Three Toed woodpecker, Moose on our Second Grizzly search of the year (20130602) A cooperative bear.

I awoke a half hour late this morning and that is always a good sign :) It would seem that whenever I get delayed for a trip it tends to be eventful, and today was no exception. We spied a pair of Coyotes to get us started, and a small herd of 8-12 elk helped out early. Deer seemed to be everywhere. We were about 30 minutes earlier than I had been the day before, and Russell had a quick look at one Black bear before it disappeared into the woods. On the rabbit road we grabbed some shots of the Hare's. On the way out Russell heard/saw something and we stopped for a look. While there we found this Three Toed Woodpecker, a first for me.

What I read about these guys is that they are more associated with trees destroyed by fire, this guy was picking at a Spruce and looks like his beak s wet as if he is "sucking sap". I thought I'd throw in a second image, as it was a first :)

On another stop on the "rabbit road" we also spotted a Swainson's Thrush, another first for me and Russell as well. Although  we didn't get any "postable shots", I received confirmation from my man Dan,so the day was "sparkling" from my point of view.
We had a brief encounter with a Cow moose on the way out, I was surprised that she had no calf with her.
Then up the road we came across this fine looking bull. (no crop @240mm)

It is amazing how easily these monsters can slip out of eyesight behind the smallest set of bushes. Another close in shot of 180mm with no crop.

I gotta tell ya that Russell was my good luck charm today, we were headed by the lake and he wanted to take a little peak down the short road, so we went! When we went back to the main road  this young man was enjoying a breakfast of Dandelions.

We watched him for about 35 minutes before disappearing down off the side of the road towards the lake. So we decided to ease on down the road we just came out of in the hopes of spotting this bear again. As we eased in I spied this slightly smaller bear coming up from the lake.

We swung back up to the main road to see if this bear was hanging around, but it was gone.  Around the corner though I believe we found the first bear again.

We took some shots here then re-positioned so that the bear would come toward us as he fed. This is a pretty tight crop but I thought it showed off his nice round face.

We spend more than an hour with him this time. He hasn't been tagged or collared yet. This is just a really nice young bear to spend some time with on a sunny Sunday morning.

 This seems like a lot of Grizzly shots, but it is probably my best encounter yet to get to watch and observe their behaviour in the wild. On the way home as it started to rain we grabbed this Redtail off a fence post.

That wraps up today's efforts. A fabulous day with another great buddy. This bear encounter definitely places in my top 10 wild life experiences. Today was a big improvement over yesterday in exactly the same spot. Home by 12:30 in the afternoon. Spend some time out with nature this week, it will do you good!
Turbo