Surrounded By Bison

My co-worker, Jessi, and I had a great day at Prairie State Park today! At one point, the building that we were working in was almost completely surrounded by the bison herd. Here are a few of the photos that I took this afternoon...

Here the bison are approaching the building from the south.

Soon the bison were peering through the windows of the Visitor Center.

We were watching the bison while they were watching us.

If you look closely, in the background there are a couple of bison dusting themselves in a buffalo wallow.

This big boy was really kicking up some dust!

Here a couple of male bison engage in a little sparring.

Curiosity got the best of this yearling calf. He just had to come take a peek at us.

Here is one of this year's babies. As you can see, it's still dressed in its new baby pumpkin color.

This new baby comes a little closer to the window to see what's up with Jessi and I.

The herd has looped completely around the building and bison are filling up the parking lot.

These big boys and girls are right out in front. See that one on the far, back, left? He's scratching his chin on my van mirror. 

Look at all those new babies. That's just a few of them, and, boy! Aren't they cute???

This little guy was the smallest baby of all. He was so precious!

Finally the bison decide to back off and move away from the Visitor Center. They went up the hill to the north, then, in a bit, made one more pass behind the building before settling down for the afternoon on the hill to the east of us.

A baby bison's hoof print.

What a great day!

Until next time...

~Rebecca