Wyoming wildlife

I'll start a little thread with some pics form the ranch we work on and our wonderful state of Wyoming.

These bighorn sheep are common on the ranch, the rancher does not allow sheep hunting. I was fortunate in that they did let me access some landlocked public parcels to hunt my sheep in 2019.
I believe there is a 190+ ram running around his place.

I'll start with this sheep pic and follow up with more pics over the coming year.



Mule deer in the meadows.

Keep em coming.

Awesome! I may share a few I've accumulated from our trips around Laramie Peak every summer if you don't mind?

Nice!

Enjoying the WY wildlife.

love to see Western wildlife pics.

Good pics, thanks.

Feel free to share. The area I'll be mainly posting from is along and south of Highway 34 right near LP.

The Merriam's moved back in last weekend and started strutting this week. I have permission on this property but did not hunt last year due to our late blizzard. Good to see the turkeys survived. They move up and down this creek all year and pretty much go to town so to peak for winter, towards Wheatland.

There were 2 gobblers, a jake and 2 hens in this group.

Thanks for sharing.

Red

I really enjoy seeing pictures of wildlife in other areas of the country. Wyoming is one of my favorite states to hunt, but I've never hunted anywhere near Laramie Mountain. I've heard there are a lot of elk there, but also a lot of elk hunters. Are there good mule deer in the area?

Naw, naw, black sheep have you any wool.

Laramie Peak has a ton of elk and is known as a trophy area. Access is tough but there is some. Guided hunts can get you into huge bulls but are very pricey. DIY access is there but tons of hunters due to lots of LQ tags.
They are proposing to make it a General area.

We are fortunate to have private access for deer hunting and while not excellent it is good for us.
The area is a CWD area, we do not get our deer tested but have to this year, mandatory testing.
Deer numbers are ok, not great but mature bucks are around. We've taken bucks aged by the G&F lab at 9 1/2 yrs.

Access in our area is tough, mostly private, but some state and other public sections.
On Laramie Pk. same as elk access. It is there but you work for animals.

If you search you may find some deer I've posted from the area.

We're going up Thursday to look for sheds and move water, hope to get back into the area the bigger rams like to hang out, elk too.

Curious young antelope and a nice buck on the True Ranch

Enjoy the pictures very much. Keep um coming.

Wolf encounter

^^^^^^^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^^^^^

Beautiful

This +2

X2

Went up to look for sheds and I did a little fishing, spinning rod/reel and Panther Martin spinners.
Saw a few elk and deer.
The fish were hungry and the water is cold.
Went to the back of the east pasture for shed hunting, nothing for me so I gave up and went fishing.

Pasture pics then some fish from Middle Sybille Cr.

Fished MIddle Sybille Cr, ranch has 2 creeks that run through it with good fishing. I'm the only person that fishes it anymore .

Loads of brookies and brown trout in MIddle Sybille Cr, the occasional rainbow from Sybille Cr.

All the trout were released to swim another day, personally don't like eating trout.

The pronghorn are really filtering back into the area . Been seeing some good bucks for the time of year and good number of doe. Hoping for lots of twins and a few triplets this spring.

The area up neat True Ranch was hit really hard last spring in the blizzard. Hoping their numbers bounce back this year with licenses reductions.

Beautiful creation

Nice looking trout.

Awesome pics

1st pic is the view of Laramie Peak from our cabin and the 2nd pic is Haystack Mountain. My favorite hike in that area. It about makes this flat lander's heart jump out of his chest but the views are awesome from the top.

Some deer watching us move the water in the meadows.





Meet Tabasco, Roanie and Garrett. They are living out their retirement at the ranch. We take care of them all winter, Roanie gets used to elk hunt but Garrett and Tabasco are definitely retired.




Spouse called me over to the creek while checking the water coverage in the meadow and I saw the biggest brook trout I have ever seen. Has to be 2 lbs at least and 18 inches long. Next weekend I'll be trying to get it into my net for a pic before releasing it back to the creek.
Also sprayed an area for a small food plot, planting in June for us after the grass is cleared out.

holiday is your cabin at Esterbrook or on the West side of LP ?

Great pics. Are there any Aspen Trees in that area?

I get turned around up there but I would say it's on the East side since we sit outside in the evening and watch the sun set over the mountain. It's actually my gf Dads place. Hes had it since the 80s. This is the 3rd cabin. The 1st 2 burned in wildfires.

Very few on this ranch. More to the south and on Laramie Peak to the north.

Neat cabin! Looks like east of Easterbrook near the older burns.

Nice bull elk early one morning outside of the cabin and a big group of cow elk on the Twin Pines Ranch

Keep those pics and the write up coming!!

I've hunted on the Rattlesnake Ranch/Range SW of you years ago.

Red

Great pics!

That's a really nice bull. Love seeing these pictures!!!!

You can say that again.

Found this nice snake on the road on the way in, he wasn't too happy we made him move out of his sunny , warm spot.
One of the more aggressive bull snakes we've come across. Lots of hissing and a strike at the shovel. He balled up and did 2 complete pirouettes when the spouse walked around him.
Safely relocated off the road, some idiot would just run it over of they saw it.
For some reason my snake tongs were not in the truck so a careful shovel was utilized.

Elk were coming down for a noon time drink in the creek too. Calves and fawns should be hitting the ground later in May.

Beautiful snake!
Q

Great pictures

I think he's pissed!

Bull elk at the Sybille Research facility.
Some are sporting new jewelry I'll have to ask about, ear tags with antennae.

