a lot else this morning, the encounter with the Northern Shrike did kind of save the day. Not that being out in nature is ever not a good time, but it’s that much better when I can come home with a couple of images I am happy with. Sorry for the graphic nature of the pictures, but I thought the interesting behavior was worth sharing.

A Western Meadowlark perched on a fence post.

Greater Sage-Grouse Lek 2023

Joshua Rutledge April 16, 2023

Spring Greater Sage-Grouse

Male Greater Sage-Grouse displaying on the lek.

I had the chance to spend last weekend (4-8/9-2023) with the Greater Sage-Grouse out on their lek in Central Montana. As always, we had an awesome time. There were a little over 40 grouse on the lek which I would say is about average. So that was good to see, being a species of concern, I always worry that some spring I am going to see a decline in their numbers.

The first morning out was fairly cool and we had fairly cloudy skies at sunrise. I am always hoping for at least a little bit of direct sunlight in the morning to help and get some more detailed shots of the birds. We did eventually get a little sun peaking through near the end of the morning, so that was good. We ended up being positioned just a little farther away than I had hoped. While the lek is always in the same general location year to year, where exactly the birds are going to be is always a little bit of a mystery.

Male Greater Sage-Grouse backlit by the morning sun.

The second morning was very dusty on the lek and we had kind of hazy skies, so it made for some interesting conditions to photograph in. I had also positioned myself a little differently on the lek the second morning hoping to get some backlit birds, as I always like that look when it works out. I would say with the conditions being what they were, it was probably a little bit good and a little bit bad.

I walked away with a few pictures I was happy with, but I don’t think I created anything new this year that was better than previous years. If you are new to my blog, you can look back at these older posts from years past for some comparison. Sage Grouse March 2021, Sage Grouse April 2021, and Sage Grouse April 2022.

I was primarily shooting with my Canon R5 with the Canon EF 600mm F4 version 2 lens with and without the Canon 1.4x version 3 teleconverter. I also took a few shots with my Canon R6 and the Canon RF 100-500 lens. Please checkout the gallery below for more of the photos from the weekend.

Displaying Sage Grouse

Sage Grouse Portrait

Fighting on Lek

Tail Details

Fighting Sage Grouse

Backlit Sage-Grouse Tail

Young pronghorn antelope.

Ruffed Grouse

After the first morning out with the sage-grouse I decided to go look for some Ruffed Grouse. Winter has been lingering here in Montana this year, so I was not really able to get into the spots I was hoping to, because the snow was still too deep. I did eventually find a single ruffed grouse, but it was not interested in displaying for me. I am hoping later this spring to maybe get out and try again.

A male sharp-tailed grouse dancing on the lek right before sunrise.

Spring 2023 Sharp-tailed Grouse

Joshua Rutledge April 4, 2023

On April 1, 2023 my wife, my sister and I had the chance to visit a blind again and watch the sharp-tailed grouse out on their lek. As always we had a great time and it is one of my favorite spring activities in Montana. The morning was cool, but not cold for April, but it was fairly overcast and windy. We were probably in the blind for about half an hour when we started to hear the first grouse showing up at the lek. It is always exciting when you start to hear them in the still relative darkness.

We saw about 37 grouse that morning, all males. The numbers and being all males was typical for early April. The hens tend to show up a little later on in the season. The male grouse were spending their time establishing their spots on the lek and trying to keep other males away. There was a fair amount of minor fighting and chasing each other around mixed in with their dancing displays.

I brought my Canon R5 and my Canon R6 camera bodies. I also brought my Canon EF 600MM F4 II lens, my Canon RF 100-500 and my Canon EF 70-200 2.8 III lens. I wanted to make sure I had the ability to get some wider shots while also having the ability to get nice and close with the longer lenses. You never know for sure exactly where the grouse will be, so it’s nice to cover all of your bases. I brought two tripods, my heavier aluminum Manfrotto tripod with a gimbal head I use for my longer lenses and a smaller, lighter, travel tripod I used with the 70-200 lens. I wanted to make sure I could capture some good audio as well, so I brought my Rode Video Mic Pro+ as well.

