More details coming soon.

More details coming soon.

Another quick trip to Fruita and I was able to find the herd with so many baby lambs again. Conditions were great. More pics of this day and the previous day to come another time potentially... but these are most of the top shots. Ironically, an arrogant person out on the trail criticized my choice of lens while I was taking these photos. About 20-30% of people that I talk to while photographing make some sort of underhanded remark to me for some reason. His comments stand out since he was so sure of himself even though he was ridiculously incorrect. Super thankful to have had the big lens with me for this encounter.

By the time that the action started to heat up, so had the temperatures (and subsequently the heat waves). Atmospheric disturbance, wind and blowing sand made sharp pictures really challenging on this latest visit to Sand Wash Basin, but the drama seems to never stop out there. A few images came out super sharp when the mustangs were extremely close to me, but some of my faves are far from tack sharp.Nearly every time I photograph wild horses, I witness something so perplexing that I wish I could debrief with an expert. As crude as this is to share, the aggressive mustang vomited a tiny bit at the exact moment that he is biting the colorful/spotted horse. It is pretty insane when looking closely at the sequence of biting images. The recipient of the bite was furious, and I love his pose in response. He kicked up the dirt and pointed his hoof at the aggressor ... all while just a few feet away from me. It was pretty cool to watch. I was pleasantly surprised that the spotted horse calmed down really quickly and then even more surprised as he drifted my direction afterwards.

My second day of this trip to Sand Wash Basin was far less dramatic than the prior afternoon. It was a calm, cool morning and all the horses that I encountered were content just going on about their daily business of grazing. None of them seemed particularly interested or bothered by me. A couple horses walked by at close range, but generally speaking it was a day of indifference. Gorgeous backdrops, nice clouds and good light made for a few decent pictures. No foals on this day, besides spotting the same filly in the distance from the prior day.

Things are not always as they seem. The innocent looking thumbnail image for this story isn't the mother and her newborn -- it's a bully that wouldn't let the foal nurse. This story has a dramatic twist and I wondered if I'd even be able to post these images as I watched the drama unfold. I promise this has a happy ending, however there are some graphic details/images and I honestly did not think that the newborn would survive another day. On March 24th, I drove back to Sand Wash Basin for the first time in many months. My primary hope for this trip was to photograph at least one newborn foal. It's early in the season to see newborn horses, but not an impossibility. After only ~10 or so minutes while driving inside the HMA (herd management area) boundary, I asked myself, 'would I find any horses? would there be drama like the last couple times?'. No more than 15 seconds after I had those specific thoughts, I saw my first group of horses and the action began to immediately play out. The group of 7 were between a quarter and a half mile away at first. I pulled out my lens just to see what I could see, and there was a very small baby with a bunch of adults. Something wasn't right, though. Before I could even get setup I could see dirt flying, a horse jumping over the baby and a gray horse kept trying to get near the baby. Two darker horses were chasing the gray horse away and they seemed to be very protective of the little one. At a distance, the gray horse reminded me of the aggressive gray mustang that tried to steal Wink away from her partner last time. Was this the same aggressive horse, or just another one that was getting too close to the mom, aunt and the baby?? A moment later the brown horses were chasing the foal, kicking at it and then one even fell right on top of the baby -- very nearly crushing it to death. What was I watching!?! The gray horse watched on and tried to approach, but it was immediately chased off. The baby lay still and the brown horses guarded each side while they went back to grazing. I glanced at a couple photos that I just took and then I began to partially understand the situation. The most "protective" horses weren't the mother and an aunt -- they were two males. Was the gray horse the mother?? Was she caught up in a band of mustangs that had stolen the foal? What exactly was happening here!? From the very beginning until the end when I decided to leave, this encounter would last just over 100 minutes. I watched on and tried to make sense of the situation. It was an unpleasant thing to see. Over and over the dominant male would bite at the little one, strangle it by the neck and chase it by nipping at its legs. The foal would collapse in exhaustion and then the males would leave it alone until it stood up again. The baby did not know what to do. It needed to feed, but why was it seeking out the males? By lording over it the entire time, the mustangs had clearly given the foal the impression that one of them was the caregiver. The foal never tried to seek out the gray mare during these first 100 minutes, and the mustangs ran her off repeatedly as she came near the baby. After watching things closely and after reflecting on everything after-the-fact, my read of the situation is that the males must have immediately come between the baby and mother before the foal even had a chance to nurse for the very first time. This baby might have just been minutes old, but I am nearly certain it had never nursed at this point. The foal clearly did not know who its mother was, and it repeatedly tried to get milk from both the mustangs. They kept the baby close, but would kick it down or grab it by the neck whenever it would attempt to feed. At one point, I sincerely believed that the baby had perished. The most dominant male squeezed it by the neck again and it was clear that the newborn was exhausted and in distress. The male dropped the baby and it fell limp to the ground. The baby's tongue was partially out of its mouth and it lay completely still. I couldn't see if it was breathing. During these next few minutes, I would quickly try to think about ethics, morals, and what I should do next. I was around 300-400 feet away at this point. Eventually the foal lifted its head and came to its feet. I was relieved. What should I do? Should I intervene? It was a wild situation and I need to let nature run its course, but I was also sure that if this newborn didn't get milk from its mother soon, it would die. It might also die from getting crushed or severely injured by the cactus, rocks or other unforgiving features of this terrain. I decided that I would at least honor its short life and its spirit by documenting the moment as best I could. And I might have to give these mustangs a stern talking to. The males continued to push the foal around. At one point nearly sending it off a cliff. I could see for sure that they gray horse was a mare and that the little one was a filly. Another round of squeezing its neck and dropping the baby to the ground. I could hardly stand to watch. I decided to step closer. I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do, but I wanted to see if the males would scram and maybe mom would be able to sweep in. The males stood their ground. I stepped closer, the second most dominant male yielded a tiny bit. The dominant male stood his ground. I stepped closer - now maybe 100ft away. I shared some choice words and told him what I thought of him. Mother started coming in close, and another horse came in behind her. Maybe she understood that I was on her side? The dominant male flinched a little, but he continued to hold his ground. I stepped a little closer, reminding the big male out loud that he was a bully and that the needed to let the baby nurse. Mom came in a little closer. I was maybe 80 feet away at this point. The baby stood up and tried to nurse from both males again, only to get pushed, shoved and kicked around. At this close distance, I could see that the big male was being gentle at times, even if also being fairly rough at other times. He could kill the little filly in an instant if he really wanted to. Predators and territorial animals can sometimes play with their victim before finishing it. I had no idea where this was going, but I couldn't bare to watch it go down the wrong way. I had been there for nearly two hours and taken nearly 4,000 photos. I was very close and everyone was standing firm. I decided that I needed to part ways from the situation and only hope for the best. I picked up my camera, said a few choice parting words and abruptly walked away. The males walked the opposite way at that same moment and the mother was briefly able to get right next to the baby (but I couldn't tell if it was nursing). They all began to walk away as I walked back to the car, but the males were still keeping the baby next to them. Later the next day (last eight images of this story), I would see the group again from the distance maybe a mile or so away at first. I could tell that the little one was alive and it seemed like none of the males were bullying the baby anymore. The newborn was even consistently walking next to its mother, shadowing her every move. That was a great sign. The baby had survived the night and finally it was bonded with the right horse. I drove closer, perhaps to a half mile away from them. From there, I got a few distant shots of the baby nursing! That was exactly what I wanted to see. I decided to try my luck and walk their direction, but it was immediately obvious that there would be no repeat of the prior day's intimate encounter. The gray mother seemed in charge of the whole group at this point and she led them all away. I didn't try to follow and instead just walked back to the car and bid them farewell. What a wild encounter. I'm thankful to know that the situation seemed to be on a better track, but I have so many questions that can never be answered. I'll be on the lookout for little Liberty next time I'm visiting the HMA.

On Day 3 of my latest trip to Colorado National Monument, I set out again to try and find the lambs that I had spotted on my first hike. On Day 2, I went south but had no luck and the only other plausible direction (in my opinion at least) was that they could have traveled east instead. By now, though, they could be practically anywhere. According to literature I've read on newborn bighorn lambs, they are capable of keeping up with the herd within a week -- even in very steep terrain. On this morning, I again set out early and hiked quietly up an adjacent canyon. I could see lots of evidence of bighorn and pretty quickly I spotted two ewes. I waited, listened and eventually decided that this was probably just two ewes that were not the group I was searching for. I was wrong about that, but it would take a while for the others to emerge. I continued on into the canyon, but I hiked very slowly -- listening for some of the tale-tell signs that the herd was near. Silence was only broken by a few songbirds, a light breeze and a couple deer that were passing through. Eventually, I looked back down the canyon and could see a few more ewes where I had passed through earlier. I decided to go back and wait to see if this may have actually been the larger group that I was trying to locate. I planted myself in a spot that seemed good for potentially intersecting the ewes, and I was right on the money. Perhaps I had chosen too good of a spot, because one of the ewes just could not muster up the courage to go around or right past me. I decided to yield and get out of her way, because it was so clear that she wanted to walk a very specific route. In retrospect, I wish that I hadn't moved away so far because little-did-I-know that several lambs were just behind her. Perhaps that's why she was nervous about my presence. I turned my attention to a few ewes that already hiked a little higher up the cliffs. One was making a call, and to my surprise three lambs came out behind a rock even higher up the cliffs. They had stashed the lambs, and they all came running out to meet their mothers. I began taking photos of this group of ~8 up the cliff, but I had no idea that the rest of them were coming up right behind me. I missed a fantastically close opportunity when they appeared ~20 feet away to my right. When I noticed them, I moved a bit too quickly from the excitement and they were all shocked to see a person there. They quickly sprang up the cliffs to join their aunts and cousins. By this time, the sun was getting high in the sky and it made for challenging conditions with heat waves, bright contrasts and ugly shadows. My options were to take crappy long distance shots, try to move closer, wait to see if they might come to me and/or wait several hours until the light got better. I decided to slowly re-position myself as best I could, hopefully without spooking the group. Four ewes had taken a seat only 60ft away from me, but the majority of the group was much higher. Most of them didn't seem nervous, but it was clear that their motherly instincts had many of them slightly on guard. The clock was ticking as the sun rose overhead. The backdrop wasn't ideal, but that just comes with wildlife photography. You often have to take what you can get, and I was stoked to find this group with so many lambs. That said, I knew the photos weren't going to be the best because of all the factors that detracted from a more ideal setting. I slowly climbed up some rocks and everyone remain seated thankfully. I knew that I couldn't press my luck much further, so I snapped a handful of decently close shots and then returned back down the cliffs in short order. It was rewarding to find them, see them, and get a few photos, but I'll have to keep trying for better images of a bunch of cute lambs.

On Day 2 of this trip to Colorado National Monument, I set out to find the large group of ewes and newborn lambs that I had spotted the prior afternoon. They were out of reach yesterday, but I thought that I would be able to find them the next morning in the same general area. I hit the trail very early and quietly hiked back to the same cliffs and canyons. The terrain can be tricky to follow, but eventually I was sure that I had hiked to the same spot. They were nowhere to be found. Evidence in the form of hoof prints and droppings was all around, but they had moved on elsewhere. I counted at least six baby lambs yesterday, and newborns were my primary objective on this trip. Based on what I could infer from the herd's movements, my instinct told me that they were either to the south or to the east. I decided to head south, but I wasn't ever able to find them. Luckily, though, I happened to bump into a nice group of rams. It was very quiet out and given the direction that I came from, they had to have seen/heard me hiking their direction for at least thirty minutes before I saw them. It's amazing how well they can blend into the terrain. When I finally noticed the group, I was already fairly close to them. Of the eight that I could see, all except one was very relaxed about my presence. The youngest was nervous, but all the mature males didn't seemed concerned about me one bit. The young male relaxed and sat back down like the rest of his group. After reading the situation a bit, I decided to hike away to the east in hopes of better light and backgrounds. Slowly but surely I made my way to a better vantage point. They showed no reaction to my movements and all remained seated. Slowly I climbed up a blind cliff in hopes that I would be in the right spot and that the rams wouldn't run off when they eventually saw me again. I got up the cliff and was in the best spot that I could hope for, given the steep/forested slopes. I only had a clear view of a few of them, but that was the best that I could expect. For a while, I thought they might have not have even realized that I was there. But, they definitely knew I was there -- they just didn't care. The youngest one would occasionally show his nervousness, but the elders went on about their daily lives of napping, scratching, grazing and sunbathing. Eventually they would all get up and walk around. I mostly stayed put once I got up the eastern cliff, but I re-positioned a few feet here and there to try and get a cleaner look at the rams. Several of them approached closely, and after around two hours I decided to head back. Gorgeous morning and a fantastic little encounter with some very relaxed bighorn rams. I might not have found the herd with newborns, but this was a great consolation prize. The next morning, I would find the lambs, so it all worked out in the end... especially since these shots turned out to be some of my favorites from the trip!

Traveling north from New Mexico, Arizona and eastern Utah, I couldn't resist another trip to Colorado National Monument. I've had great luck with the bighorn sheep there in the past, and it's a good time to potentially find newborn lambs. On this particular late-afternoon hike, I went out to scout a canyon that is one of the favorite places for bighorn. Several ewes were grazing near the trail and I noticed a group of at least 22 far off in the distance. Among that group were at least six newborn lambs! That was exactly what I wanted to find, but they were too high up and far away for me to reach them on this day. I watched their movements and decided that I would try to find them the next day. In the meantime, I watched the ewes closest to me and I was shocked to watch a baby kicking inside one of the very pregnant females. I took a video of it, and will have to circle back and post it here in (hopefully) short order. While I was photo'ing the ewes, a nice little white-tailed antelope squirrel was kind enough to pose in the light right next to me. It would take me two days to find the lambs (pictures in a separate journal entry), but this was a great start to this return trip to the area.

