Justin Dodd, a game warden with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, set out to investigate a collared deer mortality near Kaycee one day following a late-February snow. As he was pulling up to the scene, he said, he spotted a large eagle taking flight.
“The eagle had been eating on the carcass a little bit,” Dodd said.
As Dodd went about documenting the site — the collared deer was part of the Upper Powder River Mule Deer Herd Study — he came upon the eagle’s imprint in the snow, talons flanked by outstretched feathers.
While it was unfortunate that he was there because a deer had died, the mark the eagle left in the snow “was a pretty cool scene nonetheless,” Dodd said.
Terrific image!