We watched the grouse for about 2 and a half hours. They stuck around later into the morning than usual, well past 9 AM. It has been my experience in the past that most of the grouse usually leave the lek between 8 and 8:30. I am not sure if it was the cloudy conditions or why they stuck around a little longer than usual. They were also not chased off at all this time from eagles or coyotes as has been the case in the past.

I am trying something a little different this time and I added a gallery below of some pictures from the morning. You should be able to scroll through the reel and click on the thumbnail images for a larger view. There is also a link to a video from the morning from my YouTube channel. I also have another blog post from a couple of years ago about the sharp-tailed grouse for those of you that are interested. Sharp-Tailed Grouse 2021.

Two male sharp-tailed grouse.

Male sharp-tailed grouse doing his dance on the lek.

Male sharp-tailed grouse on the lek.

Two male sharp-tailed grouse fighting for position on the lek.

Two male sharp-tailed grouse still fighting on the lek.

One more of the male sharp-tailed grouse fighting on the lek.

Male sharp-tailed grouse on the lek.

Close up of a male sharp-tailed grouse.

A bison fighting through the snow in Yellowstone National Park. Please remember you can always click on the images for a larger view depending on your device.

Winter in Yellowstone National Park

Joshua Rutledge February 20, 2023

On February 18, 2023 my sister Melissa and I decided to take a quick trip down to Yellowstone National Park for the day. Visiting the park in the winter is always fun, since the crowds are smaller and the winter snow gives everything a little bit different look and feel than during the warmer summer months. While you most likely will not see bears during the winter (although it is not impossible) other wildlife such as wolves and coyotes are more visible this time of year. The park is about a 3 hour drive, but with the days starting to get longer now, it is possible to spend a pretty full day in the park and still get back home at a reasonable time. Unless you are booking a trip by snow-coach, there are only limited places in the park you can go anyway, so you don’t necessarily need as much time as you would during the summer to explore. With that said, there are opportunities for cross country skiing and snowshoeing (and the aforementioned snow coaches) if you do want to access more locations.

As we approached the north entrance to the park, we started to see a lot of bison and elk out on the landscape outside of the park around Gardiner, MT. It is common to see some small herds of elk and bison outside of the park, but this year was the most I think I had ever seen. I believe the reason for this was because the snow conditions inside of the park forced animals to find easier grazing elsewhere. We did still see a lot of elk and bison inside of the park as well, but it was obvious they were having to fight through the snow a lot harder.

A large bull elk that still has his antlers inside the town of Mammoth in Yellowstone National Park.

With the historic flooding last spring that washed out the main road from Gardiner to Mammoth, you now have to take an alternative route from the north entrance to Mammoth Hot Springs. The main hotel in Mammoth was under construction this winter, so it was not open for tourists to stay. It appeared as though the snow-coaches were still departing from there however. We saw a few elk and bison roaming around inside the town-site of Mammoth which is fairly typical.

A bison using its large head as a shovel to move the snow looking for something to eat.

From there we headed to the Lamar Valley to see what we could find. We found a lot of bison and a few elk along the drive to the valley. Going down the valley we saw several coyotes and a lot more elk and bison, a lone bull moose and there were some American dippers along the river. We were hoping to maybe find some wolves, bighorn sheep or otters, but unfortunately we did not find any of those. We talked to a tour guide that had spotted a lone wolf a long ways off earlier in the morning, but that was all. We also stopped to look at a bear den where a black bear was just visible inside of the den. I tried to take some pictures, but the den was too dark and there were too many slow flakes in the air so it obscured the bear in the pictures I took. We drove almost all the way to Cooke City and then turned around and came back. On the drive back we found a couple more coyotes and a red fox. After almost returning to Gardiner on the way back out of the park, we did finally spot a few bighorn sheep far off in the distance.