Just a handful of images to the confluence of the Colorado River and Green River in Canyonlands National Park - Needles District. No wildlife on this outing, but gorgeous scenery. p.s. don't be fooled by the sign that says "0.5MI" ... there are only a few ways to find that sign and all are a long long adventure!

The big views, diverse terrain and range of wildlife in Gila Wilderness continues to bring me back to southwestern New Mexico. Storms dominated this particular visit, but that was expected and thankfully the weather was decent enough to capture a few nice moments. Mexican wolves have been the main photographic objective on my trips to the area, but they remain elusive unfortunately. Second on the list this time was to find a herd of bighorn. There are lots of little stories and far too many pictures to share, but here are a handful of images from my time there most recently. Looking forward to another trip sometime when I can do a better job capturing the unique character of this area.

In some ways, this was just a fairly simple and basic day with the bighorn herd that I've been regularly photographing. In other ways, it was truly incredible. On one hand there was no major drama, no champion rams appeared and nothing terribly remarkable occurred. On the other hand, this group continues to surprise me with just how close they will approach. Whenever wildlife deliberately approaches and decides to sit down near me, I'm ecstatic -- even if the pictures aren't the very best. Today was one of the closest encounters with the group to-date. The herd has dispersed into 2-3 groups that are a couple miles apart at the moment. Eleven of the ~22 remain at the heart of their winter habitat while at least six ewes have been grazing at lower elevations and the biggest two rams (and a few other ewes) are presumably somewhere in between. This core group of eleven seemed slightly less confident a week ago and my interpretation was that it was because the big ram, Atlas, wasn't around perhaps. Or, maybe without some of the other elder members, they're feeling a bit more vulnerable? It's hard to say, but their body language last week suggested they were less comfortable with me in the distance. I didn't press my luck and instead remained further away than usual for several days. I started seeing improvements in their demeanor over the week and on this particular day, they put to rest any question of their comfort level. It began as I hiked up the cliffs and noticed a single ewe a few hundred feet away and quite a bit higher up the canyon cliffs. I could tell that she could see me, but I could only see her face peaking out above the rocks. I paused and waited to see if there would be any reaction on her part. She was calm and I deduced that she was laying down. It was a good sign that she hadn't stood up, because that would indicate she was concerned/alarmed by my presence. I moved laterally until I could see her whole body. She was indeed seated on a boulder and seemed content on soaking up the sun. I stayed put, and just waited to see how things might play out. Before long, others in the herd became visible as they grazed around on the steep terrain. They knew I was below them and over the course of 3+ hours, they drifted down directly towards me. The same eleven were still together, but no big rams and no newborn lambs just yet. At their closest, all of them came to around 20-40 feet away as I photographed their daily routine of grazing and resting. I love the up close and personal nature of this particular encounter, even if it's just simple shots of bighorn sitting down or grazing nearby. Image sharpness was a challenge on this day, so the photos aren't quite as great as I'd like. All-in-all though, it was an incredible day and another unforgettable encounter with this herd. In a few days, I'll part ways for several weeks, but hopefully I'll be able to find them again before they migrate higher and further away for the summer.

Sometimes when I see certain animals, a human name for them pops into my head... especially when I see the same individual repeatedly. Among the nearly 22 bighorn sheep in this herd that I've been photographing the past several weeks, I'm able to identify the three largest males very distinctly. Atlas and Adonis seem fitting for the largest two, and Anthony perhaps for the up and coming "teenager". The dominant male, Atlas, is such an impressive, strong and calm leader in the herd. Even though Atlas is clearly the biggest/strongest physically, Adonis seems to lead the group in a lot of other ways. Perhaps that's because Atlas is so chill, but Adonis really seems to lead the whole herd while they graze on the slopes even though he's second in command. The quirky personalities, relationships and herd hierarchy are all fun to watch play out over time. The third-largest male is bursting with energy and playfully challenges Adonis, even though there's no question who the boss is between the two. Two ewes butt heads regularly, but most of them have shown no aggression to each other. A couple ewes are also clear leaders. When there's a prized grazing or resting spot, the hierarchy gets clear -- but this herd has very little conflict and posturing compared with other herds I've seen elsewhere. I'm surprised that Atlas never seems to push his weight around at all. Other big rams that I've seen can sometimes be very pushy and authoritative. Atlas just seems to fit right in place and nobody challenges him, but he also doesn't take issue with much/anything at all (at least from what I've seen). It's all too tempting to keep visiting them, since I'm able to find them so reliably lately. Weather has been good, and the herd has become really really accustomed to seeing me in their territory. I'm glad to see that the twin lambs and potentially all of the herd survived the -15 F degree temps a couple weeks ago. I haven't seen the entire herd the last few visits, but it's very difficult to see them all at once in this type of terrain because a handful of individuals are almost always obscured from view. To be continued...

Quick catch-up with a few recent pics while out watching the herd of bighorn sheep. The herd was spooked by other person on one of the days while I was out there, and they ran up to an area where I was seated. Thankfully, they weren't spooked by me and they all actually sat down near me. Many of them, including the largest ram, fell asleep just a few feet away (but those photos are a little boring looking). On another day, the snow was fresh and I hadn't seen the herd since my trip to New Mexico during the polar vortex cold-snap. I was curious if the herd was ok after that hard freeze, but I only saw a half-dozen or so on the quick trip. Bonus pygmy nuthatch that landed right by me while photo'ing the bighorn.

I took another trip down to Gila Wilderness in southern New Mexico in hopes of finding Mexican Wolves, but it appears that I narrowly missed them again. I've yet to post many pics or a proper journal entry from the first trip a few months ago, but this one was very similar. Beautiful views, lots of great birds, a handful of larger mammals and, unfortunately, no wolves. On this trip, I had two reasonably close calls, one that was maybe only 30-minutes from when a pair of wolves came through. Animals in this area are extremely skittish, and I get the feeling that hunting and poaching are so common that all the critters see humans as a great threat. All that aside, I love the remoteness, the big views and the chance of amazing backdrops with wildlife. No pictures from this trip really stand out to me, but the roadrunner I saw as I was leaving turned out to be my sharpest of the bunch. The pronghorn would have been great, but atmospheric disturbance (heat waves) is a major issue in terms of clarity (even in cold temps). Next time I go back, I'm going to get serious about my camo, get serious about being more patient and also search some new areas.

I hesitate to claim that I've been completely accepted into the herd, but the last two days suggests that this particular herd is not only comfortable with my presence but also content with me in close proximity. Yesterday (pictures not uploaded ATM), I hiked several hundred feet up the cliffs and I stumbled upon a single ewe. She was VERY close to me and didn't even flinch. I sat down and waited to see if others from the herd would emerge. None appeared, but I spent over an hour with her at close distance. She never moved, which was a huge indicator to me that I had somehow broken through. As I descended, I noticed others from the herd in the distance, but there wasn't any body language that suggested any concern. Today, I began my climb up the same cliff and immediately noticed a few ewes. They, of course, noticed me immediately and I sat down to watch and photograph them. To my surprise, one of the matriarchs approached me and sat down. Other ewes followed. It was a clear sign that not only were they comfortable with me, but I was practically accepted into their group. Of the ~22 sheep, the ewes came and went, many laying down directly in front of me (nearly 50 ft away). The big rams are always a sight to behold, but they drifted slightly west and slightly higher. After an hour or so, I decided to adjust my position. The ewes didn't even flinch as I stood up, grabbed my camera and slowly moved towards the rams. Upon seeing the big guys, I sat down to see how they would react. The biggest and dominant ram drifted a few feet my direct and sat down. A few minutes later, the second most dominant ram drifted my direction and came within 20 ft before sitting down 30 ft away. It was truly amazing to watch them acknowledge my presence and come closer before sitting nearby. These might not be my very best bighorn pictures, but this is unquestionably one of the most memorable and up-close encounters to-date. Everything about their body language suggests that they have accepted me. I spent about four hours with them before deciding to descend and head home. Hopefully more of the same is in store in the days ahead.

Little by little the main bighorn herd that I've been photographing lately has started trusting me a lot more. I'm particularly surprised at the comfort level among the ewes, since they've often been much more skittish in the past. I compared pictures of the rams from last year that I've seen at this same location, and I believe these are different animals. I can't distinguish between the ewes, but the horns of the rams (big and small) often have enough distinctive detail that I can be sure if it's the same individual or not. This group of ~22 has been in the same general area for two weeks, and the first several exchanges were met with them heading for higher ground. In the back of my mind, I wonder if they have a sense of when hunting season is open -- but I find that too difficult to believe. Hunting season ended on Jan 1, and I've also been visiting them regularly since late December, so my theory is that they've simply become accustomed to me sitting around on the cliffs with them. I try to wear the same exterior clothing to help build consistency, and I maintain the same demeanor with them. Last year, the big rams came to within just a few feet away, and so far this year I'd guestimate that ~80 feet is the closest they've come while on the cliffs. Their posture, body language and general behavior is noticeably more relaxed lately... so I'm optimistic that some great opportunities with them are ahead (if they continue to graze in the same area). Today's encounter with them was a little cloudy and I wasn't on the right side of the light, but I really like one pic of a ewe jumping from boulder to boulder. To be continued...

The last couple months have featured lots of nice bighorn encounters -- some desert bighorn and some rocky mountain variety. I've taken thousands of pics, including a long battle between two rams... but for the sake of brevity I'll only post a few here to quickly catch up on some of the recent activity. The last couple weeks in particular, I've been working with a herd in hopes they become as comfortable with me as they did last year. With any luck, I'll be a trusted part of their territory soon and maybe even get some shots of newborn lambs in a month or two or three. Some of the ewes appear to be rather far along in the pregnancy, so I think February may be my earliest opportunity. Lots of mediocre shots, and a handful of pics that I really like.

Another nice opportunity with river otters, plus a few bonus shots of elk, a kingfisher and an interesting view of an American Dipper catching a bite-sized fish. The fog came and went while photographing the otters, and unfortunately there was little light to work with. Thankfully, though, the fog pulled back just enough and the otters got a little curious about me, so a handful of shots are close enough for some nice detail.

Chance encounter with a northern pygmy owl. It was very cold (~9F) and the sun was just starting to come up. At first the owl was very close, but in the shadows. Then it moved higher up, further away and into the sun. A few moments later it flew to another tree top and I hiked on elsewhere. Super cool to see it for a brief moment.

More details coming soon.

More details coming soon.

More details coming soon.

Awesome day out at Colorado National Monument. I was fortunate to get some nice morning light and an extended quiet period with the same herd that I spotted the prior evening. After a round of shots with them, I went out on a hike where I thought they might drift. There were lots of birds out and about, and a couple canyon wrens stopped by me for long enough for a couple close shots. I didn't see the herd at all until just before I got back to the car -- and there they were again, so I got a round 2 with them. The old male was making sure everyone knew who was boss, and all the others just grazed and got out of his way. Fun group to watch and photo.

More details to come. Not as dramatic as prior visits, but a nice foal... and bonus bighorn later when I drove into CO Nat. Mnmnt.

After staying the night at the Badger Campground, coincidentally, I left super early because of loud/annoying neighbors that took over the camp. I was a little bummed because I found some great raptors and would have stayed to photo them but the loud party people were too much for me so I drove out at dawn. But, I would have never seen this sleepy badger if I didn't head out... so at least that's a consolation prize. This badger didn't make a fuss or anything. It seemed slightly curious about me, but preferred to go it alone. I thought I heard pups, and I'm not sure if they went underground or just slipped away into the thick sage. I wanted to try and follow, but decided to just leave it be. Very cool creature to finally photo.

I was thrilled to see the horses come running up to me again on this gorgeous second day in Sheldon Refuge. I went elsewhere all day and came back to their area late in the afternoon. I saw them grazing, and parked a mile or so away. I decided to try and find the owls first, but didn't see them today. Then it was off towards the horses, but I couldn't see them anywhere after hiking another mile their general direction. I stopped for a snack and packed up my camera to hike the two miles back to the car (white dot in the pic of the dry lake bed). And that's when I saw them in the distance and they had just noticed me, too. Not only did the horses come running again, they followed me back for over a mile. The video clip is the last time they came up to me, and at some point I'll stitch together the other videos from the day. Amazing experience to walk with them and get that kind of response from wild horses.

After the rains interrupted the first exchange with these horses, I went back out to see if I could get a few shots. I have never had wild horses respond so strongly. They literally ran at full throttle to me and then proceeded to just hang out and graze. None of the photos have been cropped, I didn't move an inch for nearly the entirety of these, my focal length doesn't change in any shots, and I've done very little editing to these shots. Lots of video clips and addt'l photos, but the video and more will have to come another time.

I'm playing catch-up with photos from the last month, so the full description will have to wait. There were nearly ten owls in total, plus a couple harriers. Truly amazing to see so many in one spot, even if I was only able to capture a few of them (one at a time) with my telephoto lens and the brief moment. I was heading out to see wild horses, when the action with the owls happened.

Just as I was breaking camp early in the morning and heading out of Colorado again, I spooked a mother moose and her ~5 month old daughter. At first they ran, but as often happens they stopped to size up the situation. I quickly turned off the car and tried to earn her trust before they ran off. Thankfully they both went back to grazing, and I took photos for 10-15 minutes while the sun and clouds went back and forth. She seemed relaxed most of the time, but her posture did get a little more serious towards the end. She was salivating a lot, which also made me wonder if it was a stress signal. I bid the pair good-bye and they went back to grazing as I started the car and drove away. Great little encounter as a send off before driving to Oregon.