Some antelope pics from the True Ranch

Some elk and deer and a pronghorn buck making progress on his horns.

A couple of big bulls and a couple of Red Dogs on the Twin Pines Ranch

Awesome pics !

Nice pics, love seeing the young ones.

Some cinnamon teal out in flood irrigated hay fields and ditches.

Beautiful creation

Meadow wildlife.
Coyotes will be targeted this winter.
Black bear bait going in next weekend.
Looks like a spike with this cow herd.

Is that snow? In May?

Yes it is.
We get our last big snow typically in June, a heavy wet snow that takes down branches all over town.

We had about 4-5 inches here in town, the ranch got about 4 it looks like, it amounted to 1/2 inch of moisture at the ranch.

We had a hard freeze for 2 nights this weekend, got down to lower 20's. Tomatoes and peppers go in the ground in June.

We're already picking tomatoes and eating zucchini from our garden. By June, it's just about done, with what's left in the garden burning up. We picked peaches over the weekend

We had some hops about 6 ft tll until this hard freeze and snow. They will come back but be behind this fall setting cones.

First prairie rattler of the year. We relocate instead of killing them. Caught an idiot cutting of rattles one year and letting the snakes go, he is not around to do that anymore.

No wildlife in these pics but some scenery on a nice cool, cloudy day.

Thanks for some more great pictures.

are you all done with snow there?

thanks for the pics.

We hope so , finally putting tomatoes in the ground this weekend.

Set a bear bait up from the meadows along the creek, had a hit 2 days later. A smaller scruffy looking bear that looks about 100 lbs or so.

Beautiful

Second prairie rattler we've relocated this year so far, none last year.

Nice ones…..👍👍

Sat the bear bait Saturday evening until a black cloud rolled in about 30 minutes before dark. No bears but check the next morning had a hit bait again.
Cattle showed up on the ranch this weekend so our bait site may be a cow site now.

Had some whitetails sneak up on me from up the creek, they had a nice blow session at my expense. We think the bear is also coming form up the creek bottom.

Mule deer in the horse pasture and some twin pronghorn fawns born just a couple of days ago.

Just curious, why the relocation? Are they close to your house? Not sure I would want to try to catch a rattler when he is poised to strike.

Red

They have their place in nature too. With the amount of mice and rats around we give them a break as the owners and everyone else just kills them.
Prairie rattlers are not aggressive by nature and are easy to grab with the tongs or scoop up with a shovel and relocate away for where folks will maybe cross their path.

We've stopped by the highway and removed rattlers from it too.

Down in Junction TX we don't let stay around the homestead, but I don't bother them away from the house. I guess same as you.

Red

Any antler sheds?

We do find some sheds. not near as many as in the past though. we're sure folks get in the back pasture and pick up some before we can get to them.
The ranch borders a broken up ranch that has "lot" owners . All the adjoining ranches have issues now but there are some good folks who bought in.
The Eastern boundary is common with the Buffalo Trail Ranch, Rocky Mountain Timberlands holding.

The owners pick up a few with the great nephews every fall while they hunt elk and deer via horseback. They have found 2 bighorn deadheads over the last few years too.

A few mule deer pics from around the cabin. The one doe has an attitude.

Great pictures. Love to see your pictures and stories.

Beautiful

Great pics

Thanks Wytex for this photo thread. I always enjoy them.

holidayHunter I sent you a pm

PM answered

Went up and sprayed thistle.

Spouse nearly steeped on this nice little rattler.
Elk are scattered all over the pace and enjoying the green for now.

Headed back to Texas as I type this. Not looking forward to being back in that heat. These are pics of a friends pics that I thought were pretty interesting. One looks to be of an elk hanging in the background while a bear is eating at the bear bait. The other is a couple of elk hanging around at the bear bait. They were using popcorn for bait. I'll have a few new pics to post soon.

Really enjoy the pics!

Hey Holiday a fire is going Between Buzzard Peak and Spring Hill. Anywhere near where your place is?
Just found out about it and thought Sunday it looked smoky here in Laramie.

We have stopped irrigating for the summer so we will not be up as often now. We are going up next Wednesday to check the garden and other things so maybe more elk pics then.

Here is a Bullock's oriole that has been around the house.
The elk are in the WG&F research facility. I believe most were wild elk at one time, there are 4 bulls in the pen.

Smaller bulls, the 4 th wasn't near the fence.

I haven't heard anything about it so I don't guess it is. Those are some beautiful bulls!

Outstanding photos gents.

It was a strange year for wildlife sightings this year. Didnt see any mule deer fawns and only a few antelope fawns, although we did get to see a set of triplets, but unfortunately didnt get any pics. Only saw 2 herds of elk but got a lot of bear pics. Sucked leaving the 70s there and coming back to 100s. Always fun to get to spend a couple of weeks there. Hoping to go back in the spring to hunt bear. Heres some bear pics and an elk shed I found.

keep'em coming

Been busy but went up and got a few things ready for the owners elk hunt.
Had some nice thunder storms roll in and drop 1/4 inch of rain.
These elk showed up between clouds on the ridge behind house.
Meadows are getting used by horses and a few deer, whitetails and mule deer. A couple of cow elk and their calves are also regulars to the meadows.

This porcupine visited the backyard.

Not sure if I posted this but we found this poached bull elk Aug 6th on the ranch property along the highway.
We reported it and the GW came out that day, didn't remove the antlers though and the next day they were gone.
Pissed is one way to describe how we felt.

Neat pics as always, that sux about the elk.

Thanks for posting. I really enjoy the WY pics.