Reader Stephen Barnard has a few photos today, including the two offspring of the bald eagles Desi and Lucy, which are ready to fledge.
I just saw these pronghorns (Antilocapra americana) in my alfalfa field across the creek. (Deets spooked them.) This is unusual. I’ve only seen one other here in the past three years. [JAC: note the pronghorns, although often called “antelope”, aren’t really antelopes: they’re the only species in the family Antilocapridae, and their closest surviving relatives are the giraffids: giraffes and okapi!]
Also, the eaglets (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) in their current stage of development — they are SO READY to fledge.
And a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias):
The next three photos come from reader Jon Meddings:
This is a very young grizzly (Ursus arctos horribilis) in the Kananaskis country in Alberta. It was a rainy day and this young bear was out eating dandelions that seem to be an favorite early spring food item.
An Alaskan brown bear, a variant of the grizzly taken in Alaska. This is a young cub that the mother (in the background) was teaching how to fish. They would move from pool to pool and when they approached us, he cautiously checked us out, crossed the stream and then moved past us. Beautiful.
Canadian moose (Alces alces) taken in the Kananaskis again. These animals are notoriously short sighted but have a great sense of smell and hearing. Not seen in the foreground is a rushing stream that hid the sound of us approaching for the shot. She left shortly after this shot in a very graceful manner….
Bears – they look so cuddly yet they are so bitey.
Exactly what I as going to say in different words.
as –> was
And claw-y. And smelly (NOT!) http://www.bearstudy.org/website/updates/daily-updates/814-update-february-9-2010-1050-am-cst-.html
Btw, I saw the movie Paddington on your recommendation, and I loved it. The villain was a high point!
Yeah, even the cub had some conspicuous claws. Ouch!
I’m glad you liked Paddington! I loved it.
That is so interesting, that the closest relative to the pronghorn is the giraffe!
How far away were the grizzlies, Stephen? Thanks for all the great photos.
Those aren’t my grizzly photos. I think Jerry forgot to include the attribution.
Oh dear. I’ll fix that now. My bad!
Ah, I now see that the bear photos are from Jon Meddings! Very nice!
Grizzly bears are a bit unpredictable and you can ‘suddenly’ arrive quite close to them. For a large mammal they are deceptively fast and quiet. These were taken close to a road that only opens in late spring – until that time the bears consider it ‘theirs’ and so you can see them very close to the road for a day or so. I do leave the car to get a good shot but stay very close – they were likely 50 yards away or so?
As always, Stephen, beautiful photos! Thank you for sharing them with us…
Love the bear cub and the heron.
I bet the pronghorns love alfalfa- when I lived in Wyoming, all they had to eat was tough buffalo grass and (if there was a wet spring) blue gama. Those three are spoiled! 🙂
Lovely Blue Heron shot: alert and poised.
Nice mammal photos Jon. I’ve been rather close to Grizzlies up in Alaska, and it can be unnerving, but is always thrilling.
And I’m glad dandelions are good for something! (Actually I rather enjoy sauteed dandelion greens.) Has anyone tried dandelion wine?
I can’t believe how big the eaglets have become so quickly.
Lovely pics.