Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘bison’

Buffalo in North Dakota

Posted in animals, Nature, Photography, Travel, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 17, 2026| 6 Comments »

After spending a week visiting family outside of Kansas City, I decided to make a detour on my way home to Virginia to revisit Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora, North Dakota to see the buffalo (Bison bison) there once again. It was sort of on the way.

I am in complete awe of these massive, beautiful creatures and was delighted to have multiple viewing opportunities during my relatively short visit to the park.

For the record, I drove almost 800 miles (1287 km) west to see the buffalo, before heading eastward to home. All told, my road trip was almost 3900 miles (6276 km) long.

Here is a link to a posting from 2022, called Camping in North Dakota, showing images of an earlier visit to the same park. It gives you a sense of the reasons why I feel such an attachment to this very special national park.

buffalo

buffalo

buffalo

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

Read Full Post »

More bison in North Dakota

Posted in animals, Autumn, Nature, Photography, Travel, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on November 25, 2024| 9 Comments »

I am finally nearing the end of my photos from my brief stay in Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota at the beginning of November. I captured quite a few images of wild horses, bison, and prairie dogs at the national park and it has been a real joy reviewing the photos on my computer and relive the memories after my return home. Normally I try to post images on my blog that are a week old or less, but I figure that you will forgive me for posting images that are three weeks old.

Here are a few selected images of American Bison (Bison bison) that I spotted at the park in early November. Most often the were simply grazing, so frequently I would try to capture some interesting background, as in the first photo below. I was quite excited to spot the young bison in the second photo. It was quite a bit smaller than the adults, but already seemed to be growing horns.

The bison in the final photo lifted its head momentarily, allowing me to capture this informal portrait. It may look like I was really close to the bison, but I was using a telephoto zoom lens on my camera and I am pretty sure that I took the shot from inside my car. However, the bison was close enough that I had to zoom out a little to 322mm (on an 18-400mm lens) to fit the bison’s enormous head in the frame.

American Bison

American bison

American Bison

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

 

Read Full Post »

Bison in North Dakota

Posted in animals, Nature, Photography, Travel, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on November 1, 2024| 3 Comments »

One of the highlights of my recent visit to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora, North Dakota was having the chance to see quite a few American Bison (Bison bison). Unlike during a previous visit there two years ago, the bison were not blocking the road, but some of them were alongside the edges of the road.

These mammoth creatures seemed to be almost as large as my KIA Soul, so I often stayed inside my car when taking photographs of them. I ventured outside of the relatively friendly confines of my little car only when the bison were a good distance away from me.

bison

bison

bison

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

Read Full Post »

Portraits of bison in North Dakota

Posted in animals, Nature, Photography, Portraits, Travel, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on August 1, 2022| 8 Comments »

As many of you know, I have spent the last week driving across the United States to spend some time with family outside of Seattle, Washington. I departed from Virginia at midday last Monday and by the time that I finally arrived on Saturday afternoon, I had traveled a distance of 3085 miles (4964 km).

I spent a lot of time driving, but made an extended stop at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota, where I camped out for two nights. During my visit, I had multiple encounters with American Bison (Bison bison), including one memorable moment when my car was almost surrounded as a small herd of bison moved past me on the road.

It was a bit strange for me to take wildlife photos from inside my car, but that definitely was the safest thing to do with these bison. Some of the bulls looked to be as large as my KIA Soul. I noted that there were a good number of calves too, and definitely did not want to mess with a potentially mad mamma bison if I got between her and her baby.

I am still sorting through my images, but I thought I would lead with these little portraits that show some of the personality of the individual bison.

In addition to the bison at the national park, I was able to photograph wild horses, prairie dogs, birds, and even a few dragonflies. You should see some of them in the near future.

American Bison

American Bison

American Bison

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

Read Full Post »

Don’t mess with me

Posted in animals, Nature, Photography, wildlife, zoo, tagged , , , , , , , on November 18, 2016| 2 Comments »

“Don’t mess with me while I am eating.” That seemed to be the message that an American Bison (Bison bison) was sending to me during a recent trip I made to the National Zoo. The bison had lifted its enormous head, twisted it violently in my direction, and looked right at me. It then returned to calmly munching on some hay.

Who knew that bisons had such flexible necks?

American Bison

American Bison

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

Read Full Post »