Great day to travel back to the Front Range for a moment before I head out to Wyoming and Oregon. Along the way I spotted a nice small group of bighorn, a handsome bull elk with his ladies and at the very end of the day I had a nice close encounter with two bull moose. The bulls were really funny characters... and the younger, derpy, one couldn't get a branch off of his face, lol. He was a little helpless but I'm sure he managed to get it off soon. I wanted to stick around longer, but the sun was setting and taking pictures in such low light is mostly a waste of time. I went back out the next morning to find the bulls, and saw a bunch of their fresh tracks -- but wasn't able to spot them. It might be a minute until the next encounters and next uploads. Lots of miles to drive and I'll likely be offline for the better part of the next couple weeks. TBD.

I couldn't help but go back again to try and find the champion bighorn that I saw in the distance the day before. I only saw the group briefly yesterday, and I wasn't sure if they went on the other side of the ridge because of me -- even though I was nearly a mile away and easily a thousand feet lower -- or if they were just going that direction anyways. So, today, I decided to start earlier and approach the same area from a different angle. Hiking up, I wasn't sure if they'd be there at all or which specific route I'd take... and a few miles in and just a few hundred yards off-trail I thought I spotted one very close by. But, it was just a deer and her twin babies. Since I had the long lens out of the bag, I pointed it up the cliffs, and I saw a few small rams in one of the same spots. Now I had to decide my route and hope they'd stick around a little longer than yesterday -- and hope that the big guys were around again. Time to store the big lens away again and begin the big climb up. Yesterday's hike was at times super sketchy and dangerous, and today's would be more of the same. Should I risk going directly up the *easy* route that might give me a much closer shot of them?? But, that would almost certainly spook them. I decided to scramble up from the east to try and keep myself concealed, even though I wouldn't get the ultra close-ups that I really want. The climb was very tough and arguably foolish for me to pursue. Hiking up was bad enough, but getting back down was going to be really really tough if I couldn't navigate to one of the easier ways off the cliffs. The weather was changing and rain was visible in the distance, so I felt the pressure to push forward relatively quickly. I reached the top of a high ridge and realized that not only could I not see the ridge where the trio had been earlier... but that also meant I would not be able to descend in the way that I had hoped. I sat down, setup up the camera, began to scan the cliffs and started eating a snack. Very soon I heard some rocks tumbling. Was that from bighorn climbing or was it a rock naturally coming loose? I couldn't see anything. Then another round of small rocks falling and I knew they were there. It can be very hard to see them at times, and now that I was more focused on the source of the sound -- I spotted three really large rams. Eventually I would see eight rams in total. The biggest was clearly the leader, and everyone was inclined to follow his lead. My impression is that they were making their way higher after coming down very early for water and grazing. They all noticed me, but didn't seem particularly reactive. There was no way for me to get much closer, and I quickly needed to start thinking about an exit strategy with rain fast approaching. The idea of going down the same way on wet terrain was impossible to consider. Thankfully, the northern face gave me an easier option down, but that would mean circumnavigating a lot of terrain to get back to the trail. Rain came and went, and in retrospect I could have stayed up high for longer -- but I was not willing to roll the dice between possible lightning, cold rain/snow and an unknown route down. Hopefully I can get back up there once more before I leave the area. The biggest ram is perhaps the most impressive I've ever seen in person. Super gorgeous area, awesome hike and fantastic opportunity to view such majestic creatures in their natural habitat!

After seeing a small group of bighorn yesterday and getting a hint from them about where else I should go, today's objective was to find more bighorn. I always want to get close enough for super sharp details, but I can't expect that type of opportunity every single day. On this day, the views of the surrounding landscape and an ultra-close-up with a dusky grouse are my top images from this hike, but the impressive rams in the distance encourage me to keep hiking in this area. The small group of young rams yesterday went a specific direction that I wasn't able to follow (and didn't have the energy to pursue anyway). So, this morning I branched off the main trail to try and navigate toward the area where I felt they may have gone. I was seeing evidence along the way and eventually I spotted a white rear-end on the ridge! Bingo. On this day, I brought my much heavier long-lens which stays packed away until I'm sure I want to take images. The rams were nearly a mile away and at least a thousand feet higher. It is often very difficult to see them, even with a long lens.. but there are about five distinct rams in the images, four of which I believe are older than the five yesterday. I kept the huge lens and monopod out as I slowly worked up the cliff. Little did I know that the rams had moved on elsewhere out of sight. I could tell that they noticed me, but I didn't get the sense they were alarmed or disturbed since I was so very far below. Looking closely at the images, I can see that some of these rams have huge horns. On yesterday's hike in pursuit of bighorn, I realized that the rocky channels from avalanche debris and erosion in this area are much deeper and difficult to cross than what is obvious from below. Even though they may only be 50'ish feet across, there's no safe way to get from one side to the other unless go much further down or potentially all the way up them. I was again reminded today that these channels are something you have to keep in mind early on if you want to reach certain terrain. I thought that I'd have a good view of the bighorn from a high point towards my left, but the bighorn drifted right and I then wanted to go up to a different spot. But, because of the deep and dangerous rock debris channels, there was zero chance I was traversing over without going down ~700 feet only to go back up another ~1,400 feet. With the big camera on top of this being the third day in a row in very steep terrain, I didn't have it in me to see if I could get a closer look at the huge rams. So, I hiked back down after waiting a while and just before I rejoined the main trail, I came across a nice dusky grouse that stayed put long enough for a few good shots. I love the clarity of the feathers and face. Seeing the grouse and getting good light was a nice consolation prize for missing out on better bighorn shots!

Thanks to a tip from a hiker on the trail, I was able to find a small group of bighorn while hiking around the Blue Lakes area. More details to come another time...

Super interesting encounter this cold morning. More details to come another time when I've got a little more time

I intended to climb high in search of bighorn, but shortly after getting above treeline I noticed a pair of moose below me. So, I decided that a moose in the bush is better than a bighorn that may or may not be higher up the mountain. The moose were a little skittish and it was really tough to find a spot where I could get a decent image, but eventually I snapped a couple close shots. Fun little short encounter with the pair.

Two days after visiting Sand Wash Basin for the first time, I found myself back in the area so I decided to go back again to see if I could find some more horses or maybe even see the same pair from Thursday's encounter. I drove a little further this time after seeing no activity. I noticed three males off in the distance so I stopped to walk around to see if I could get any good shots. They very slowly drifted a little closer to me, but nothing exciting materialized. Then, to my delight, the same mare and mustang from two days earlier showed up! Would she remember me? Would she come right up to me again!? Was I mistaken and maybe this was a different pair? Nope, this was definitely the same two horses. The burrs in her main and other markings made it really obvious this was the same couple again. She didn't take a direct line towards me this day, and didn't get super close. But, they were not far away and the yellow late-summer flowers were a nice compliment to the dry tones in the desert. They peacefully grazed. Earlier while watching the three (not pictured) mustangs, I noticed a dark gray horse in the distance that looked like he was moving fairly quickly my direction. I snapped a pic of him way off in the distance (not uploaded here) and sort of forgot about him until I heard loud hoofs getting closer. The sequence of pics here begins just as he arrived. The female was right in front of me, with her mustang a bit further off. The gray mustang had a look in his eye and a different energy about him. The brown mustang had a strong reaction, and the gray male charged at nearly full speed. After a quick exchange with both mustangs rearing up to challenge one another, it was clear that the gray horse was outmatched. He ran off and joined the other three males nearby. I didn't have the best angle on the drama, but it was really cool to watch the action unfold. I'd love to go back another time and spend more time. Super cool to see the same pair again, and a gorgeous morning to photo wild horses.

After taking a random route from Wyoming back to Colorado, I spotted a sign for Sand Wash Basin Wild Horses and I decided to take an unexpected detour. My plan was originally to be in Oregon by this time, but the air quality from forest fires was so poor there that I couldn't go unless I wanted to give myself daily asthma attacks. So, the clean Colorado air was a welcomed alternative. Before this day, I had never spent any time in this part of the state and I had no idea about the nearly 157,000 acre herd management area. I had no idea what to expect or if I'd even see any wild horses. Eventually I spotted a trio of white/gray horses in the distance. I stopped to take some pics, but the horses were a little timid and far away. The light was really nice, so I stayed put to see if maybe they'd drift my direction. To my surprise, I noticed a pair of darker sorrel horses coming up behind me. At first they drifted towards the other horses but soon, the female took a direct line my direction. She was calm and slow, but very deliberate. Closer and closer they came with her mustang closely behind. Soon she was so close that I could not take pictures because a) my long lens needs 12 feet, b) at 12 feet I can't even photo her whole face and c) OMG why is she so close and so curious about me!? She wanted to make contact and at maybe 3-4 feet away I gently told her that she was just too close. I wanted to pet her and she seemed like that's what she wanted to, but she respected my ask as I also stepped back away from her. She and her mate stayed just a few feet away for 15-20 minutes before they slowly grazed elsewhere. I love the shot of her winking at me, and I really love the mustang portrait shot. They were sooo very close that I just could not get their whole face and ears in the frame most of the time. I would step back and she would come closer... which in some ways was just fabulous. I've had wild horses come to me before, but I don't have enough experience to know if this is normal or not. I had plans to be elsewhere that day, so I wrapped up and moved it along. But, I would come back in a couple days only to find this same pair in another dramatic exchange.

Details to come another time...

Details to come when time permits...

After searching around unsuccessfully for moose or other notable critters, and just before I was back at the car... I noticed a pair of osprey diving for fish. I have a ton more images, but from maybe 1/2 mile away I snapped a series of pics with one diving and catching a trout. That same bird flew (essentially) directly at me and came maybe 15 feet over my head. I missed dozens of the closest shots due to being out of focus because I had my settings wrong. A few pics came out really nice, but I've never had such a perfect close encounter like that with an osprey. Hopefully I get another chance because I royally screwed up the potential of this opportunity. Still super fun and still pretty happy with the shots that did work out.

I started out the day in search of bighorn, but they were nowhere to be found today. After more hiking to see what else I could find, I bumped into several grouse before eventually seeing seven moose. I only got pics of 4 moose, so that's the number I'm using for my documented moose count on the day. The young bulls seemed like they were three year old twins, but it's tough to know for sure. They were very affectionate towards each other and almost identical except a couple differences that I could see in their antlers (which presumably wouldn't perfectly match a twin in any case). It also makes me wonder if moose twins are typically fraternal or identical? I'll have to look it up. The other moose that I encountered were very skittish, and I only managed to snap a couple quick cell phone shots of one of the mother/calf pairs. Great hike. Hopefully I'll find the bighorn again soon.

What a great day to be out on the trail! Thanks in large part to a tip from a backpacker, I found a nice bull moose and wow I couldn't believe how curious this bull was about me. Lots more details to share, but I'll have to keep this story super short for the time being. I've been busy busy busy with lots of other things in life plus great hikes in between... so I'm trying to catch up on all my recent adventures. More details to come when/if I'm able to circle back and fill in a proper story about this amazing encounter. One of my closest encounters of the season, and definitely the most deliberate and curious moose of the year!

I had doubts about this trip, and doubts about whether or not I wanted to take my big lens out on the steep hike, but boy-oh-boy am I glad I trusted some instincts at the right time. Luck would have it that I pulled out my camera and got everything dialed in shortly before this amazing encounter. I was ready and the timing of the encounter was perfect. I spotted the pine marten and didn't miss a beat keeping my eye on him (as often can happen if I have to stop and get my camera out). Prior to this encounter, my longest amount of time with a pine marten was ~82 seconds. They are fast, discrete and can disappear in the forest in an instant. This exchange lasted a good ten minutes. I assume this robust marten was a male due to its impressive size (relative to other pine martens that I've seen). He was taking his time and let me follow along while he hunted and even took a short nap. The light was tough, and getting a clean shot was next to impossible in the thick brush... but this will go down as one of my favorite pine marten encounters for sure. He was listening for prey and I'm fairly sure he caught something, but I didn't pursue him after he made his pounce on whatever it was. More details and other images from the day to come later when/if I get time to circle-back to this fun sighting.

This was my closest mother-and-calf encounter of the year, and as is the case with almost all my encounters -- this one offered something unique and fun and special all at the same time. A little over halfway through my hike, I caught a glimpse through the trees of the unmistakable profile of a big moose. I had my camera ready to go, and very quietly moved into a position that offered a better view. But, this encounter was already so very close, that I had serious doubts if the moose would stay put long enough for any decent photos. We were only about 40ish feet away from each other at first, but she had no clue that I was there (which isn't ideal with moose in my opinion). I made myself obvious, but continued to photo. Mother moose definitely looked at me, but went right back to grazing. Had she seen me and instantly accepted me?? No, I didn't get the impression that she realized I was there. And then I saw her calf just behind her. The calf ABSOLUTELY saw me and I could see her eyes really open up wide as she looked at me. Mom continued to graze and come closer. Now maybe 20 feet away, I sat down the camera and made sure that she knew a human was so very close. At that point she processed it for a second and retreated fairly quickly with her calf. She only trotted about 100 feet away and so I slowly worked my way around to watch them a bit more. I began to think that mother moose might not have the best eyes and ears... perhaps she was getting old or just not as tuned in as other moose. Mother came back my direction, but I knew she didn't know that I was close by. She laid down and the calf followed suit. I didn't want to stay put forever, and I didn't really have a view for any good pics, so I made myself known again. Mother got up and trotted away again ... and I went way around them this time so as not to disturb them. Really fun encounter and I was really surprised at how invisible I seemed to the mother. I've never had a calf notice me first like this, with a clueless mom coming so naively close. The calf was about two months old and clearly a female as can be seen with all moose if you can see their tail. Females have a distinctive white diamond below the tail, whereas males might only have a tiny white outline or completely brown below the tail. Gorgeous day to get out on the trail.