A coyote looking a little suspicious in the snow.

An American dipper feeding by the river, not technically a great picture, but I wanted to include it for documentation.

One of the coyotes we saw had been struggling through the snow and eventually it laid down not too far off the road so we were able to stop and get quite a few pictures. I was using my Canon R5 with the Canon 600mm F4 version II with the EF-RF adapter. With all of the snow in the park, I was usually using between 1.5 and 2 stops of compensation to get the correct exposure. We were also able to stop for a few minutes and watch the red fox as well. I was photographing it with the same setup. For some of the larger animals in the park, when the 600mm was not necessary, I was using my Canon R6 with the Canon RF 100-500 lens. I find that the Canon 100-500 does a very good job with motion stabilization in video mode, so I have actually come to prefer that lens for video even over my 600mm F4 when possible. I don’t think the older Canon EF 600mm lens works quite as well stabilizing with the new IBIS on the Canon R5/R6. So in some instances I did switch over to the R6, 100-500 combo to grab some video clips after I was done getting still with the 600mm.

A coyote looking back at the camera while it was resting.

A coyote laying its head down for a minute resting.

A coyote yawning, so you can see its teeth.

A red fox listening to hear if it can detect anything under the snow.

Even though we did not spot any wolves or more exotic sightings in the park, it was still a fun day. For anyone that has not visited Yellowstone in the winter, I would highly recommend it.

Elk through the rain for kind of a moody shot.

Elk Rut October 2022

Joshua Rutledge October 25, 2022

I had a chance to visit the Slippery Ann elk viewing area on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge area again earlier this October. It is always a good time along the Missouri River in Central Montana. Typically I try to make the trip a little earlier in the season, but this was an unusually hot and dry fall so I did not figure the elk would be all that active anyway. From visiting with others, and from personal observation, it does appear the elk rut was a little later this year and maybe not quite as intense. The day that I finally decided to visit it was actually a cool rainy day. I decided to switch things up a bit and I first visited the area in the morning. This was nice as there were less people around and the elk were fairly active. Unfortunately it started to rain pretty good not long after we got there. I still had the chance to get a few photos and some video before it got too bad. We spent the rest of the morning mostly just observing the elk from inside of the car.

Not the biggest bull elk, but he had interesting antlers and was able to maintain a pretty good group of cows.

The same bull, but a wider full body view.

Since the weather was so wet, the roads in the area were not very good, so rather than risking getting stuck anywhere, we decided to just head back home. If it had been a nicer day we probably would have spent some time looking around for some other photographic opportunities.

A big bull elk with his cows later in the afternoon.

More of an environmental shot as I wanted to include some of the fall foliage and set the scene.

By the afternoon the weather had improved in town, so we decided to head back out for the evening show hoping the weather was better out there too. Being the afternoon, the crowds were much bigger than they were in the morning, but with it still being a little wet and later in the season the crowds were slightly smaller than they probably would have been otherwise. The evening weather was similar to the morning. There were periods when the rain would let up a bit and things would improve, but then it would start raining pretty hard again. I did not come away with any particularly interesting photographs, but it was still a good time. With the bad weather I was not really able to set up my tripod or microphones how I would have liked, so my video ended up being a little less professional then I would have liked, but I still posted it for viewing if you want to take a look below.

If you want more information about the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge I have a page linked here on my website. You may also be interested in checking out my previous blogs from last year.

https://www.joshrutledgephotography.com/blog/last-trip-of-the-season

https://www.joshrutledgephotography.com/blog/labor-day-weekend-elk

The Many Glacier Hotel with Swiftcurrent Lake and the mountains in the background.

