This morning I find a light rain falling and a warm temp of 48 degrees.

I see the local fox at lower Baronette. Then a tiny critter, I guess a mouse or a vole. zips safely across the road at Round Prairie.

By the time I get to the Peregrine carcass spot, the rain has stopped.

Gary (who can see in the dark) reports two bears and seven wolves on the carcass this morning.

While I walk up the hill to join him, I can hear the bears growling!

When I first look through my scope, I see one of these bears running north. The second bear remains on the carcass and seems willing to share with several wolves. He gives only a few half-hearted lunges when they press their luck a bit too far.

I count three grays and at least four blacks.

While the others feed, some vigorous play breaks out between 1479 and the two young males. She play-mounts dark gray, then does the same to the black male.

The other wolves remain focused on eating. One gray pulls off a sizeable chunk and carries it away to the north.

A pair of sandhill cranes incongruously wander past the carcass while the bear and wolves continue to feed. There are heavy clouds this morning, which may give them more “cover” than the last two days.

Around 7AM the bear finally moves off and the wolves rush back in, including 907.

I now count eight wolves at the carcass, all adults: five blacks and three gray. Others saw a few more. The light is good enough now for me to ID the alpha male and 1478F. Russ notices a GPS collar on another black, 1477F.

Around 7:15 the wolves begin to depart, heading northeast back to Slough flats. I take my cue that it’s time to move that way myself.

I climb Dave’s Hill again and scan the flats between the southern round tree and Marge. Sure enough, the carcass-feeding group is already arriving.

Gary spots a grizzly climbing the hill south of the Mixed forest. It’s very likely one of the bears we saw on the carcass.

Suddenly we see a pile of wolves in deep sage right of the southern round tree. Looks like the pups just got a feeding.

I see heads and ears and tails.

Several wolves emerge from the pile into the shorter grass, trotting up the slope left of Marge.

They mill about, while some bed and some begin romping. Two more wolves arrive late from the south, a black and a gray.

Three of the pups (the gray and two blacks) dash back down the hill they just came up to greet these two, while most of the others remain on the berm.

My count rises to 13 while others get 14. Another rally/greeting/feeding occurs and after some socializing, the whole group trots up the hill towards Marge.

This time most of them settle down. The majority of them disappear completely from sight due to the thick sage that grows behind Marge.

This leaves six wolves still goofing off in the flats, including the black male who playfully “mounts” another black.

Things calm down a bit with mostly bedded wolves in view. 1479, however, seems to divine that the crowd on Dave’s Hill would prefer some activity.

She trots back down to the flats and wanders about until she finds a particular dirt spot. She begins to dig, or perhaps to enlarge an existing hole.

She really sends the dirt flying! She eventually excavates enough earth that she can disappear into it. She does this at least six times, each time remaining out of view quite a while.

Eventually she tires of this and heads south yet again.

It seems cooler today up on Dave’s. Probably because it’s cloudy and we have a brisk wind at our backs.

A wolf or two will emerge from their hiding spots often enough to keep us on our toes. The black male, 907 and three pups take a jaunt down to the flats. The pups play around for about 15 minutes while 907 supervises. They take turns investigating 1479’s excavation, disappearing into it like she did, and jumping out at each other.

The black male heads further south and I lose him near the southern round tree.

After a while, 907 gets up and heads back to Marge while the pups reluctantly follow. 1479 returns from wherever she had been and sniffs briefly at the hole she dug.

It’s now 10AM and the day has warmed to 67, so I pack up for my break.

Around 5PM I head back to the valley. There had been a short burst of heavy rain and thunder in Silver Gate this afternoon, which happily cleared the air of haze and smoke as well.

It’s very nice to be able to see the mountains again.

When I get to Slough, there is no parking at Bob’s lot so I join Gary at Doug’s lot. Dusty is up above Dave’s on Adams Knob again and feeds us information.

With the clouds blown away leaving the sun in our eyes, it’s a bit hard to see tonight. But we manage to find two adults near the Marge tree.

It’s easier to see the wolves in the den area, where the alpha male and 1479 are tending the five pups.

I find it interesting that the pups still seem to prefer hanging out up here rather than the flats. If I were a pup, I’d be exploring the creek all the time.

We hear some nice howling between the two groups.

A little later, 1479 and the alpha male make an attempt to lead the pups through Aspen pass, with 907 trailing behind. The gray pup and one black pup follow the alphas but the other three stay behind.

It’s a very nice evening. The rain-cleared skies let us see contours and colors again. I didn’t realize how much the haze of the last few days had been obscuring.

On the way back east, I stop briefly at Moose Meadow to look at a really cool ground-hugging layer of fog rising from the creek.

Today I saw: 2 grizzly bears, bison, coyotes, pronghorn, 14 Junction wolves including 907, alpha male, 1385, 1386, 1477, 1479, black male, dark gray male, uncollared gray female plus all 5 pups and the spirits of Allison, Richard, Jeff and Chloe.