This was such an interesting situation to watch unfold. I've had two different hummingbird nests nearby, but both had issues and no chicks survived to my knowledge. But, recently there have been a few fledgling hummingbirds and mothers that have been feeding them. This group of photos begins when one of the fledglings was perched on the barbed wire, and the mother bird did not like that one bit. Perhaps the bird was too exposed, or would overheat in the direct sun?? I'm not sure, but the mother bird was repeatedly trying to drag the fledgling by the beak and head (to my amazement). The fledgling was stubborn for a while, but eventually moved back to a shady and discrete branch. Only then would the mother feed the young one. Lots of bickering between the two, and they've stuck around the trees for a couple weeks now. Fun bird watching.

Nice hike out above Rainbow Lakes with at least one big moose, but no pictures of it unfortunately. The consolation prize was a really close-up pika that paused long enough for a couple shots. Honorable mention to the peregrine falcon off in the distance.

I went out looking for bighorn again, and this time I spotted elk herd after elk herd after elk herd. No bighorn today, but some nice opportunities with a handful of elk that ventured close.

What an interesting day! I started by hiking up to a nearby reservoir and along the way I spooked a young moose before I could get a decent shot. She ran out into the meadow before heading off into the distance. I was seeing a ton of evidence of moose and elk, and eventually I found myself right by a handful of elk mothers with newborn calves. Surprisingly, they never saw me. I tried to keep out of sight since they are so skittish in the national forest where hunting takes place, and I decided to pick a spot where they might come back through. I accidentally blew the opportunity by not realizing they had come back while I had become distracted by a bird that landed near me. The elk spotted me the second time and ran like their life depended on it. But, those wouldn't be my last encounters of the day and it put me on a perfect path to intersect with the final star of today's show. As I came back to Brainard Lake, I put my camera away and gave up on seeing moose since there were a lot of people with dogs and hikers in front of me weren't acting like there was much to see -- but they weren't looking close enough! I first spotted the second moose of the day about 75 yards off the trail. She noticed me, but went right back to eating willows. I stayed for about an hour and she eventually walked right by me (nearly 10 ft away) before laying down in some snow to cool off. She was super inquisitive, and it was one of those rare occasions when I actually got up to put some distance between me and the animal. I love a few of the ultra close-ups. Great hike!

Bighorn sheep are such great animals to photograph. Besides their powerful presence and scenic habitat -- I love that they are usually so confident and comfortable. It makes for great photo opportunities, but that doesn't necessarily make it easy to get a great shot. I took a chance and drove up Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park in search of bighorn, and I spotted a couple rams in the distance almost exactly where I had hoped to see them. They were a little over a mile from the road and much higher up the mountain, but I decided to see if I could navigate through the woods to find them up above treeline. At first, I hiked for a mile in search of them, but returned to my car thinking maybe I was mistaken. I drove around a little more and that's when I saw the couple again but this time much further up already. I decided to set back out, and I spotted the first ram after hiking another mile and climbing around 1,000 ft off trail. From the road, I swore that I saw two -- but pretty soon I saw a third, fourth... maybe ten. Eventually I counted nearly three dozen. Their first reaction to me was uncertainty, with a short retreat before coming right back and then approaching a bit closer. They quickly went back to grazing without giving me much attention. The light was great, but the conditions were a bit challenging. I needed my tripod to make the most of this opportunity since the wind gusts were so tough and I was so physically tired after hiking up the mountain. Subsequently, these images aren't nearly as sharp as I'd like, but it was a great photo opp and another good learning lesson. I'll have to go back soon with the tripod and hopefully calmer conditions. Gorgeous creatures to see in the wild.

More details coming soon.

More details coming soon.

Details TBD. Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrel and lots more...

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More details coming soon.

Likely pregnant and definitely a little nervous, this female moose hurried off when cars approached, before I could get many pics.

More details coming soon.

Here are a bunch of pics from the last week or so... I've been busy with a bunch of life stuff plus moving/selling my house so I haven't had too much time for photography lately (or time to upload pics). I've been out a little here and there, but no crazy cool encounters recently. Lots of fun little opportunities, though. Moose, various snowshoe hares, american dipper, ducks and more...

Description TBD

After an early morning drive-by bull moose bonus sighting, I started out the day in earnest looking for the kingfisher that I've seen in the marsh recently. No sign of her at all, unfortunately. After some waiting around, I decided to wander up the moose trail to see what I might find. Within a few minutes I bumped into lots of other birds and also a 2 or 3 year old female moose. Her first instinct was to run away, but after maybe 50-60 feet she stopped in her tracks. Moose can be easily spooked, but they can also calm down in an instant. It was a quiet morning, with hardly any wind or noise other than the river and birds. The moose could see me clearly and I did my usual routine of trying to show them that I can be trusted. She responded really well, and turned around and began eating while coming my general direction. When she got to within ~30 feet she started grazing a bunch and I walked away diagonally to create space and get a better shot of her. She wandered off before too long, just grazing away on the all-you-can-eat buffet of willows. Fun encounter!

More details coming soon.

More details coming soon.

Description TBD

While out trying to convince the pygmy nuthatches to stop drilling holes into my house, this nice looking bull stopped by for a minute. Nice size antlers for this early in the year.

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More details coming soon.

What a day! It's hard to know where to start, so I'll just go in order of how the day developed. On my way to Rocky Mountain National Park, I spotted a baby bighorn by the road so I stopped to see if I could get any pics. I soon realized that there were no other bighorn around at all, unfortunately. This little one was all by itself, but it didn't seemed stressed in the least. I'm really concerned about its well being, but this is one of those situations where I just have to let mother nature run its course. When I drove back by the same spot some six hours later, the orphan was at the same spot -- so that really reduces my confidence about the situation. They are super resilient creatures, and hopefully its able to rejoin the herd or its mother very soon. Upon arriving to Estes, there were elk all over the place -- which isn't entirely unusual, but in this case it was particularly obvious that there were many different groups and herds on the move. I spotted elk from the southern most end of Estes, to the middle of town, in the middle of the park and even a couple miles from my house. Their antlers have already grown quite large for being so early in the season. Within the park I spotted three moose, three turkeys, a coyote and lots of great birds. Unfortunately, and in retrospect, I realized that I was being a little lazy with my camera and as a result the sharpness of a lot of pictures was fairly poor. I decided to go back out near my house with only about two hours of light left so that I could try to see some more moose and work on getting sharper images. With the much lower light, I knew it would be challenging, but that's part of the practice of getting better. Thankfully, there were four more moose to practice on and I was able to improve my image stability this time. My favorite encounter of the day was a mother and her yearling that happened to block my path home. Flanked by snow drifts to each side, I took my time and went through my routine of earning their trust. Before long, I could see that the mother moose accepted me, but I found it really funny that the young male was smelling the air a lot. In my experience, I haven't seen moose actively smelling in this way. I wasn't exactly sure what to make of it, and at my closest point he was really curious. With his mother's back turned away while she grazed, the young male played with a single blade of grass while watching me intently. He didn't demonstrate any aggressive or stressed body language, and after I passed by he started walking toward me as if he wanted to come check me out. He was shy but inquisitive... turning his head away when I'd look back at him. With light running out, I needed to make better time to get back before dark. I saw two more moose before getting to the car -- one was a very dark brown male and the other was single female.

I love it when it only takes a few minutes before I spot wildlife! On today's mid-day hike, I spotted two young bulls just a quarter mile after leaving the trailhead. I've gotten better at taking my time, and this pair would have been really easy to miss if I was walking too fast. It's amazing how well they can blend in sometimes. The first bull was bedded down and happy enough to sit there for most of the visit. It's possible that this was Maverick from last May, but it's really tough to tell be sure about such a young moose after a year. Maybe I'll get a better look another time. Like Maverick, he was very comfortable -- eating snow, yawning and relaxed. After a bit of time passed, I heard branches breaking a little further back in the willows. Both young males were back in the willows the entire time, so it wasn't the most amazing opportunity... but I love building that relationship and trust. Eventually, the larger male got up and started scratching his antler buds on a tree branch before grazing again. I'll go back soon to see if I can some better shots soon.

Today I spotted a moose in the front yard, so of course I had to step out and take some photos. She noticed me, but was not bothered at all. She quickly accepted that I was nearby, she didn't even stand up and in fact she was so content that she went to sleep. I knew that she wouldn't stay put for very long because she was close to the road and loud trucks (and just simple quiet cars) come through regularly enough that she would likely get spooked. Or, a neighbor would walk by with a dog. I figured that I would stay out there and either get a photo of her running away from a truck, or I would be able to help a neighbor understand that they were walking towards her.Well, after 34 minutes, two neighbors with two off-leash dogs came down the road. I could see them well before they could see the moose, and I loudly called out -- "There's a moose over here!". Nothing- no response. They walked closer. "Hey - there's a moose over here. You need to leash your dogs!. THERE'S A MOOSE! MOOSE!!!" Nothing. I called out 5 times. They did nothing. The two dogs began racing up the hill through my yard towards me and ignored the owners as they tried to call the dogs back. I yelled at the dogs to stop, yelled NO, but it was all in vain. As soon as the dogs got to me, they then saw the moose and attacked her. It was then a full-on situation with the moose trying to stomp the dogs to death. I kept quiet so that I wouldn't interrupt the owners calling repeatedly for their dogs to come back. The owners had absolutely no control over their animals. After allowing the owners ample time to get their dogs under control, I was compelled to intervene. I stepped into the fray and sort of put myself between the more aggressive dog and the moose while yelling at the top of my lungs at the dog. NO!! STOP!! GO BACK!!! GO BACK!!! I screamed repeatedly. The dog must have realized I meant business and it finally ran back. The neighbors said nothing -- no apology, nothing. Oblivious and ignorant. I'm sure they still feel that they did nothing wrong and that their well behaved dogs are easy to control with voice alone. Wrong. When it mattered most, they had zero control over their animals. Infuriating. The moose seemed to understand that I was on her side. With about 30 feet between us, the moose and I walked back toward my house. She jumped the fence and I walked inside. Her body language was never aggressive towards me, and it sort of reminded me of my late June 2023 encounter when I steered a dog and owner away from a moose. That owner listened, and then the moose came over to me with her baby afterwards. I LOVE dogs, but people need to leash them and be more aware. When a person is repeatedly stressing to "leash your dog ... there's a moose!", then dog owners need to listen fast and respect the warning.

It was a gorgeous spring morning to find some fox kits playing around at a nearby den. I've photographed this same fox den in the past, and I've been checking weekly for any activity -- but so far missed them. Last week someone told me that they were back, so I took a chance to find them and it was perfect timing and perfect light. The six kits were all super playful for about an hour until a nearby dog started non-stop barking. They went back in the den, but I had more than enough time to see a lot of fun action. I'll have to swing back by another morning soon.

Two moose today... well technically three, but I didn't bother trying to photo the third since it was so deep in the aspens.The first moose is a young male and his antlers were just starting to appear. The second moose was content staying put in the snow, and I'm pretty sure it was a young female. The first was a little shy and the second one was near the road, so I only took a couple quick shots before moving on. Gorgeous day out with lots and lots of fresh powder coating everything.

... or in the woods, so-to-speak. Today I went back to the same location as yesterday to try and find any of the same moose. There were lots of fresh moose tracks and eventually I spotted the mother/yearling pair deep in the willows. But, as the title suggests and the pictures reveal, they were content staying deep in the thick of things. There wasn't much of an opportunity today for any amazing shots, but it's always great to watch them.

Moose, like many other critters right now, are on the move and coming back to their spring/summer favorite spots. The first moose was fairly shy and she quickly wandered off into the thick willows. The other two moose were a mom and her 11 month old son. She didn't give a hoot, but it seemed like something about my backpack made the young male uneasy at first. There also seemed to be another moose in the willows that was getting his attention. Fun and basic opportunity, with no real chance for any extraordinary shots today... but always great to see them.

More details coming soon.

Soggy day. More details to come...

Details to come...

I stopped by one of my bighorn spots, but they were nowhere to be seen. My consolation prize was an American Dipper that stopped by for a quick dip and it was close enough for a couple shots. Fun to watch them in action.

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Amazing and very close encounter with a baby bighorn... plus so.many.more sheep elsewhere on my hike. I need to delete some of these images and add some others that I haven't processed yet. More to come at some point...

More details coming soon.

More details coming soon.

Good luck has been on my side lately with the local bighorn, and I was really happy to find them again today at one of their favorite hangouts. I really took my time with them, and it seems to have paid off. In total, I spent just over four hours with the herd and after going through two full camera batteries and nearly 2,500 photos... this may go down as my best bighorn encounter to date. None have ever been closer, but the Nov. 2023 encounter was really special, too, so it's tough to choose a favorite. Never before, though, have I been fully accepted into a group like this. Upon first seeing each other, I was around 120 yards away from the three largest rams and the ewes were considerably further away. Very, very slowly I moved about 30-40 feet closer to the males and then I stayed put for a long while. Eventually they got up and grazed towards the females. After the rams were out of sight, I slowly walked to a ledge so that I could figure out where they went. A few were much further down with some other ewes, but to my shock -- the biggest ram was only around 20-30 feet away. He saw me and wasn't bothered at all. He would eat some grass, look at me, eat some grass, look around at his herd and go back to eating again. He approached to within about 10 feet at first and then slowly went down the cliffs about 80 feet away I would estimate. I walked a few more steps to a better lookout and pretty much stayed in place at this point for the duration. The ewes began coming closer, and three of the males came back up to me. The largest ram walked up to around 4 feet away, and I had to ask him out loud just how close he planned on coming! He was being extraordinarily calm and gentle. I genuinely think he would have made contact with me if I had let him, but he stepped back when I perked up and talked to him. At that point, both of my batteries had drained to zero and it was time to go. The three males stood close by and watched as I got up and walked away from them. Hopefully they'll let me photo them again soon!