Glacier National Park - June 2022 - Day 3

Joshua Rutledge July 8, 2022

On the morning of day three it was time to pack up and move ourselves over to the east side of the park, specifically to Many Glacier. We had a room in the Many Glacier Hotel reserved. Originally we were supposed to stay at the Swift Current Motor Inn & Cabins (we had a cabin reserved) but due to staffing shortages they moved us over to the Many Glacier Hotel for the night. We actually enjoy staying at the Swift Current Inn as it’s a little less busy and it’s closer to Fishercap Lake which we like to visit in the mornings and evenings. It also has more casual dining options including pizza and breakfast served all day. The Many Glacier Hotel is more historic and worth a stay however if you are in the area. You can’t beat the view from the deck overlooking Swiftcurrent Lake. The Swiss inspired stylings of the motel is fun to experience as well.

While traveling to the east side, we decided we better pull into the Goat Lick Overlook again after our amazing experience the night before. We were hoping with the rain having passed that the conditions might be better for viewing. There were goats there again, but fewer than before and the group that was closest the night before was no longer there, so the photographic opportunities I was hoping for did not happen. But it was still fun to watch the mountain goats some more. Since there were no goats close by, I got out my tripod with my 600mm lens and the 1.4x teleconverter to bring them in as close as possible. I was pretty popular with other people at the overlook when they saw me with so much gear out. I even let a couple fellow Canon shooters borrow my long lens on their cameras to get a couple shots.

A mountain goat nanny and her kid at Goat Lick Overlook. As always, depending your device, you can click on any of the pictures in my blogs for a full screen view.

Another nanny and kid from the overlook.

On our way into Many Glacier we spotted two black bears and a grizzly bear. So it was a pretty good start to our stay over there. As was the case on day one, we knew we had some time before we could check into our hotel, so we decided to take a hike up to Apikuni Falls. We had driven by the trailhead many times over the years (it is often closed due to bear activity though) but had never actually done the hike. It is not a long hike, less than 2 miles round trip, but it is pretty much straight up the whole way and our legs were not fresh after all of the hiking the day before. With the higher than normal water levels this spring, I am guessing it was a good time to visit the falls. I am assuming on a normal year or later in the season it would not be as impressive.

Grizzly bear near Lake Sherburne in Many Glacier - Glacier National Park.

Another shot of the grizzly bear as we were coming into Many Glacier.

A little wider shot of the grizzly bear. It appeared to be flipping over rocks and digging up roots.

One of the black bears we observed coming into the park. This one was not far from the Apikuni Falls trailhead, but on the other side of the road. Typically we see more grizzly bears in that area and not black bears.

A head on shot of the black bear in Many Glacier. You can really tell how large of a black bear it was from this perspective.

Apikuni Falls as seen from the trail leading up to the falls. Since I wanted to travel light, I just grabbed my Canon R6 and my 24-70 lens.

After finishing our hike and looking around a little bit we were able to check into our hotel room. We spent a little bit of time relaxing before it was time to go out and do some wildlife viewing. We started our evening at Fischercap Lake, hoping to find some moose that frequent the area. The lake, as was the case everywhere, was higher than normal so there was not a lot of shoreline to set up on. We were visited by a couple of white-tail deer while we waited for moose. They were obviously very habituated to people as they were getting uncomfortably close. Eventually a young cow moose did appear along the willows at the end of the lake. She was nursing a pretty sizable wound on her back leg. I am guessing it was probably from a bear attack. She eventually wandered off, and nothing else was showing up, so we decided to load up and see if we could find some bears. It didn’t take us long and we did find two grizzly bears. We talked to the rangers and they told us it was a mating pair. They knew the female as it had been previously collared and the male had appeared the day before. The rangers were very patient and interactive and were very accommodating to people trying to get pictures. Maybe because it was early in the season or because the crowds were still low, they were way more chill than usual when it comes to managing the crowds and the grizzly bears. For the most part everyone that was there viewing the bears were well behaved, so that might have contributed to the positive experience with the park rangers as well. After a while we decided to head down the road and see if we could find anything else and let someone else have our spot along the road. We did not see anything else that evening and went back to the hotel for some rest. We enjoyed some time out on the deck watching the sunset behind the mountains at Swiftcurrent Lake.

