The sound pierced the darkness. It was a high pitched squeal of a young elk. Not the normal sound of a young one separated from mom, but one in distress. It calls out again in a series of three. Now I hear water splashing and tree limbs breaking. It was being chased. I could almost tell how close its pursuer was by how short and fast it was calling out. Again it hit the water then it then the pitch changed even higher and it was over. For ten minutes I had listened to this and then no sound at all. It was getting light enough to see the mountains, but still to dark to see anything else.

My figured a young elk had just been killed, by a wolf or bear. The elk are big enough that a black bear will not try to kill them anymore, but a griz would. I had not seen any grizzly tracks in this area all summer, but I had seen wolf tracks. About twenty minutes later I headed to a trail head about a quarter-of-a-mile away. I made plenty of noise just in case a bear was in the area. A couple of hours later I was back at the trail head and I just had to go check out the area that I heard all the commotion coming from. I hiked in with bear spray out and ready, but I never found a kill site. I walked both sides of the stream and never found any sign of what I had heard only 2 hour before. It was puzzling but I didn't want to go into any thick timber or willows just in case it was a grizzly that would want to protect its food. But I am left to wounder what it really was that I listened to.

I hear and see a lot more things then I ever get pictures of. A lot of times it is too dark for pictures or if I move they will run away. So I sit and watch. The picture of the weasel was almost one of those moments. Five times before I've seen them, but never took a shot. One time I was sitting by a log and one came running toward me in the grass. But if I moved it would see me and turn away. Instead I watched it bound right up to my feet, then it realized I was not part of the log and quickly ran. This time I had been shooting birds and noticed him moving around the log. With slow movements I was able to swing the camera toward it. It became curious and moved closer and I was able to fire off a few shots before the noise of the shutter scared it and it ran off. 

The elk are becoming more vocal and the bulls are starting to gather herds of cows. Colors are starting to show a little more and some of the grass in the low areas is already brown. Fall is close.