Lots of great birds today. Spring was in the air. The highlight was a sleepy owl, but I'm confident that I'll get another chance with this one. I got a tip about where to find one, and sure enough there was at least one owl, and likely another that I couldn't see. Not much action from the owl, but I'll come back on a warmer day later in the spring to see if I can get some action shots. After that, there were several bald eagles, geese and others out and about.

I had a short window of time today for a quick hike, and it was pretty astonishing that maybe 5 minutes into hiking up the cliff to look for bighorn again -- I came across this impressive fella. He was a little nervous and stayed put almost the entire time. He kept looking away from me, and then I realized that there was a pair of rock climbers nearby coincidentally. This wasn't a trail, it was just a random part of the canyon. I kept the photoshoot brief since he was nervous and I didn't have much time anyway. As I hiked back down, he took the opportunity to head out another direction. Gorgeous animal and pretty surprising that I walked ~40 feet right below him by total luck.

While out on a short hike, I stopped to have a snack and I could not believe that there were some crossbills so close at that same moment. They flew around doing their thing, but had zero fear of me and were too close for my camera to focus at times (within 3 feet). They flew right by my face a couple times, but this was way too close for some shots... but of course super for intricate details of their feathers. Fun little encounter with all female crossbills. I was surprised that no males were among this small group at all.

Spring was in the air today and lots of birds were at the house per usual. My relationship with the birds has really evolved over the years, but there's still one boundary that they're not allowed to cross -- and that is pecking holes into the sides of the house. The birds are more comfortable than ever getting very close to me, but we both know what they're up to when the nuthatch jump from the trees to the house. The white-breasted nuthatch knew I was going to throw a snowball at him, and he flew near me to chirp and seemingly complain that I wouldn't allow it. The different calls are really funny when they're frustrated vs. happily foraging for pine nuts. I give the birds a certain call when they're crossing the boundary and it genuinely seems like we have a mutual understanding at this point. I'll miss them a ton when I move later in the spring. But, I'm not the only one with boundaries. I spotted a nice group of bighorn sheep on the way back from my first trip of moving things out of the house. The bighorn were close to the road, so I stopped to try and get a few photos. They noticed me, but really weren't bothered at all. Some of them walked a little closer, but they were a good 30 feet above the road on some rocks. Their demeanor was relaxed as they grazed on fresh shoots of spring greens that recently emerged. I don't really like taking photos from the roadside, so I decided to walk a long ways away and come up the cliff a bit for a different angle. Even though I was nearly 1,000 ft away as opposed to maybe ~60 feet while on the road -- their demeanor changed in an instant. The ewes saw me from far away and pretty much immediately led the group to higher ground. I didn't come any further because it was pretty clear that I had crossed a boundary of theirs by leaving the road. Super interesting encounter for me, and really nice to see a good group enjoying the nice day.

Getting great images of birds in flight is such a challenge for me. I almost got some great shots today if not for a few imperfections in my settings and framing. Lessons learned. I hiked up a canyon to look for bighorn, birds of prey and really anything else as usual. After spending a while up at the rim I put on my backpack and just then a pair of crows flew overhead. One crow flew up to within ~15 feet and repeated the process 3-4 times before rejoining its partner in the sky. I had my shutter speed set too low and was entirely consumed with trying to keep focus on the bird while attempting to frame the image. Faster shutter speed would have made these ultra-sharp (potentially). It was really interesting to me that the crow flew so directly at me in that way. I hope it happens more often! Great opportunity to get some cool shots and lessons learned for next time. There were lots of other birds, but nothing besides the crow was close enough for interesting photos. One perigrine flew about 40 feet away from me, but as the fastest animal on the planet -- it was moving far too fast through the forest and rocks for me to stand a chance in the 2 seconds that I saw it. Super fun to see so many birds!

This 'unicorn' elk's deformed antlers make it easy to distinguish him from other elk. I photographed him on Jan 28th, and I think his buddy was also in the same group last month, too. In today's encounter, I spotted them from about 150ft feet away and I took a seat on a log. They slowly but surely grazed my direction and eventually they were both to within about 10ft! It wasn't my intent to get that close, but I literally didn't move one inch after taking a seat. A park ranger saw me and was furious at how close I was! I'm sure it looked really bad from his perspective.. especially if you don't know my background and hadn't seen the slow and gentle walk they made towards me. I need to keep my closest encounters out of sight from the general public so that I don't set a bad example in public view! It was a nice little encounter before the ranger yelled at me and brought a bunch of stress to the otherwise benign situation.After that, I went on a short hike and came across a very puffed up Stellar's Jay. It was cold and windy, and the bird was conserving energy. I couldn't believe how close it was when I first noticed it. I was looking for the weasel family, and just saw the bird a few feet away. It stayed put for several minutes and then bounced around a bit before eventually flying away after ~30 minutes. Gorgeous detail on the feathers.

Just a few shots of a couple red-winged blackbirds that I saw while out and about.

I haven't been out much in the last week or so, but on today's leap-year hike I only saw birds. Hints of spring were in the air. The brown creeper was a nice surprise, but unfortunately I couldn't get a shot with any good light. Still fun to see them up close. And, the pygmy nuthatch trio was a real treat. It's hard enough for me to get a picture of one, but to have three all together for a millisecond was neat fun to see.

Nice light, lots of elk... plus a bonus moose on the way home!

Pictures alone can't convey just how many birds there were on this gorgeous day in RMNP. I should record video next time, but I'm much more inclined to try and get a really great image. I would estimate around 200 Clark's Nutcrackers, dozens of Stellar's Jays, several dozen crossbills, and likely another 200 between the nuthatch and chickadees. Along the way, I bumped into a small group of deer. It's always fun for me to try and gain the deer's trust or curiosity. Today it was mostly curioisity from the alpha female in the group. Fun day.

Just before nightfall, two bulls showed up and passed through during a light snow storm.

What a great day! I had low expectations going into the hike, and I ended up spending a lot of extra time practicing on a pair of birds. Several times after stopping for birds, something else happens that I feel like wouldn't have occurred had I not gotten distracted birding. After the Vieros flew away, I decided to hike back and I couldn't believe that I saw another long-tailed weasel. It was gone in an instant, so I walked around the willows trying to spot any movement at all. Nothing. They are so hard to keep track of, so I went back to the original spot where I saw it first. I waited for 10-15 minutes and I thought I started seeing a little movement through the dense willows and snow. There were at least two weasels, and one of them came out to give me a closer look. I couldn't believe that it ran right up to me. With all the grass, shadows, tree limbs and nearly perfect match to the snow... it was pretty challenging for me to maintain focus on it. I missed a lot of other good shots, but at least a handful came out decently sharp. I had no idea that this wasn't the end of my encounters for the day, though! While driving out of the park, I was scanning the terrain left and right for anything else that might be around, and I caught a glimpse of the unmistakeable outline of bighorn sheep up the cliffs. I counted at least ten individuals, and my instinct is that there were several more out of sight. I never saw a dominant ram, or any other full curl males... which is why I'm pretty sure the rest of the group was a little higher. It was nice to see a young ~8 month old sheep with the group. It's super tempting to go back early tomorrow and hike up somewhere that offers a better view. Fantastic day out!

Brief encounter in James Peak Wilderness this morning. This bull recently lost his antlers, and he seemed very cool and unconcerned about me. But, I had an appointment that forced me to leave prematurely. Maybe I'll try to find him or his antlers in a day or two.

I've struggled to land on a name for the shy daughter and unconcerned mother that I've seen so much... but today Shiloh came to mind for the 'little' one. The 8-9 month old female has almost always been nervous at any sight of me at all. Mother could care less. Maybe a good name for mom will come to mind soon. I spotted them very early while sleeping, but I left them alone until later when they were up and grazing. Eventually they both walked off together side-by-side.

Well, technically they were a few hundred yards from RMNP, but without the park they probably wouldn't be there at all... so it's still a RMNP herd IMO. I didn't upload any pics of the larger group because of *reasons*, but there were at least 200 individuals I believe. Gorgeous day

Gorgeous day out in RMNP, with a quick loop up to Cub Lake today. One elk had a very unsual antler deformity, which seems like it could be painful. But, the animal seemed completely fine and not stressed at all. No other major wildlife today. A couple cool shots of an ice climber on Windy Gulch Cascades. Surprisingly warm.

There weren't any opportunities for spectacular shots of the animals, but I always like crossing their paths. I photo'd 4 moose, but there were two more that stayed tucked away in the shadows. Gorgeous day out

Brief moment with some crossbills that were eating mud / sand ... plus a bonus coyote that ran away the moment we both noticed each other.

More details coming soon.

I set out to find the bighorn again, but unfortunately I didn't find them. Steep canyons and cold weather made for a challenging approach. I'll head back up in a week or so from a different starting point that may yield better results. Later in the day, I went elsewhere and squeezed in a short second hike in Golden. There were several nice birds of prey, and I believe this one is a Northern Harrier. Not the best pics, but good for practice.

Fun, brief encounter with a trio of bighorn sheep today. Two ewes and one ram on some south-facing slopes in a nearby canyon. They were near the main road, and I wasn't in a position to stick around long or try for better shots. I may attempt to hike into this section tomorrow or another day soon as I'm pretty sure there are more bighorn in that area again for winter.

An interesting day out, to say the least. The headline is that I was attacked by a woman's off-leash dog, but the highight was the wildlife (most of which I wasn't able to photograph. While hiking back an aggressive dog lunged at me while I passed by. Thankfully I was able to put my leg in front of its face, rather than where his teeth would have bitten me otherwise. It was a large German Shepherd and the woman on skis couldn't control him when the dog lost control. The first attack was as I passed by. She held its collar but he went bizerk and she fell into deep snow -- and it bit down on my hip/leg. I yelled and instinctively jumped away -- thankfully keeping my balance and remaining on my feet. She grabbed it's collar, but her grip wouldn't last long. In an instant, the dog broke free and jumped at me to attack again. I can't remember if I kicked it with my spikes or what, but I think the dog could see in my eyes that I was about to fight back with all my might. He retreated and she grabbed his collar once more. My thick layers on this very cold day provided enough protection to avoid puncture wounds, but my leg definitely hurts today. I'll be fine I'm sure, but I should have gotten her information just like a car accident or something. I was ready to be away from that dog, and it was clear she wasn't strong enough to hold him back in those conditions. Another crazy trail story for the memory books. Otherwise, it was a lovely day out. I saw two moose while driving to the trailhead and I missed shots of a handful of other little critters. Very cold, but calm and often sunny today.

While waiting for my car to be serviced, I took a walk to a nearby park in Longmont. Two eagles were perched on powerline towers, and one flew right over my head at one point. I think this was my closest bald eagle encounter ever. The light was pretty bad and the images are far from as sharp as I'd like, but it was great to get some close-up practice on something as majestic as a bald eagle.

I spotted a mother and ~7 month old daughter resting in the snow on my way out to hike this morning. As soon as I approached, they quickly came to their feet and walked further into the forest. Nice day overall, but not many animals out and about on my travels.

The close-ups of the magpie are pretty basic in some ways, but really incredible IMO if you look really closely at the eyes. These images are less than half the actual size and a tiny fraction of the full resolution -- but even in these lower resolution images it's possible to zoom into the bird'seye and clearly see the sky, the clouds, my car and even the outline of me taking the image. i've been working on my sharpness, and this is great to zero-in with such clarity.

Working on bird shots...

An even dozen sightings today,but I only managed to get pics of nine -- so that's the number I'm using for counting purposes. The first three pairs were mothers and a single offspring. Then I spotted a lone ~18-month old, then another mom and calf. Lastly there were three nice bulls. Fun to see so many in one short hike. I think that's a record for me in such a short period.

Such a surprise today...

More details coming soon.

A few minutes before it was completely dark for the evening, I spotted a few tree branches moving in the distant forest. Wind can blow branches around, squirrels can jump through limbs, and birds can also give the appearance of something bigger perhaps. But, the wind was calm and no other branches were moving, so I kept my eye on the little patch of trees through everything and a moment later I thought that I noticed some tall dark legs. Sure enough, there were two moose and luckily they walked right by me. The little one spotted me first and after a couple minutes to think it out -- he swiftly ran back to mom who was still deeper in the forest. They both came back and past me in the minutes that followed. It was so dark that I could hardly get the camera to even focus. Fun to see the pair and hopefully I see them again soon with better light.