A young cow moose nursing an injury at Fishercap Lake - Many Glacier.

The young moose again in the willows along the edge of Fishercap Lake. Willow is one of the moose’s favorite foods, especially when it’s new growth. They also enjoy eating the aquatic vegetation that grows in the lake.

A male and female grizzly bear with some of the surrounding environment along Lake Sherburne in Many Glacier.

A little tighter shot on the male grizzly bear. Please make sure you follow park rules and keep your distance from the wildlife. All of these images were shot on long lenses so I could maintain a safe distance.

The next morning, day 4, we got up and decided to see what we could find before we had to head for home. We couldn’t decide if we wanted to try Fishercap Lake one more time, or see what else was out there. We decided to pass on Fishercap due to not seeing a lot the night before. We were able to find the two grizzly bears again from the night before, as they had not gone far. We watched them for a while and then continued down the road towards the main entrance and found a black bear right alongside the road. I got a few pictures on my cell phone, but that was all. Since we didn’t see anything else and a crowd was starting to form back at the pair of grizzly bears, we decided to drive down towards Fishercap just to see if anything was down there. We didn’t even get as far as the lake and we saw a big bull moose out in one of the openings. So we watched him for a while and decided we probably couldn't do much better than that anyway, and called it good for the morning without going to Fishercap Lake. We went back to the motel to pack up and then headed home. I had to be home to pick up our dogs from the kennel so we knew we couldn't stay too long.

A bull moose in Many Glacier - Glacier National Park. This was also with my Canon R6 and the Canon 100-500 as my memory card was full in my R5 and I didn’t have time to switch.

More of an environmental shot with the bull moose to include the mountains in the background.

One more shot of the bull moose in velvet grazing on the underbrush.

All in all, despite all of the closures, it was still a great trip. In total we saw 5 grizzly bears (some more than once, but 5 individual bears) 3 black bears, a whole bunch of mountain goats, 2 moose, a lot of waterfalls, tons of wild flowers, and all of the scenery you could take in. I am very blessed to live where I do, so close to so much natural beauty. For the landscape pictures I was primarily using an adapted Canon EF 24-70 2.8 II lens. I did break out my Canon EF 16-35 2.8 III lens a couple of times for some of the larger vista shots. I don’t like how that lens behaves with the stabilization in video mode with my Canon R5 though, so I don’t tend to use it a lot when I know I am going to be going back and forth between stills and video. I sometimes prefer to just make a panorama using my 24-70 if it’s not wide enough. For the wildlife I was mostly using my new Canon RF 100-500 lens. It was a lot of run and gun photo/video so I didn’t have a lot of time to get out a tripod and setup my Canon 600mm F4 II lens. I was able to use it a couple of times this trip, but not as much as I would have liked. I may need to think of a different strategy for how to use my 600 F4 in the future in those situations. Maybe a monopod? Or maybe I need to look into a tripod that’s a little quicker/easier to deploy. The Canon 100-500 worked well and for the most part I was happy with it… But it will never give me the quality (or the reach) of my 600mm F4.

Spring Burrowing Owls

Joshua Rutledge May 8, 2022

On the evening of May 7th my sister and I were able to observe some burrowing owls in Central Montana. We visited the site earlier in the day when we were coming back from a different outing, but it was storming and I did not have all of my camera gear with me. We only saw two owls during our initial visit, but with the wind and rain coming in, we did not stay very long to look more closely. After it looked like the storms had passed for the day, we decided to take a chance and make the hour long drive back to the site to see if we could get a better look at the owls. Upon arriving at the site, it was still windy as the last of the storms were just leaving the area and we did not see any owls. But not long after, as the weather cleared, we started seeing several owls moving about the area. They were so active in fact, it was difficult to keep track of how many owls were present. Our best guess is there were somewhere between about 6 and 10 owls.

