The birds are singing up a storm when come out at 4:45. I have clear skies and a fat crescent moon.

I go straight to Slough and set up on the Little Hill. There is a bit of wind today making the morning feel colder than usual.

1479F has babysitting duties today. She is bedded on the gully ridge for a while, but she soon sets off towards the small diagonal forest and down into the flats.

There is a radio report from Lamar that a black wolf has been spotted near Fisherman’s.

1479 reaches the flats and begins to chase an elk cow. Soon she turns the tables and begins chasing 1479!

She angles towards the campground road, where the Project is waiting. In their view, she has become just a bit too casual around roads, cars and crowds. It’s my opinion that she’s just going about her business, like 1276 did before her.

But today I notice her lingering near the road instead of just crossing.

And for that, she gets paintballed, which she does NOT like. She bolts up the hill and disappears.

Soon after this, 1478F appears above the den cliff, heading down to the sage den. When she arrives, she sticks her head inside and…here come the pups!

They climb over their older sibling and wobble all over her. It’s a fairly brief appearance, charming though it is, and all too soon they disappear back inside.

We’ve run out of visible wolves so we try to find some bears.

There is a sow with two coys up on Middle Ridge. Her little darlings amuse us (and themselves) by sliding down the high snow patches. To the north we find a grizzly up in the drainage above the diagonal forest.

We see the usual elk, including bulls in velvet, some sandhills, and hear the nearly-constant song of meadowlarks.

Around 10AM, I head east.

A I approach Lamar Canyon I see a big crowd and jammed pullouts. Someone has found a coyote den with several active pups, just north of the road. I can’t find a safe place to park, though, so I continue.

It looks to me that the Lamar has risen a bit. It’s very muddy, too. I glance at the indicator rock and estimate the water is less than 2 feet below the top.

At Fisherman’s I see Matt with his scope up, so I pull in to chat with him. He says the wolf that was here is long gone. But he got a video, which he shows me. It looks like the Junction alpha male, feeding on a bison calf carcass.

I see Bill at Picnic, so I stop to chat with him. He is watching a cinnamon black bear in the big fan. He also shows me the “new” sow with her one coy up on Specimen.

On the way back to Silver Gate, I see mule deer grazing the hillside above the pothole bridge.

Maureen and Rick saw the wolf at Fisherman’s. Rick has a new device that lets him attach his phone to his scope. He has an even better video to show me, depicting the Junction alpha male.

After my break, I head back into the valley and get stuck behind a series of slo-goes. But I also see mule deer and a black bear along the way.

In Lamar Canyon, the coyote den jam is going strong, but again I don’t stop due to lack of safe parking.

I set up at Bob’s Knob. There is a very stiff wind coming from the west, so I use my car as a wind break. The ample clouds help to curtain the sun, allowing a decent view of the den area.

I find the usual Junction adults in attendance tonight: 907, alpha male, 1478 and 1479. They are bedded on the gully ridge with the pups roaming happily all around them.

Melba joins me and we grin at this perfect wolf-family photo op.

It looks like the adults are each on recliners in the family room while the kids are bouncing all around them.

All three pups run about the green grass in their rocking-horse gait, plowing into whichever adult is there. They climb all over that one, then scramble the other way and plow into another.

1479 gets up and walks to the den and in due course the two black pups follow her. They look so tiny climbing that hill! The gray pup stays in the grass near mama 907. 1479 shows no ill effects from her paintball encounter earlier today.

1479 sits with the two black pups at the den while they crawl on her, then she goes back down to the gully and they follow. Each pup takes a tumble in a different spot on the way down, but both recover quickly.

So cute!

907 shifts her bedding spot, and the pups get up and wander back inside the den.

The wind is relentless, though, so I don’t stay as long as usual.

At the eastern end of Soda Butte Valley I see cars stopped on both sides of the road. I join them in watching a beautiful grizzly sow, half-way up one of the low hills to the north. She’s nursing her two coys!

This is a really nice sighting with lots of happy visitors. Bill tells me believes this is the “Norris” sow (for the spot where he first saw her appear with cubs). She is a pretty bear!

A bit further on I stop to look at a bull moose bedded on the north side of Round Prairie. My last sightings include the usual local fox and mule deer.

Today I saw: 1 black bear, 8 grizzly bears (including 5 cubs), bison, coyotes, mule deer, elk, 2 foxes, a moose, pronghorn, 7 Junction wolves including 907F, alpha male, 1478F, 1479F plus all three pups) and the spirits of Allison, Richard, Jeff and Chloe.