One of my favorite animals in Yellowstone, the bobcat. Nearly every winter for at least the past 10 years, at least one bobcat has been seen on the west side of the park. I was on an afternoon wildlife tour that travels the west side of the park looking for wildlife. I knew a bobcat had been seen with some regularity in one of the areas we were going to be travelling on the tour so I was already intently looking when I caught a glimpse of a brown animal at the base of a tree along the Madison River. I called out that I'd seen something, but I didn't know what I saw. After a few tense moments, I caught sight of a pair of ear tufts peeking above the snowbank along the edge of the river. The bobcat seemed well aware of the crowd that eventually gathered, but appeared unconcerned.
Foxes for me are elusive; I seem to have a hard time finding them. My luck changed when I got to see this fox, and I got to see it mouse (hunt). I had seen the fox wandering towards the road so the tour stopped to watch and snap a few photos. It crossed the road and then froze, head cocked to one side, listening. The fox was listening to a small animal (probably a mouse or vole) moving around under the snow. It cocked its head from side to the other. Then, in a fluid movement, crouched and lept into the air and came down paws first into the snow in an attempt to catch the animal it had heard. In this case, the fox was successful and in two bites it had consumed what it had caught, and wandered off.
The earth shadow (dark blue band in the lower left) and the Belt of Venus (the pink band) were amazingly strong on this particular morning. The pink color is due to the backscattering of reddened light as the sun rises or sets. I was the only one out at Castle Geyser listening to it steam.