Burrowing owls are small birds and we were only able to get so close to them, as to not disturb them. I had my longest lens on (Canon 600mm F4 version 2) and I also attached my 1.4x Canon teleconverter (version 3) to try and bring them in as close as possible. Even with all of that glass, they were still very small in the frame of my Canon R5. With that in mind, I actually ended up concentrating more on trying to get some video footage. The Canon R5 has a crop mode in video, so I enabled that to try and make the owls as large as possible. I also attached my external Rhode VideoMic Pro+ microphone to try and capture the sounds of the owls. Please check out the video link at the end of this post so you can see and hear the owls around their burrows. I did try to take some still photos and I am including a few here, even though the quality is not the best. These photographs are heavily cropped, so the quality is severely degraded, but I still wanted to share them for illustrative purposes.

Burrowing Owl taking a walk. It looks like he was on a mission.

Burrowing owl looking into the camera. He did not seem very happy about having his picture taken.

Burrowing owl, giving me a bit of a side eye look.

A pair of burrowing owls in the entrance of their burrow.

We only had about an hour with the owls by the time the weather moved out, so there was not a lot of daylight to work with. It was still worth the trip though, as it was one of my goals this year to try to locate and photograph some burrowing owls. I plan to revisit the site to try and get some better photographs. I am hoping if I had more time on the site, I might have the opportunity to get the owls a little closer for some better pictures. I am also hoping later on this spring, that perhaps I can observe some chicks as well, which would be a first for me.

A burrowing owl perched on a sage brush plant against the settings sky.

Greater Sage-Grouse Lek, April 2022

Joshua Rutledge April 4, 2022

Over the weekend of April 2-3, 2022 I was able to visit one of my favorite Greater Sage-Grouse Leks in Central Montana. It is always one of my favorite trips to make in the spring. The first morning I went out was not as productive as the second. As always, I still had a great time, but there were clouds in the sky and I was also not setup quite in the right spot for the best viewing of the grouse on the lek. The second morning I had some amazing sunlight right at sunrise and I was also in a better position for some closer pictures of the grouse.

Male Greater Sage-Grouse displaying on the lek, with the first morning sun rays shining through his feathers.

A close up portrait of a male Greater Sage-Grouse with his tail feathers glowing in the morning sun.

A profile picture of a male Greater Sage-Grouse displaying at sunrise on the lek.

The only downside to these trips are the early mornings. I have about an hour and a half drive from my sister’s house in Lewistown to the lek. Sunrise this time of year is before 7 AM, and you need to be out there about an hour before sunrise. All I can say is 4AM comes all too early. Luckily I have time to consume a lot of coffee on the drive over. I have considered staying the night closer to the lek, but in early spring the nights are still pretty cold and there is not a lot of protection on the open prairie if the weather comes in.

This year there were about 70 grouse on the lek and that was encouraging to see. Those numbers are slightly higher than the last couple of years. With the Greater Sage-Grouse being a species of concern, I am always happy to see when they are having a good year. Hopefully we have a good spring so chick recruitment will be as high as possible.

Most of my photography and videography were done with my Canon R5, Canon 600 mm F4 ii and I had some help at times with my Canon 1.4x iii teleconverter. I was also using a Manfroto fluid video head instead of my gimble head. I was also using my Rode Video Mic Pro+ for capturing the audio. I had recently upgraded the firmware and that seemed to be causing me some issue on my R5. If they do not put out a new firmware soon, I may have to consider reverting to an older firmware. I was able to work around if for the most part, but it was causing my camera to occasionally lock up.

A close up picture of all of the details in the tail feathers.

I am not sure if I will get another trip out for Greater Sage-Grouse or not. I still want to get out to a Sharp-Tailed Grouse lek and maybe try something new this year and find some mountain grouse during their spring rituals.

Two male Greater Sage-Grouse fighting over their position on the lek.

Two male Greater Sage-Grouse on the lek. You get to see the front and the back of the grouse.