Tempted by the idea of seeing the group of bighorn again, I set out on the same hike that I had done on Wednesday. Despite doing this two days prior, it was much more challenging because nearly a foot of fine powder dropped the day before. The 8.5 mile roundtrip with 3,000 feet of vertical up and back down was a different beast entirely on this day. Because of the windy conditions, I knew that once I got above treeline that the snow depth wouldn't be too bad, but slogging up the mountain in untracked powder was intense. The strong headwinds only added to the difficulty, but I made decent time overall. Along the way I passed very fresh moose tracks, but I forged ahead because I wanted to spend as much time as possible near the bighorn. I kept my camera packed away until I got far enough to maybe see the group again. As it turns out, if I had arrived only one or two minutes later, I might have missed them entirely. My guess is that most of the herd was either tucked away on the cliffs, or they had moved higher up to a different location. When I arrived at the place where I had seen them last, I spotted two rams working their way uphill. They both noticed me, but seem hardly concerned. They paused for a moment, and continued their steady climb. As soon as he took his first step, I could tell that the leading ram was injured. He wasn't using his back right leg, and he hopped along using his other three. It was hard to see at first, but it was clear that his ankle or foot was terribly injured. I wondered if I had seen him two days ago before the injury, or if this was a new ram entirely? Even though he was badly injured, in just a couple of minutes he had traveled several hundred yards away and it was surprisingly difficult to see them with the naked eye. I seriously doubt that I would have seen them at all, had I not arrived when/where I did. At their closest, they were only about 125 yards away, but that only lasted a brief moment. I found it interesting that the second ram kept behind him the entire time. Achilles, the injured ram, took his time. Stopping to rest every so often, and the second ram would gently nudge his rear. It was as if the healthy ram stayed back to help and encourage Achilles to continue on up the mountain. Perhaps they were on their way to rejoin the larger group? I wanted to follow them, but I didn't want to risk causing any stress given the bad injury. I waited on the windy slope to see if any other bighorn would appear, but I never spotted any others. The pockets of snow, strong winds and the mix of rocky/grassy terrain made it really tough to focus on the fine details in the distance. Even though I knew the two rams were a quarter mile away at this point, it was surprisingly difficult to see them at all. I wondered how many others may be within view, but too tough to see. It's hard to imagine surviving in such a harsh environment at all, much less with a serious injury. I wonder if this winter will be his last, or if somehow he can heal and persevere. I was impressed that he could still scale the cliffs, but it was clear that he was struggling. It's doubtful that I'll make it up to this area again until spring, but hopefully the impressive ram's leg is able to heal over the weeks and months ahead.

I've searched for bighorn several times this year without any notable success, but getting good (and hopefully close-up) shots of them has been a big 2023 objective of mine. Resigned to the fact that they've remained so elusive, my goal today was actually to find a group of rock ptarmigans even though I was again hiking up to the same place I had searched repeatedly for bighorn. With snow, ice and a lot of vertical gain ahead, I wasn't sure if I'd get far enough to search the same area where I'd seen ptarmigans earlier this year. Fortunately I made good time and the weather was great, so I wasn't in a rush to get back down below treeline. After a much needed break to rehydrate and refuel, I slowly zig-zagged around the the tundra in hopes of seeing the very well camouflaged ptarmigans. I decided to drift lower in elevation and towards the south for some pictures of Red Deer Lake. I sat down, snapped some images of the lake and scanned the terrain for anything that looked like wildlife. Usually the little objects in the distance that resemble animals are just rocks or vegetation, but I had to do a double-take when I realized there were bighorn sheep about a quarter-mile away. The ewes (female bighorn) were looking directly at me, and the large ram was resting and facing the other direction. I stayed put and watched as the ewes decided to go over the ridge and down the cliffside. Bighorn now out of sight, I decided to try and find a vantage point of the cliff in hopes of seeing them. Along the way, I realized there were two young rams resting on the edge of the cliff, so I stopped about 300 feet away and waited to think about what I should do next. A few minutes later, one of the rams stood up and he realized I was there. I didn't move for the duration of this encounter, and eventually the group would form nearby and approach to within ~35 feet away from me. I kept my face and body hidden behind my camera as well hidden as possible, but they of course knew that something different was there. In the past, some animals seem to have a stronger reaction if they see a human face or if I'm standing – so that's one reason I tried to appear as small as possible on the ground, keep my hood over my head and my face behind the camera. A moment later, the second ram knew something was up so he stood up and started looking at me, too. A second later, both rams looked uphill and three of the first sheep I had seen appeared on the ridge. They had a better view of my whole body, and paused to look at me for a minute before heading downhill to join the younger rams. The group of five were about 100 yards away, and much to my surprise and delight – the ewes seemed curious about me. Leading the way, with the gentlemen closely following their every move, the ladies walked nearly right at me. A moment later, a much bigger ram appeared above and the group changed their attention to him. The big ram quickly trotted downhill to join the group and everyone greeted each other. It was amazing to watch the comradery and subtle competition between them. The leaders and hierarchy among them was clear, but I'm sure a fierce challenge to secure mating rights isn't far ahead. The females must be close to entering estrous, as the males were continually smelling and reacting to their scent. The rams were also kicking each other gently (without any aggressive reactions surprisingly). I wondered if I'd see any serious headbutts, but at this point it was just a bunch of friendly bumping horns. Light was running out and I was still a long ways away from where I had started, so I had to say good-bye to the group. At this point, I decided to stick my head out a little more clearly and I could see their demeanor change as they seemed to figure out that I was human. I stood up and the ewes started to walk away as a result. I didn't want to spook them, so I immediately headed in the opposite direction and back up the mountain as they watched me disappear in the distance. There had been a third female at first, so I suspect there were potentially several more bighorn just out of sight. This group of six was a treat to photograph up-close and it's one of my favorite encounters of the year.

At the end of the day and after an abnormally quiet hike, I spotted two moose just before all the light was gone. She was my 100th moose of the year, and her ~6 month old calf would have been number 101, but I didn't get a picture, so I'm not counting that one. Absolutely gorgeous afternoon.

Four more moose today on my travels, bringing my 2023 total to 99 moose. On the way to my hike, I spotted two bulls in the distance. The smaller male looked like Maverick from a distance, but they were too far away for me to get a solid visual. I continued on to Brainard Lake State Park and hiked up to and around Long Lake.After only seeing birds and squirrels all day, I resigned myself to not having any notable encounters. About a mile before getting back from the ten mile adventure, I decided to take a short detour. When the campground isn't in use, I've seen moose in the open meadow from time to time. Again today there were two moose and it turned into about an hour-long encounter. Unsure at first, the calf was the first to walk my direction. Mom eventually followed, but largely watched from a distance. At their closest, the pair was around 25 feet away after starting nearly 200 feet away. The shadows and bright snow with bright background light made for tough photos, but it was another great encounter.

On the way to hike in Lost Creek Wilderness I kept my eye out for wildlife, per usual, and within a few miles of the house I already spotted a coyote and three moose. The coyote was unusually comfortable, but I was still in my neighborhood so he's relatively accustomed to people – but most coyotes around my area run away at first sight of humans. He trotted by my car as I quickly snapped some shots in the difficult light. It was lightly snowing and very cloudy, so I didn't try to take many shots before driving along. Not much further down the road I spotted two moose in the distance on private land. I kept the shots of these two brief given that I still needed to drive an hour to meet my friend and these moose were so far away on private property. Not even a mile later I saw one of the strangest moose behaviors that I've ever seen. She was also on private land and a long ways away. The falling snow, low light and distance made it tough to see, but I realized her tongue was hanging out in a dead-limp manner much like an animal that's been anesthetized. I was worried after she continued to stand there with her tongue hanging out like that for several minutes. Eventually, she pulled the tongue back into her mouth and I couldn't see any visible injury. But, a moment later the tongue was back out. She was in some sort of stress, I believe, so I decided to move it along. Very curious if she's ok or if there was a pressing issue that she was having. Later on the long drive I saw some nice deer by the roadside, too. No other animals on the hike as the heavy snow picked up steam and the camera didn't come out once.

Gorgeous hike up to Loch Vale and Mills Lake! It was chilly and windy, but filled with beautiful views as usual. Just as I was about to leave Mills, a nice looking Stellar's Jay hopped around some nearby treetops for just long enough for a few pics. The light was really great and some of the shots turned out really sharp despite the fact that I was shooting hand-held today. I love the detail in the feathers.

I went up to Blue Lake again today, and was hoping to see the mountain goat that I spotted from a distance yesterday. I explored a lot of terrain, but never caught a glimpse of him or the bull moose from the prior day. I took my time on the way back in hopes of seeing something notable and just as I approached Mitchell Lake – I bumped into the same pair of moose from two days ago. I thought that I'd name them if I saw them again, and with her tall physique I found it fitting to go with Giselle. Brady seemed like a fitting name for her young son and here I was again in very close proximity to them. I had passed just a few feet away from the calf, but didn't notice him in the thick forest. I saw mom in the creek and was shocked that I was only about 12 feet away. It wasn't my intention to get so close, but that's just how close I was when we made first eye contact. Perhaps she remembered me from the other day, but it was clear (for the time being) she didn't care one bit about me. I snapped photos for 20 or so minutes until they started walking away and down the trail. They were right in the middle of the trail so I just waited, but then I saw someone approaching that had NO idea that the moose were just a few feet away. I called out loudly "MOOSE" … but he kept walking closer and I called out again "MOOSE!". Giselle all of a sudden got spooked and felt caught between a steep slope, a hiker coming up and then me behind her (90 or so feet away). My loud exclamation annoyed her it seemed and she glared at me while dropping her ears in an aggressive way. I couldn't blame her, but I was surprised she was focused on me even though the other hiker was closer. The hiker quickly turned around and was out of sight. I decided to leave them alone and hiked well around them to avoid any more stress. All in all it was a great day and another great encounter.

Another amazing moose encounter! It began when I spotted a mountain goat in the distance walking down a ridgeline. I REALLY wanted to get a closer shot of him, so I husteld up the trail to try and get myself in a position for a better vantage point. But, just as I arrived where I expected to see the mountain goat, I encountered a bull moose. I was almost to Blue Lake and just stopped to see what the moose would do and if I might also see the goat. To my delight and surprise, the moose saw me from ~250 yards away and eventually began walking my direction. Closer and closer he came, until he eventually decide to lay down near me. I spent about 45 or so minutes with him and then I tried to find the mountain goat -- to no avail. Awesome encounter with another semi-inquisitive moose.

Just before Mitchell Lake, I came upon this pair. Mom was really tall compared to other cows I've seen. I spent about 30 or so minutes with them and then they moved along into the forest. Gorgeous morning! Trails will be covered in snow for the season in just a few days.

Spotted three moose on the way to the trail, and despite reports of another 3 moose at Mitchell Lake -- I didn't see any other big critters today. Pics of the moose are in really low light, so not the best but it's always nice to see them.

On my way to the trailhead today, I stumbled upon a nice family of four that were resting just a few feet off of the dirt road. I must have been the first person to have driven by in a while, and they sprung to their feet as I approached. I was driving slowly, so I quickly stopped and reversed away from them since I was so close. I turned off the car and they all calmed down a bit – and thankfully they didn't run away! (at least not yet) I pretty much always have my camera in the ready, and I quietly got out of my car to snap some pics and try to establish that I wasn't a threat. Mom and the twins didn't care one bit about me, but the bull wasn't so sure at first. He was a young male, and it always surprises me when I see groups of moose like this. They're definitely more social than conventional wisdom seems to suggest. They grazed for a few minutes and then two bald eagles soared overhead. All was well with the group for a few minutes, but then a big propane truck drove by and the loud engine/road noise scared them off. Fun little encounter before the hike even began.

On the way back from hiking up to Lost Lake, I started hearing reports of a moose hanging out near the trailhead, so I quickly hiked back in hopes of catching a glimpse! Luckily, she was still grazing in the marshes and I was able to hang out and watch her for about 30 minutes. The light was a little tough since she was mostly in the shadows, but a few pics came out ok. Gorgeous moose, and she was mostly pretty relaxed even with a steady stream of people and dogs not too far away on the trail. She eventually wandered off and I lost sight. Always fun to watch them!

I recognized her as soon as I saw that distinctive left ear of hers, and couldn't believe that I've seen her over ~3 years now. The last time I saw her, it was towards the end of winter and she was looking thin. But, she's looking great now and another major surprise is that she was with her son -- which I think is the one I call "Goofball" since he was so derpy and curious about me as a young calf. I can't be certain that the young male is the same animal, but I think it might be. They were along the road and slipped into the forest just a moment after I noticed them. Hopefully I get to see them again soon.

I've been out of town for a while and busy with life, but I've had a handful of encounters in the last couple months that I need to post! This will serve as a temporary spot for me to upload a bunch of recent pics, and at some point I'll reorganize the gap in time a little better.

More details coming soon.

What a surprising day! I was really disappointed that I had missed some potentially great shots of hawks, and I hadn't seen any big wildlife either. I photographed a nice grouse, but the light was really tough to get a good shot. Then I heard a group of Clark's Nutcrackers that were going nuts, so I decided to go take a few pics of the birds and call it a day. To my surprise and delight, the birds were presumably so upset because of the pine marten! I couldn't believe it. In total I had 80 seconds from first to last shot before she? disappeared into the forest. The light was tough but manageable. My camera settings were ok, but not perfect. Good enough in the end for my best shots ever of a pine marten. Forth of my life and really coincidental that the first two were within a week of each other in 2015 and my last two were within the last two weeks. More pics of the hawks and grouse to come a little later today.

My instincts served me well today by venturing off trail at exactly the right moment, but what do you do when the moose is happy as can be just sleeping? You wait and wait. This happens from time to time and it's at least the second time recently when a hiker came along and changed the situation in my favor, thankfully. I reached a patch of willows at 11,200 ft and decided to veer north. After only about 100 feet further, I noticed a couple moose ears poking out above the willows! He was bedded down, and had no idea that I was there. I typically like moose to know that I'm there, but in cases like these I also don’t want to risk spooking him or spoiling the photo opp. So, I just hang out and hope that the moose sees me or something changes for a better photograph. The last bull that I saw was also in this patch of willows, but he ran away immediately. This bull had very small antlers, but that's about all I could tell. After nearly an hour, he hadn't moved an inch. A hiker approached which finally got the moose's attention. The hiker didn't see me or the moose, but his trekking poles did get the moose's attention. The moose perked up and watched the hiker for a moment, but then he noticed me! I was MUCH closer than the hiker, about 50 feet from the moose versus ~150 feet away where the noise was coming from. At this point, the bull slowly stands up with his eyes intently on me. It was a good sign that he didn’t spring up quickly, and after just a few more seconds it was clear he didn’t have any concerns about my presence. He relieved himself of a lot of willows that were finished digesting, and briefly grazed on some more before laying back down. It was amazing how he completely disappeared, even though he only moved a few feet. I stuck around and watched to see if he would get back up and graze some more. The backdrop was great, but the light was really high in the sky with tough shadows. I hiked around some more, and came back to find him in the same hidden spot. After ~2 more hours of waiting, I decided to call it a day. I’ll go back up there in a day or two in hopes of getting some better shots of him and his buddies up there.

