Ravens are incredibly intelligent birds, able to open zippers to get at food inside. This Yellowstone raven saw me get a small package of trail mix out of the SUV in which I was traveling and immediately flew to a couple of feet from where I was standing.
Knowing the problems people cause by feeding wildlife, I didn't share the trail mix with this handsome bird.
This photo was taken with an 18-135 mm lens as the bird waited on the ground. I like the detail on the face, and the bit of snow in the beak.
A bull bison's face is coated with snow after using its massive head to sweep away deep snow as it searches for grass in Yellowstone National Park.
Bison coats insulate them so well that snow that falls on the coat doesn't melt, so small is the amount of heat that escapes from the body. Bison can survive temperatures as low as -30 F with little or no discomfort. The dead grass beneath the snow is brown and has little nutritional value.
These three elk cows just outside the northern edge of Yellowstone National Park seem to be lining up for a parade on a warm-ish winter day. They were part of a large herd of female elk on land just outside the park's north entrance. The yellow areas are dry grass, visible due to the lack of snow in this part of Montana in January 2018.
We watched this bobcat along the Madison River in Yellowstone National Park for several hours over two days in January 2017. Bobcat sightings are very rare, so it was a real treat to get to watch this hunter. The river wasn't yet frozen, so this bobcat was hoping to catch a duck on the river.