A male Greater Sage-Grouse with his large yellow air sacks full of air on full display.

A relaxed (non displaying) male Greater Sage-Grouse.

Freezout Lake WMA, March 2022

Joshua Rutledge March 20, 2022

On March 19, 2022 I decided to take a quick trip out to the Freezout Lake WMA North of Fairfield, MT. I knew it was going to be a little bit early to hit the peak of migration, but with some upcoming commitments, I wasn’t sure if I would get out there later on or not. Most of the lake(s) was still frozen. There were some geese and ducks in the area, as well as some swans, but well below average for this time of year. There were a lot of Bald Eagles though, which was awesome to see. I was told the eagles were feeding on frozen fish in the ice. I also observed a coyote out on the ice looking for a meal as well. After driving around the WMA for a while I eventually found a Great Horned Owl sitting in a tree. I would guess if the weather remains mild, by next week the water should be opening up and I would guess the numbers of migrating waterfowl will increase significantly. Typically the last week of March is around the peak of migration, so that may turn out to be true again this year. If you want to monitor the status of the migration, Montana FWP does have a website with migration updates. You can find that site at: Freezout Lake Wildlife Management Area (arcgis.com). You can also check out my page about the Freezout Lake WMA here: Freezout WMA — Josh Rutledge Photography you may also find a blog I posted last year helpful as well. Freezout Lake Wildlife Management Area, March 20, 2021 — Josh Rutledge Photography. As always, please select the pictures for a larger view.

A flock of snow geese before sunrise at Freezout WMA.

Another shot of migrating snow geese against the color of the predawn sky.

Tundra Swans flying in formation against an early morning sky.

A mature Bald Eagle flying over the frozen water of Freesout Lake. You can see a glimpse of the mountains of the Rocky Mountain Front in the background.

A tree with several Bald Eagles perched in it just off Freezout Lake.

Snow Geese flying against the hills at Freezout WMA.

A flock of Snow Geese taking off from the lake, with a view of Fairfield, MT in the background.

Great Horned Owl perched in a tree at Freezout WMA.

Another photograph of the Great Horned Owl I found at the Freezout WMA.

Snowy Owls

Joshua Rutledge February 7, 2022

On the morning of February 6, 2022, I drove about an hour east of my home to meet my sister to look for Snowy Owls. Finding Snowy Owls was on my list of goals for this winter. I had also wanted to try and photograph Great Gray Owls this winter, but I have not been successful yet. The conditions in town were warm and dry when I left, but by the time I got about 30 miles out of town the roads turned very icy. I am not sure if it was new snowfall overnight that froze or if it was blowing snow that had recovered the roads. I had to slow down, but I still made it to our designated meeting location on time without issue.

We were probably looking for about a half an hour when my sister spotted our first snowy owl. It was on the edge of a stubble field not far off the road we were traveling on. I would guess we were probably still about 100 yards away when she spotted it. With it being so close to the road, we did not want to scare it, so we stopped and I took a few stills and some video from the car. It was too far away to realistically get any good photos, but we were not sure how long it would stick around, so I figured I better at least get a few pictures for documentation if nothing else. I was shooting with my Canon R5 and my Canon 600mm F4 II. I forgot my extender, or I might have considered putting it on. After we watched it for a while we decided to see if we could get any closer. The owl was along the road we needed to travel along anyway, so we figured it was worth taking a chance by getting a little closer. We were able to get a little bit closer, but it ended up flying away while we were still pretty far away. It did not fly real far, but it was still too far away for good photography. We continued down the road a little farther and we stopped to look around a little bit and I spotted a 2nd snowy owl sitting on the railroad tracks. This owl was even farther away than the first. So we just observed it with our binoculars for a while.

Slightly different pose of the first Snowy Owl we saw along the road.

