Upde Designs

Happy Monday!

Sorry for the delay in posting more images.  I have had some things going on in my life that have taken me away from my photography for awhile.  Today I have several images of Bison.  This was our third day in the park and we wanted to go back to the place where the”Buffalo Roam.”  Sorry I couldn’t help myself.  🙂

Please click on the image to see a larger more detailed version of the image.  Love the look on his face.  It was close to the mating season when we were there and this is one of the things male Bison do to attract a mate.

This was after his dust roll and he came down to where his lady friend was standing.  You can still see a little bit of the dust  around him.  You can see he is announcing his presence with his low bellow.  When they do that I must admit it sounds ominous and foreboding.

I don’t know what she is thinking but she doesn’t look all the interested in him.  He stood beside her for several minutes.  Just swishing flies with his tail and every once in a while he would bellow again.

We never saw that many calves but when we did they were very close to their mother.  If you look closely at his coat you can see that he has had a few scrapes already in his young life.

This is what happens when a Bison decides to cross the road.  Major traffic jam. We saw an entire heard cross the road on our fist day in the park and we were far enough back with our van that I couldn’t get a shot of it.  The park rangers were there to make sure they all got across the road.  An average bull weighs 850 pounds and can run at about 35 mph so they are a presence to be reckoned with.

And now for our biggest adventure.  We had stopped at a picnic area to have some lunch.  There were lots of people there and we thought we were lucky to find an empty table.  There was a group of eight to our left and a group of 4 to our right.  Jeanne happened to mention that all the trees in the area had the bark rubbed off.

Not long after she said that we heard a low bellow and there he was.  He was coming straight to our area.  All of us in unison ran to our cars until he passed.  He came up to our car and I was wondering how I was going to explain this big dent in the car.  But he didn’t bother us and he casually walked on down to the stream for a drink and most of us went back to our lunch.

Enjoy your day and be careful.