As I leave Silver Gate this morning (at 4:45) there is a lovely full moon beaming down from a clear sky.

At Slough I join Rick and Celia and the usual crowd on the Little Hill.

The wolves in view today are collared black 1385F, collared grays 907F & 1478F. They are all bedded near the sage den.

An uncollared gray comes up to these wolves from below, very submissively. 1385 greets this gray and solicits a feeding; but she doesn’t get it.

Next, the uncollared gray greets 1478F, passes her and goes inside the den. The uncollared gray comes back out and wanders upslope to the eastern trees. A previously unseen wolf stands up to accept a greeting. It’s the alpha male.

Now the uncollared gray goes for a walkabout around the den cliff.

Around 7AM, 907 gets up and moves downhill. She is followed by the alpha male.

Note: there is a third collared gray in the den area today, and we are stumped as to which wolf this it could be. When I talk later with Laurie, she suggests it could be 1485M, a Junction who has been spending time with the Mollies. He is one of those young wolves who is currently welcome in both packs. She says that when the Project was doing collaring in February, this wolf was hanging with the Mollies, so he was collared as a Mollie. I now call him the “dual citizen” gray male.

Frank radios from Boulder, where he is watching the bison carcass. He says 1479F has been feeding there, between bear visits, and that she is now headed back east.

It’s been a busy morning for watchers at Boulder.

I follow the alpha pair as they journey down to the flats. At first, I assumed they would go west to join 1479F on the Boulder carcass, but they are trending more south than west.

Krisztina reports from Crystal that she’s found a bison calf carcass (likely a stillborn) north of the road, just west of the Lamar Bridge. So now I wonder if the Junction alphas might be aware of that and are headed there.

Krisztina says a coyote is feeding on it at the moment, and that people are walking too close to it and others are leaving their cars stopped in the road.

Meanwhile, back at the den, the pups come out and begin to play with 1478. After a bit, she leaves them on their own and goes for a walkabout to the natal den. She goes inside briefly, comes back out and returns by way of the western trees.

Then she moves to the eastern trees and begins to wag her tail. Aha, there must be another wolf there! She disappears momentarily behind the flower hill but then comes out with the uncollared gray we were seeing earlier.

Both grays bed near the pups and enjoy playing with them.

Around 9AM intrepid 1479F arrives, as Frank predicted, from the west. She greets the two gray adults and nuzzles the pups. They love their older sister and begin to play with her.

The alpha pair is spotted in the flats, now trotting back to the north. I joke that maybe they were not looking for food, and only wanted some alone time together, away from the pups.

They take separate routes up the hill to the den. The male takes a fairly direct route and stops to rest in the spring meadow.

907 takes a western route, stopping below the small diagonal forest, where she rests with her head on her paws for a short while. Then she gets up and finds something interesting on the rocky ground. She rolls in it, with her legs in the air.

Then she begins to mouse! Successfully! Yep, the old girl still has it!

1479F sees the alpha male and joins him in the spring meadow for a sweet father/daughter moment. Then she goes to the spring for a drink.

907 is now nearing the sage den. She and 1479 greet in a fairly blasé way, giving each other only a brief, but friendly sniff.

The alpha male reaches the den opening and the pups run out to him. He and 1479 play with the pups a while as we all coo and sigh.

All three pups look robust and healthy, if still a bit wobbly on their feet.

It’s been a busy morning at Slough, today, with nearly constant action of one sort of another.

Around 11 I head back my car and take a drive to the west. There is still a jam at Crystal for the calf-carcass north of the road, but a Ranger is clearing it out.

I continue to Long pullout to try again to find the cliff-loving bear family. And sure enough, there they are, all four asleep in a bear-pile below a cliff wall. It looks like a precarious spot in which to sleep, and I sure hope none of them wakes up with a start!

Now I go east for my break.

Around 4PM I am getting ready to head back out for the evening when Maureen and Rick arrive with surprising news. For the last hour, they have been watching Mollies in the Old Druid Rendezvous!

So, off I go.

When I get near Exclosure, I radio for an update. Mark & Carol reply from Trash can that just moments ago the Mollies got up and are moving west.

Celia joins me at Hubbard Hill, from which we quickly find them. I count eight total (five gray and three black). I do not see 1048 among them. I do recognize 1090F, 1339M (alpha male), dark black 1411F and the “gold stripe” black.

Since we are missing a collared gray, Celia and I figure it’s 1485M, the “extra” collared gray we saw with the Junctions this morning.

The wolves travel straight west, between the riverbank and the tree line. They stop in the big fan for a rally, then they have a second one about half-way across. They are now climbing the eastern end of Amethyst bench.

They test a few bison herds, but nothing develops. We both remark that these are gorgeous wolves. We notice that 1339M does quite a bit of scent- marking as he travels.

They crossing Amethyst drainage and continue towards Jasper bench as a heavy rain cloud arrives. It starts to pour and we lose sight of them.

Celia and I relocate to Dorothy’s, but the rain is coming down so hard, we stay in our cars to wait it out.

When it tapers off, Celia finds them on the far western end of Jasper, just below the “perfect” tree. They are in two groups: four are bedded on the hill while the other four have moved lower, exploring the area just above the Lamar.

We move to Coyote and find the bedded group has gotten up. They are coming down to join the exploring group. To our delight, a wonderful bout of play begins, started by 1090F! They all race around, playing tag or keep away. Even 1339M joins in the fun. It’s just wonderful to see how these wolves seem to enjoy each other.

Krisztina captures it all on video.

Their play leads them even lower on the hill, so we relocate to Fisherman’s. From here we watch them explore the flats, each wolf on its own. They splash through various river channels, sniffing this or that.

As sun peeks out again, bathing the area in golden light and creating a rainbow in the east.

1411F sets off in an eastward direction and soon the others follow her. She leads them along a very low route, just above the river, going in and out of trees at the bottom of Jasper Bench.

There is a large, fallen tree across the route 1411 has chosen. She is fairly small, so she simply goes under its needle-covered branches. The large gray can tell he won’t fit below it, so he turns and goes around it, splashing through a shallow braid of the river.

Eventually they move into thick trees, climbing up the steep face of Jasper bench.

We move back to Dorothy’s where we find Fay & Dale, grinning from ear to ear. The Mollies finally top out about the middle of the bench and turn east.

I move on to the Ranch and find them taking a low route again, just above the old riverbank. More rain arrives, diminishing visibility, and the light is fading too, so I call it a day.

As I drive back east, I reflect on how nice it is to have the Mollies back in Lamar. I can’t help but wish they will stay, or at least continue to pay frequent visits.

My final sighting of the day is a small black bear north of the road just east of Pebble Creek.

Today I saw: 5 grizzlies (including 3 cubs), a black bear, bison, coyote, sandhill cranes, bald eagle, elk, geese (including 6 goslings) pronghorn, 17 wolves; 9 Junctions (including alpha male, 907F, 1478F, 1479F, collared black (possibly 1385F?), uncollared gray and 3 pups) plus 8 Mollies (including 1090F, 1339M, 1411F, gold stripe black, and four other grays) and the spirits of Allison, Richard, Jeff, and Chloe.