Another 3-day trip and again very few large wildlife, unfortunately. But - gorgeous scenery, beautiful flowers and lots of small citters to watch. Two separate deer. lots of mosquitoes, but no moose or other exciting creatures.

Prior to today, I’ve never accidentally taken a picture of a moose – but in a mind blowing kind of way, today that happened. About a half-mile into the hike, I realized that I hadn’t taken a test shot to get my settings all situated. I need to be in a better habit of doing this right at the start of a hike and as light conditions change. The spontaneous encounter with the pine marten last week was a really sad miss, so now I’m trying to be much more in-the-ready for action at any time of my hikes. So- I took off my lens cap, aimed the camera in a RANDOM direction and snapped a pic. TO MY ABSOLUTE DISBELIEF, there was a moose in the view finder and only ~30 feet away. The test shot was blurry but he’s right in the middle of the frame! … and that’s when I realized he was even standing there. WHAT!? Five seconds later and he was gone! He was another timid bull, unfortunately. I cannot believe that a) I didn’t see him already and b) how is that even possible !? Another lesson learned that I need to be ready from the start and I need to hike more slowly. I was again moving pretty quickly and almost certainly spoiled what could have been a much longer lasting encounter. Fantastic moment in any case. I may head back tomorrow or in a couple days to spend more time in those willows. Tons of other tracks and droppings.

Lots of small critters and beautiful scenery, but no photos of particularly big or rare creatures this trip. More pictures and details to come later. There was so much fresh evidence of moose, but I never saw or even heard one. I did encounter a really nice elk bull, but he ran away before I could get a picture. The snake was a surprise, although not rare in the grand scheme -- but rare to see at 10,000 feet. More to come...

I really lucked out this morning when my instincts led me to a perfect little spot to find a moose. I don't know if he ever saw me, and I learned from my lesson last week when I accidentally spooked a shy bull. More details to come...

What an amazing trip up to Jasper Lake in Indian Peaks Wilderness! I joined a friend to scope out camping spots for a yoga backpacking trip she's planning, and even though I was stoked – I had pretty low expectations for wildlife photography on this trip. After hiking nearly 5 miles up ~2,000 vertical feet with our heavy packs, we arrived at the lake and immediately encountered a moose. My camera gear was packed away so I hastily pulled it out and started taking pictures. Getting a sharp shot without a tripod or monopod is really tough with my camera, but I felt like I only had time for handheld shots since the the last bull I saw ran away so fast. Fortunately, he was a really mellow moose that didn't mind a couple hikers hanging out on the trail for a while and there was plenty of time to get my monopod for some better pics. My friend knows all about my love (and comfort level) around moose, but this was a pretty intimidating experience for her, especially given a tense encounter with a mother and calf she had just a few years prior. This situation was perfect, though. The moose showed that he accepted us, he had a clear view of us, and there weren't any other people or dogs around that might change the peaceful situation along the lake. Moments later, a second moose appeared and we were treated to 45 minutes of uninterrupted moose watching. The pair was absolutely at home grazing on all the flowers by the lake. Periodically, the bulls would glance our direction but they just went on about their business as we looked on. At one point in a microsecond exchange, the slightly larger bull was spooked when the smaller moose either approached too closely or may have made some sort of aggressive move. The bigger moose jumped away for a second, and then a second later they were both back to grazing. Given this spicy moment, we named one of the bulls "Tabasco"... and "Jasper" felt fitting for the other. At no other point was there any competitiveness between them, but it was a good reminder of unpredictable behavior. Over the course of the day and into the next morning, we would bump into this pair three more times! Tabasco would later lay down not far away from our camp, so that was a great sign of his comfort level. As for other large animals - we also saw the young buck that I'd seen on Wednesday as well as a single elk. Weather went back and forth, and the light was far from the best (for photography at least) - but overall it was a fantastic trip and one of my favorite encounters of the year!

Such a close call with a pine marten today! Unfortunately, my camera settings happened to be set for a bright landscape and not a fast moving dark creature in the shadows!! So- all I got was a terribly blurry picture before he vansihed into the forest. Oh I am going back to this spot soon. At least a pika was kind enough to pose for me in good light, and a yellow bellied marmot also made an appearance. More details to come...

The first notable wildlife during today’s hike started with a really loud and excited group of Clark’s Nutcrackers… aka the “camp robber”. Their calls grew louder and louder as I made my way toward the reservoir, so I stopped to watch the group of ~60 birds for a moment. I’ll update this post in a week or so with some audio and video of the jamboree. I have never seen such a large or excited group of these birds in my life. There was a surprisingly wide range of vocalizations across the group. It was fun to watch them for a minute, but I had my eye on bigger critters as usual.I run into wildlife a lot out in this area, but it can be really difficult to get a clear view of them due to the density of trees in certain sections. During several previous hikes in the same spot, I’ve spooked groups of elk and moose in the woods – only to have them run away before I can hardly even see them, much less get a picture. So, today I was hiking particularly quietly and I had my camera in the ready at all times. Throughout the first ¾ mile I was seeing very fresh elk and moose prints. Lots of droppings, lots of very fresh evidence. Quietly I proceed and then suddenly I hear a loud crash of hooves maybe 12 feet away! Despite being so close, I had no idea they were there and didn’t even see one animal. It sounded like at least two animals.I didn’t try to go their direction, and instead I was making my way to the marshy meadows of willows. I continued to find a ton of moose and elk tracks, but still no proper sightings. Eventually I did spot a large bull with the biggest antlers I’ve seen so far this year. I was tucked back in the woods, but I could see him out in the meadow.I snapped a few shots and walked up to the edge of the trees where the willows began. I was a good 150+ yards away from the big bull at this point.Since I’ve had so many great close encounters lately, I almost forgot just how skittish some of them can be. I didn’t try to hide myself at all, since there was a lot of distance and very thick patch of willows between us. But, that didn’t matter to the bull. Once he saw me, he turned and ran away. I didn’t try to get any other shots of him since it was clear my presence stressed him out. Gorgeous moose though and a fun sighting even if it only lasted a minute.

I love it when things come together so well! Today I hiked up to a particular marsh that I know moose love, and it would have been so easy to walk right on by without seeing that anything was there. Notice in the second picture just how little of the moose was visible! And, this was zoomed in at 500mm (10x what normal eyesight sees). As I walked up to the big patch of willows, I reminded myself that I needed to hike slowly since two of my recent encounters likely would have produced much better photos if I had been hiking much slower. It’s a tough balance, though, when it’s also possible that others on the trail may be coming up behind – and they could easily disturb wildlife on their way. In this situation, I spotted her at 9:10am before anyone had made it past this part of the trail. She was barely visible and the deep grass fooled me into believing she was much smaller than she really was as I would soon find out. She knew that I was nearby, but was hardly concerned – only glancing at me occasionally. I debated whether or not I should hike elsewhere since she could stay put for hours potentially. Based on her very cool and unconcerned demeanor, I was sure that she didn’t have a calf. Almost exactly an hour after I had been hanging out about 60 ft away, a hiker approached from the opposite direction – and it was immediately obvious that she was much more concerned about him than she had been about me. He had a dog, and she perked up and got up to her feet. I called out and let the hiker know there was a moose nearby and that she was nervous about the dog. Luckily, the dog never saw the moose, didn’t bark and she almost seemed to understand that I was telling him to give her lots of space. The hiker went around without spooking her further, and then I noticed she had a little male calf! Over the next hour, we had the forest to ourselves and she would approach to within 9 ft from me as I stayed put photographing the pair. The calf was probably about 4-5 weeks old, and he came to within ~14 ft from me while mom was grazing near me. She was impressively calm with me, and again it felt deliberate that she came up to me after the dog had passed. Her body language was calm the entire time except those first moments when she noticed the canine. She and her calf vocalized with one another several times, and she lovingly nudged his little butt in the same way I’ve seen so many other caring mothers do with their young calves. They eventually wandered into thicker willows and I packed it up for the day. Fantastic encounter. I’ll upload video from the day sometime within the next week when more time permits.

It was a great day to get up to Lake Isabelle today, and I was treated to a moose on my drive back home. She was young and really nervous at first. She seemed to be ok with me taking pictures, but then other people saw her and crowded the situation. The comotion sent her moving along, and I headed on home so as not to attract any more attention on her. Great day!

Gorgeous day! Full description TBD...

Full description TBD...

Three moose today, and the bull (Pierce) is one that I've seen a bunch lately. More details to come...

Description TBD

I joke with friends and family that whenever I'm at my house, I'm like a hyperactive dog that's always on the lookout for squirrels … except in my case I'm always looking out the window for moose, elk, or just about anything else (including squirrels!). I'm often genuinely surprised that I can spot some of the subtle things that I see, and yesterday was a lucky example. It was late in the afternoon around 7pm and in the distance about 500 ft into the forest I saw a tree branch move in a way that had to be something big. Even though I didn't see an animal, I was convinced that it was a moose! I immediately ran downstairs to grab my camera in hopes of getting a shot of whatever was out there. There was a single, large, bull walking through the forest. He was sort of heading my general direction, but he would be out of sight soon unless he stopped. I snapped a quick pic as he passed through the aspens and we did make eye contact for a moment before he walked out of sight… at least that's what I thought. It turns out that he sat down, and when I walked a short distance to try and see where he went, I realized that I was only about 40 feet away from him. The bull was absolutely unconcerned with me. He knew that I was there, but for ~30 minutes he didn't even glance my direction at all. I was pretty surprised that he relied entirely on his ears for keeping track of everything behind him. I know that moose do this, but whenever there's a human present, they also like to be able to see them usually. It was nearly silent in the forest and when I received a text message, it rang out like a car alarm. The bull heard my phone but only barely moved his head, although one ear was briefly pointed right at me to get a better sense of the sound. He went back to listening to other things and ignored me once again. As the minutes passed and the light dwindled, I wondered if I should stick around since he might not move until morning. To my surprise he decided to get back up and graze on some more aspen leaves before wandering off further into the woods. I was able to get a couple additional shots of him before I went back inside. His comfort level make me think that I may have encountered him before. It's possible this is one of the bulls last week but I need to compare the ear markings more closely. When he stood up, he stretched exactly like "house sitter" did, but it's really tough to compare moose pictures sometime because of winter fur, antlers and other things that make challenging comparisons. Hopefully I see him again in better light and can sort out if he's one that I've photographed before. Super fun encounter to end a great day of moose watching.

Some mornings I know exactly where I want to go to try and spot moose or other critters. And, I'll often wonder if I should go somewhere else instead…. what if I don't see anything, should I have gone somewhere else, maybe there's a better spot, etc. A very specific valley and meadow at Wild Basin was in my mind from the beginning, so I trusted my instinct even though I was contemplating other places the entire drive. Rain, clouds and very little light have been the norm lately so I didn't expect much and I knew my time in the forest would be limited. The moment I turned into Wild Basin, I saw my first moose of the day and I knew that I made the right choice. It was a great sign and confirmation that I decided on that spot. The light was great at the moment, but clouds were quickly rolling in. I quickly hiked over to the valley and along the way I saw a lot of recent moose evidence – tracks, droppings and other signs. I saw a dozen or so deer, but no elk, moose or other notable creatures. Upon my hike back I saw the same female moose from the beginning and so I stopped to take some more pictures of her. Based on her body language, she made me think there was another moose nearby and, to my surprise there was a bull that I hadn't seen at first. She seemed a little smitten with him, but all he cared about was grazing on aspen. The young female walked closer and eventually sat down, while the bull drifted off into the woods. I decided to leave them alone and on my way out I spotted one other bull sitting in the grass. Gorgeous morning, but heavy rains soon took over and ended the adventures for the day.

