Bear must pay the ulitmate price....

Via Facebook, my brother that lives in Cody, Wyoming has provided articles from the Billings Gazette about a recent 'Grizzly Bear' Mauling that took place about 30 miles East of Cody and about 10 miles or so outside the East gate of Yellowstone Park.

Apparently wildlife officials had trapped this bear a day earlier to take blood samples, etc and fit it with a radio collar for tracking movements. Kind of the on-going research to study these great animals. This particular drainage had been posted to stay out of for the research stuff but apparently a 70 year old retired college professor didn't see the warnings and ended up dying from a mauling attack. This fella had recently published a book that did extensive documenting of the fauna in/around the Yellowstone area so he knew his research and knew of Bears, etc.

By Saturday, the Feds had tracked the bear down via the collar and terminated it then magically have been able to get quick results of the DNA samples of the bear and some DNA left on the man that match this bear. Does CSI work this fast or is it just on TV?

Anyway, probably to save a major lawsuit they killed the bear. They will probably get sued anyway as that is the American way so the widow will live in better comfort than she may already be. Sorry, I don't feel much sympathy for the man. Yes his family has lost a wonderful member of their family, but when you are out there (I have been several times) you watch what you do and know the price you may have to pay if you are careless. This man was careless and in the wrong place at the wrong time.

RIP Mr. Grizzly!

Tim

The photo is from summer 2008 of a grizzly in Yellowstone Park.

Telephone Man

I was browsing through some older shots from earlier this year and came upon this photo of a phone booth in Mill City, Oregon. We pass through this little hamlet when going to HooDoo or to the Cascades, Bend, etc.

I think my family was inside what is known as a convenience store up there but nothing like the 7-Eleven's of the world, still has the basics.

I was out stretching my legs after snowboarding and skiing that day and was across the highway when I was just struck by this phone booth sitting there in a vacant lot. I don't even know if there is a phone inside of it and if so does it work? With just about everyone having a cell phone or knowing someone who does it seemed kind of a "throwback" to days gone by. I think the last time I used one they cost about 35 cents to start the local call.

We used them quite a bit back in the military to make collect calls back to home and things like that but overall a relic of the past. Speaking of that, there is quite a bit of relics of the past in the Mill City area. It once was probably pretty thriving with lumber milling but not so much anymore.

So if you are ever passing through and need the phone, hope this one will work for you!

Tim

Big Horn - Ewes

I seem to be stuck on animals or big landscape type shots but tend to lead toward animals. I keep a camera in my living room so when birds are at the feeders I have, I can snap off a few shots. I haven't posted many of my backyard moochers which are mostly finches, sparrows year round and chickadees (usually in the winter/early spring) then they are gone. Other birds come in also, and occasionally a hawk to try and feed on the birds.

Well, back to larger animals! Still a shot from this past March when my daughter and I were visiting grandma/pa in Cody, Wyoming. We traveled up towards the East gate of Yellowstone Park and just off the road in the hillsides were small groups of Bighorn Sheep.

I caught a small group of Ewes about 150-200 yards away from the road and hung out in the sagebrush and scrub and took a few shots. This one was kind of interesting and didn't even notice the one animal behind the one I was concentrating on. Could probably play with it in Photoshop and make it look like a sheep with two sets of horns!

Well, just posting you know. It is a quiet Memorial Day Monday and thanks to the Veterans (including me) we get to be away from our places of work. More days like this would be welcome I think.

Tim -

Wyoming Wind

Back in the mid 90's I lived in Casper for almost two years. It was pretty good times and really had nothing going on but work and close to the mountains. But when the wind blew there it was just amazing how fierce it could be! When it snowed in the winter we would often have a few days of calm while the snow piled up then afterward would just blow and move the snow away. It always amazed me!

Well, with that thought in mind and wind energy sprouting up all over the place I come back to Wyoming. Yes the wind still blows there and probably as fierce as ever. But this past summer of 2009 as I traveled back on I-80 to a backpacking trip I ran across some turbine fields out in the middle of the High Basin plains of Wyoming. It was odd as they were not there just over six years ago on my travels out to Oregon, but progress shall not be stopped. Not even in Coal country!

I took this shot, not a great one, but one of several as I sat along side the interstate seeing these huge turbines sitting on this ridge line in the middle of this dry plains. Not really even close to any of the communities along this vehicle pipeline. It makes me hope that they do the best research to make sure environmental impacts are minimized as much as possible to those animals that roam the ground and fly the skies in this area. Yes it is cleaner power, but hope we do not sacrifice many wonderful things just so I can run my PC.

Well, enjoy the shot and please visit my website at www.timehlers.com, for other photos of wildlife, landscapes, and much more.

Tim

My Hawks Will Not sit Still!

Wow, the start of May already and where is this year going? Looks like some rain moving in to start our first week of May. At least it stays away most of the weekend hours!

Well has many may know I have a few bird feeders in the back yard and enjoy seeing the many Finches, Chickadees, a few Towhees?, sparrows, etc come around for their free lunches, dinners and so on. Of course this provides for some other birds of different feather to come around and I get the occasional visit from both Sharp Shinned Hawks and Cooper's Hawks.

This shot was taken back in December of 2009 in the mid morning and the Cooper's Hawk would not turn around for me to get a shot of it, bashful I guess? Anyway, it was just taking off from the fence after not collecting any of the smaller birds for its brunch!

Another thing is I took this shot with my Pentax istDS camera which is now in the hands of a friend of mine who purchased it for a reasonable price. I have purchased a new Pentax K-X to use as my back up camera to my Pentax K20D. I am studying the manual on the new camera so I can use some of the different features such as HD movie capture. Since all my cameras take SD or SDHC I can also play them on our large TV in the living room in its SD slot. Pretty cool to see some of the shots on the 'Big Screen'!

Until later, have a great day, week or month! Tim