I had already been out unsuccessfully a couple of times this winter looking for Snowy Owls, so to see two owls in less than an hour was really awesome. I was a little disappointed we had not been able to find one closer though. We continued to look around the countryside and after a little while we stumbled upon a third owl that was sitting out in the middle of a field. This owl was also too far away for any good photographs. When we first saw it, we were not 100% sure if it was one of the first owls we saw that had moved, or if it was a third. After we watched this owl for a while, we decided to go back and check where we saw the first two. Sure enough, those two owls were still where we left them, so we could confirm we had seen 3 Snowy owls.

Eventually we decided that the owls were not going to cooperate and give us any closer views so we decided to call it a day. We did not want to harass the birds by trying to get too close. Seeing three Snowy Owls in one morning was still an awesome experience and I was able to cross off one of my winter goals. Hopefully the owls will stick around a little bit longer so I can get a chance to try again for some better pictures. All of the photographs and video were cropped to try and showcase the birds. As a result they are not very high resolution. As the morning went on (it was abnormally warm for February) I was starting to get some heat distortion in my pictures as well, which further degraded the image quality. Since the owls were white, there were white patches of snow in many of the scenes and the sky was relatively bright I was shooting with between 2/3 and a full stop of positive exposure compensation to correct my exposures.

Slightly different pose of the Snowy Owl perched on the fence.

Besides the owls, we saw many pronghorn antelope, white-tail deer and I briefly saw what I think was a coyote. All in all it was an awesome morning.

White-tail deer amongst some old farm equipment.

A young buck pronghorn antelope on the run.

As I mentioned, I was hoping to photograph Great Gray Owls this winter too. I found this one (along with a couple of others) in the fall, but I only had my cheap camera with me at the time, so this blurry picture was the best I could do. I was hoping to get back into that area with my better equipment, but I got snowed out. I had not previously posted this picture, so I thought I would include it on this post.

Labor Day Weekend Elk

Joshua Rutledge September 5, 2021

I am still working on trying to post a blog(s) about our trips to Glacier National Park earlier this summer, but I have not had the time to gather everything for that. But I did want to put out something updated, so I thought I would create a post about my quick trip to check out the forthcoming elk rut in the Missouri Breaks in North Central Montana over Labor Day Weekend.

A large herd of elk with a large bull in the center.

Typically I don’t visit the site on the C. M. Russel National Wildlife Refuge until later in September, but I thought I would try going early this year to avoid the crowds. While the crowds were less than they are typically later in the month, it was already pretty busy for my liking. I was hoping if I could avoid the crowds maybe I could get some video with clean audio for once. To me half of the fun of watching the elk is listening to all of the various sounds they make. When the crowds are large and there is so much traffic on the roads, trying to hear the elk clearly is almost impossible. Even with the lesser crowds, it was still impossible to get any clean audio without crowd noise or vehicles driving in the background. I will post a video with unedited audio at the end of this blog. It was still worth the visit however. I would guess there were probably about 100 elk or so. There were two mature bulls and a lot of smaller bulls, spikes, cows and calves. There was a third large bull elk that came out right at dark and he was probably the biggest of the bunch. There was also a large flock of wild turkey’s this year which were a nice bonus. All of these pictures were produced with my Canon R5 and my adapted Canon 600mm F4 II. If you click on an image you will get a full screen version of the images.

The mature bull we saw with the large herd of elk.

The 2nd mature bull elk we saw late in the evening.

With smoke and clouds in the sky, we were treated to a very colorful sunset. The downside is that it did get darker a little sooner than normal with so much of the sunlight being blocked. I may get back to the viewing area again later this fall, but at least if I don’t get the chance, I was able to get this trip in. For more information about the elk on the C.M. Russell NWR please check out my page here: https://www.joshrutledgephotography.com/c-m-russell

The smoke and clouds made for a colorful sunset.

I put together this little video digest from the evening. I decided to leave the audio as is, as there was just not much I could do to save it. You can hear a few bugles and some other vocalization, but there is also a lot of wind, crowd and vehicle noise as well. You will also see the wild turkeys we were enjoying watching along side the elk.