As fall descends in Yellowstone and the Tetons,
painting the trees golden-yellow,
the elk are rutting,
bugling,
and posturing.
They become so exhausted by all this effort, they bugle while resting!
The calves,
and does,
provide a peaceful contrast!
Cheers to you from the Tetons in the fall~
Tag Archive | Bull Elk
“The Tonic of Wildness..”
“We need the tonic of wildness.” Henry David Thoreau
“It is not what you look at that matters, but what you see.”
“All good things are wild and free.”
He may be broken, but he is not defeated.
Next season he may survive to fight again and win his harem.
But until then he is alone.
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
Photos taken the last few days in Yoho and Banff National Parks.
Quotations are all Henry David Thoreau.
Hope you take some time to go, “Where the Wild Things Are,” (Maurice Sendak).
Like Thoreau, you may just find your real self.
Cheers to you from our cabin in the Canadian Woods!
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Wildlife Jasper National Park: Pt. I
What to do when a bull moose walks right by you and you are in the middle of the wilderness? Back up slowly and take a pic….
or four! He got into some tussles with small pine trees, that looked rather aggressive, but I think he was just scratching his antlers. (I’ll post them if you want to see them)
Here is a sweet-faced peaceful lady elk. I was taking her pic from fairly close by, and she was unperturbed.
***
When all of a sudden there was this helacious din, that sounded something like a dinosaur. It is elk mating season in Jasper National Park, and I was right in the path of Sammy the suitor and his intended. No matter to him that his mating path was right in front of our cabin! He ran up to his intended, and saw me in his way….(Male elk in rut are somewhat deranged and can be quite dangerous, especially if you are in the way of true romance!)
He lowered his antlers at me in a most un-friendly manner…
And bugled at me loud enough to wake the dead! You can see him bugling at me in the lower pic.
I got the message and backed away! Letting true love take its course.
The males are out bugling in front of our cabin every night and it is most exciting! I run out with a flashlight catching glimpses of them.
Male Mule Deer are Everywhere.
And then, of course there are the irrepressible, highly entertaining red squirrels. They like to camaflouge themselves so sneakily as water faucets……
This particular guy has amassed a pile of pine cones 12″ x 12″ round and at least as high! He’s not going hungry this winter!
The last moments of fall are lingering in Jasper, but winter winds are already here, snow is covering the mountain peaks, and winter is coming!
Time to pack up the canoes and chairs by the lake until spring tip-toes back next year!
Cheers to you from Jasper NP, nightime temp tonight 26F.
