The weather has been completely all over the place during the past week. We saw an 80 degree temperature swing from a morning low one day of minus 45F to a high a few days later of 36F. I haven’t been photographing birds as much as in the past couple of years but I still enjoy them as much as ever. In the winter, pine grosbeaks come down out of the high mountains. The males, seen here on the left, are pinkish red while the females have a yellow tone to their heads. I’ve never seen evening grosbeaks stay any significant amount of time during the winter. If they do show up, it’s usually only for a day or two. But this winter, a large flock has been present every day for about two weeks, at the time of this writing. I was actually photographing the male pine grosbeak when this female evening grosbeak landed on the same branch and chased him off. I guess in this instance, the bigger bill won.

Wishing everyone a very happy and Merry Christmas today. This scene not far from the house shows the Lionhead Mountains looming over a small cabin. The foreground looks like a snow-covered meadow but is actually the iced-over Hebgen Lake which will stay frozen until some time in spring.

I’ve been going out a few times over the last couple of weeks looking for bighorn sheep and finally found them. Ironically, I go out hoping to photograph the big rams but then I end up watching the lambs instead. This lamb followed its mother across the road to graze on the other side. Yes, they are on the road here which was (and still is) covered in snow and ice.

This photo was from the first week of December and the snow is adding up quite a lot already. Compared to last winter when we didn’t have any snow on the ground after the first week of December, this year, when I took this photo, we had a snowpack of over two feet already, and it’s snowed more since then. Fox are well adapted for winter and this one was out and about searching for food. In the winter, with several feet of snow on the ground, it’s much easier to spot wildlife over the landscape.

Yellowstone National Park re-opens to start the winter season tomorrow, December 15th providing access via guided snowmobiles and snowcoaches to interior locations such as Old Faithful and Canyon. If you’re heading out this way, be prepared for winter driving conditions. Seen in this image is Highway 287, one of the roads that heads towards West Yellowstone. Expect similar conditions if you’re coming to West Yellowstone. The forecast for the next week or so is drier with some sun, so some of these icy road conditions may improve, but for now, this is what we’re driving on in southwest Montana.

Have you ever been snowshoeing or cross-country skiing? If you’ve chosen the right wax, hopefully snow doesn’t build up on the bottom of your skis though there’s no much you can do about snowshoes. And even snowshoe hares, as well adapted as they are, need to clean the snow out from between their toes. Snowshoe hares are named because they have really large rear feet which help them navigate over snow much like a pair of snowshoes do for us.

Today is my last reminder to order prints so they arrive in time for the Christmas. After Friday, they may or may not arrive before December 25. This pretty fox was photographed in Hayden Valley a few winters ago. It was incredibly windy so the fox bedded down for a while but not before she or he explored a bit in search of food. With the wind howling, the fox chose a ravine where it could curl up out of the wind a bit. Winter is harsh but all wildlife have strategies for surviving it. You can see the raised front paw has a lot of fur growing which not only insulates the foot pads from the cold but help to support the fox as it crosses the snow, acting like mini snowshoes.

So are you ready winter? Here in Montana near Yellowstone National Park we already have several feet of snowpack on the ground and several mornings where the low temperature has hit -20 Farenheit. And that was in November! Compared to last winter when we didn’t get any measurable snowfall until mid December, it’s actual welcome, especially since this ecosystem is dependent on it’s winter snowpack. With the holidays quickly approaching, I’ve had a few orders for different bison photos so I thought I’d share this one from a couple of winters back. It was a cold morning, probably close to -20 and these bison were coming out of a thermal area so were coated in frost from the freezing steam. The last day to place an order and have it arrive in time for Christmas is December 9, so it’s coming up quickly.