What an incredible moment! Today was one of those situations that I wouldn't believe if I hadn't been there personally to watch it unfold. I headed out to a particular spot in Zirkel Wilderness in hopes of spotting moose, elk or anything else that might come my way. The valleys there are prime moose habitat – lush, marshy expanses with aspen, grasses, willows and a lot of visibility. As I hiked back into the mountains, it looked like I was close behind a single elk – but tracks in the mud can be deceiving sometimes, so it was tough to tell. I could see evidence of moose and others, but so far I hadn't seen anything. A Sandhill Crane appeared in the aspens, so I stopped to try and get some decent pics of him. Focusing on such a small face while moving through aspen groves is no easy task! I took a bunch of photos hoping to get a few clear shots of his eye, and luckily one or two turned out ok. While photographing the crane, a robin had perched on a branch very very close to me, so I also took advantage of the nice light. Birds were not my main priority, so I continued on down the soggy trail. The elk prints continued and I eventually caught up to one female. She was not comfortable with me, and quickly trotted off into the woods. After around 3 miles of hiking, I decided to stop somewhere and just wait to see what may come into the valley. I often debate whether or not I should stay in one spot or if I should hike around to try and find wildlife. Most of the time, I don't stay in one place but I told myself this time that I should give it a try. I picked a spot that felt very moose friendly, and waited to see what might happen. The spot I picked was sort of like a natural deer blind – my location was well hidden by willows and some rocks. I could see up and down the valley a good ¼ mile. There was a little pond directly in front of me, and I sat my camera down, grabbed a snack and waited patiently. After about 20 minutes, I heard moose vocalizations! Moose communicate to each other with quiet, low noises that are fairly rare – but I've heard them enough to know that it's a thing. I looked up the hillside toward the direction of the sound and caught a glimpse of a moose walking quickly downhill to the valley. Things began to happen very quickly. I grabbed my camera and noticed the two moose were trotting down the hill at a pretty quick pace – AND they were headed straight for me! I mean, of all the places that I decided to stop, these moose were on a direct line for me and I was equal parts surprised, excited and a little nervous because this isn't how I like an encounter to go! Typically, I like for moose to see me from a distance and they can decide how they want to proceed. In this situation with their speed, and my spot being so naturally camouflaged, there wasn't going to be a good opportunity to show myself from a distance. And, my telephoto lens is really meant for long distance shots. These moose were about to be so close that my main camera wouldn't be able to frame a decent shot. So - I started video with my cell phone in one hand and had my main camera in the other. In an instant, the female was immediately in front of me about 12 feet away. The bull was to my right, but he couldn't see me through the dense willows. I sat my phone aside for a second to get some shots with my main camera. Five shots later I see the dreaded message "MEMORY CARD FULL". All the sandhill crane shots earlier, and forgetting that I had a smaller memory card in my camera led to a very unfortunate situation where I couldn't use my camera at exactly the moment I needed it most. The phone video was still rolling, and the bull could tell that something wasn't right based on the female's body language. She was staring right at me and he ran through the water at nearly full speed – and she followed. I hurriedly swapped my memory card and was able to get a few more shots of the pair while they were still relatively close. They were, understandably, spooked by the encounter and decided to mosey off into the woods. It was absolutely incredible to me that they were so close in that particular situation. Looking back at the images, I was struck by her ear injury. The scar was relatively fresh, and you can see the intensity in her eyes as she looks directly into the camera in that tense moment just a few feet away. It was confirmation that I picked a good spot – and in this case, maybe too good of a spot. It was also an important reminder to be more aware of how many images I have left on my memory card. I'm really lucky that I had 5 images left when they arrived. My favorite shot was the last image I had on that first card. Both moose were quite large, and the vocalizations are a real curiosity to me. Had I not interrupted them by being so accidentally close, perhaps I would have been able to hear them 'talking' to each other longer. Amazing encounter and one of my favorite images of the year so far.

I woke up early on this morning and set out to see if I might be able to find some of the same moose that I spotted the day before. Hiking through the marsh in the rain was sloppy to say the least. Several elk were scattered around the edges of the meadow, and after about a mile of hiking I could see a moose about a quarter mile away. Soon, I noticed two others. It was clear that they could see me despite the distance between us, which is exactly what I want in these types of situations. I moved a little further out in the open to get in better position for pictures and then I sat back and waited to see what this trio would do. Slowly but surely they drifted my direction. Throughout this encounter, I hardly moved. The biggest bull eventually walked up to about 40 feet away and sat down. The other two seemed poised to do the same, but our encounter would be unexpectedly interrupted. My focus had been on the three moose, but behind me a female elk had approached to within about 40 feet as well. I typically want animals to know that I'm there, but the elk couldn't quite tell what I was since I had my back turned and was wearing rain gear that covered me head to toe. I turned towards the elk and took down the hood covering my head which was, in hindsight, an obvious mistake. Elk are very skittish, and once she could see that I was clearly human -- she decided to scream her alarm. In a way this was a really funny and educational experience for me. The moose knew that her alarm meant "danger", but it was as if someone from another country speaking another language was stressing their concern. The moose were looking around for the danger but they didn't see me as a threat. The elk was freaking out, but surprisingly she held her ground. The moose didn't like the repeated alarm calls, so after a few minutes the big bull stood up and led his group away. I was bummed that the really close encounter had been cut short, but I learned a few lessons for next time. It was nice seeing the group walk through the Colorado River and off into the distance, so at least their departure wasn't a total loss. Overall this was a fantastic encounter. It was super rainy, but I had great gear keeping my dry and warm. The moose started rather far away and approached me deliberatly on their own. Everything was calm and great up until I showed myself to the elk. Later on the hike back, I ran into two more moose. All-in-all it was a really great opportunity to spend some time with my favorite creatures!

What a special moose encounter! Lately I've had my eye out for moose babies, and this turned out to be a great situation to photograph a mother with her newborn. My best guess is that this moose calf was only a few hours old when I arrived on the scene. I decided to hike up a closed 4x4 road to a specific meadow that I thought would be a decent place for encountering a moose. I picked my spot and sat around for 30 or so minutes before my short-lived patience pushed me to hike further. Only a couple hundred yards down the path, I spotted this pair! I was closer than I would have preferred in this circumstance, but the situation was relaxed enough that I stayed put and tried to earn mother's trust. The newborn was very wobbly on its feet and would only stand long enough to nurse for a few minutes before sitting back down to rest. Mother was hyper-focused on me at first, understandably. Before long though, she would relax and turn her attention to watching the rest of her surroundings. Eventually both would sit down and sleep. One of the greatest things about this situation is that it was a weekday on a closed road which meant it was very unlikely that we'd be interrupted by anyone or anything. In a lot of my encounters this time of year, I'm within reach of casual observers and as soon as people see someone with a tripod and a long telephoto lens -- they drive up, walk up and usually crowd the situation. Most people are respectful, but a lot of folks are excited, loud and don't realize how fragile these things can be. In this case, we had the forest to ourselves and no concern of too many people loving the situation to death. I stayed for about an hour and a half, before heading on back. The next day I returned to find them in essentially the same spot. Mom and calf didn't move nearly an inch in that three hour encounter, so I feel even more fortunate that I was able to get such a clear view on mom and newborn during this exchange. Always a pleasure to watch them in the wild!

Description TBD

Full description TBD... spotted about 12 deer up near 10,000 ft as well as a couple grouse. I saw fresh moose tracks, but no moose on this trip...

Full description TBD... (presumably mating?) muskrats as well as birds, antelope...

Full description TBD... very shy young bull + bonus sapsuckers mating

Full description TBD... Poor lighting and a bad choice of lens made for suboptimal images, but the scenery was spectacular nonetheless....

Full description TBD... one lone female moose who was verrry skittish, even from over a quarter mile away

More details coming soon.

What an amazing afternoon! Today has been super foggy, but also very smokey from the fires in Canada. I really wanted to go see if I could find Maverick again, but poor air quality like this plus my bad asthma is a bad combination. The air advisory was lifted at 4pm and I couldn't stay cooped up all day, so I went out to the forest campground area where I've been seeing moose lately. I didn't realize that they opened the gate today and now campers were allowed in, so that changed my calculus and I hiked off in the woods further away. After a couple miles of seeing nothing, I gave up and headed back. Much to my delight, just a quarter mile away from my car I see a little movement in the willows! I'm not sure if I've seen her before, but at first she was a little nervous about me. She had the St Vrain river on one side of her and a tight group of willows all around... and my sense was that my presence was making her feel a little unsettled/crowded. So I stepped away, crossed a bridge and went to the other side of the river. She saw me the whole time and I could see her relax and go back to eating. After a couple minutes and to my surprise, she looked directly at me and then began crossing the river my direction. I thought she wanted to cross over directly at me, so I got up and backed away from the edge to provide some extra room -- all while also trying to snap pictures as this unfolded. She crossed over behind a tree and gradually walked over to me. She was very comfortable, even kneeling down to eat and turning her back to me within about 5 feet away. I couldn't believe that she came so close! The situation wasn't ideal though because there were campers, dogs and cars not far away. It felt like a risky combination, so I decided to walk away because she was really too close to me given the potential comotion. Really fantastic encounter!

More details coming soon.

What an adventurous day! The morning began with a nice pair of moose, but they were grazing around some houses and it wasn’t the best opportunity for great shots, unfortunately. Dense low clouds and fog rolled in, but there was too much day left to give up on seeing more wildlife. I rolled the dice and headed out into the thick soup of clouds, and the timing really worked out well. Shortly into the third hike of the day, I stopped for several minutes to photograph a hummingbird that had perched on a branch near me. After about eight minutes of snapping shots of him, I heard the tell tale sound of a moose – big branches breaking in the distance. I said my good byes to the hummingbird and began walking toward whatever made that noise. At first he was really tough to see, but eventually he worked his way out of the thick brush and we made eye contact. In total there were three moose (2 young males and 1 mature female). The small male was quick to show his comfort level and he sat down not far from me. The other male was more timid, and the female could have cared less about all of us. I took a bunch of quick photos, but decided to leave them alone and hike further into the forest. Heavy rain followed by thick fog came and went on the short ~ 2 mile loop. I decided to walk back toward the young bulls to see if I could spot them again, and I inadvertently walked much closer to them than I intended. It’s amazing how well they can blend in sometimes, even when you’re looking for them! I stepped back around 50 feet to give them more space and just sat along and watched. Over the next hour, the smaller male would eventually walk to within ~4 feet of me. At that point, I stopped taking pictures with my main camera and just switched to my phone. He walked behind and around me all while I stayed in the same spot. It was really incredible that he was so trusting that he would kneel down and turn his back to me even though we were just a few feet away. The last little piece of this story was a funny goose that flew in ( can be seen in the video above ). The lone goose began honking incessantly, and the moose definitely did not like the noise. The moose’s demeanor noticeably changed and almost seemed to gesture at the goose with his snout while making eye contact with me. I took that as my cue to try and help, and so I walked on over to the goose just to see if the bird would shut up or not. Comically, the goose kept on honking and walked right by me, but then eventually flew away. The moose relaxed, went back to grazing and I headed on back home. Super fun encounters.

Almost immediately after arriving at the Rainbow Lakes trailhead, this inquisitive fox trotted over to me for a closer look. She probably hasn't had many visitors since the winter gate 4 miles down the hill has been closed for ~7 months. Despite my granola and fig bars being sealed in their packaging and inside my backpack, it was really obvious that she could smell the food and wanted her share! She quickly moved on about her hunt when it was clear that I wasn't giving her any. I couldn't believe how bold she was with me. I followed her on the hunt for a little while and occasionally she'd come back up to within a few feet of me, perhaps testing if I would give her some food. The bike ride up the road was smooth sailing, but the trail was still filled in with snowdrifts. In a few more weeks, the trail might be clear enough to hike up to the lakes without snowshoes. Fun little adventure today.

Out on one of my favorite trails, I finally spotted a female moose in this particular valley for the first time this year. She was shedding her winter fur, grazing on douglas fir and very uncertain about me at first. Before long, she relaxed and sat down. To my surprise - when I looked back at the timestamps from my images, I realized that I spent over an hour and fifteen minutes with her! Time flies on a gorgeous day when you're sharing the forest with wildlife. I moved along down the trail and also encountered a dusky grouse. They seem to be known for being fairly docile, but I almost always seem to startle them into flying away. Thankfully, this one wasn't too bothered by me, but she did slowly walk away until I hiked further away.

Gorgeous day to hike and bike up to Long Lake today. Not a lot of wildlife on this trip, but I did get to spend some time up close with a snowshoe hare, which was a treat. Looking forward to seeing more moose soon!

Gorgeous spring day out in Rocky Mountain National Park and nearby national forest today. It was great to see all the animals out and about. The highlight was the moose, of course, but the birds were also really fun since they approached pretty closely and the light pretty decent. I didn’t take time to capture them all, but tons of deer, lots of elk as well as chipmunks, squirrels, birds and more. The moose was tagged #1157, and she seems like a “Willow” to me – hopefully I see her again. She was a little clumsy, but calm and relaxed on the other side of the creek.

I spent a couple nights in Great Sand Dunes National Park and as usual it was filled with gorgeous and dramatic scenes. I was really fortunate to see a wide variety of birds and even deer, antelope and a pair of elk. And, depending on who you ask, the snow on Earth Day 2023 was an amazing bonus. Photographically speaking, I missed a couple really great opportunities to capture better images of the elk and antelope, but I think that will help me do a better job framing a scene in the future. The male antelope really seemed comfortable with me, but the ladies were a bit nervous -- so I kept that session pretty short and gave them their space. The elk encounter was very surprising because it was only when I walked out into the grassland for a better shot of the snow covered dunes that they stood up nearby when they heard me approaching. We were both very surprised to see each other and they were really nervous with my presence. I walked away from them to try and help their anxiety, but in a few minutes they hurried off towards the mountains. Lots and lots of other bird and dune pictures besides these, but here are a couple dozen of the ones I really like from the trip.

This was such a funny exchange between a group of crows and a pair of bald eagles. The eagles were mildly annoyed but definitely not deterred. The turf war seemed to be over a spoil of dead fish that had floated up recently after winter’s melt. Fun little exchange to watch between the birds.

After nearly three weeks without seeing a single moose, I was wondering how much longer the dry spell would last. I decided to check out a pretty obscure part of the forest, and just before I gave up I spotted some movement in the trees about 70 yards away. I was standing out in an open field of snow, with a dense treeline about 60 yards away. I crouched down and watched to see which direction the moose was heading. Ten minutes goes by. Another ten minutes goes by -- and she's hardly moved an inch! Because the forest was so dense, I could only see part of her legs and an occasional ear. She was so perfectly still that I began to doubt if she was even there. My legs were buried in snow and after 20 minutes, and like it or not - I had to get into a different position. I slowly stood up and a few minutes later she moved just enough to get a shot of her face for a second. I noticed a calf a little further away, and eventually they began to walk deeper into the forest. I followed behind for a short distance and watched her unusual behavior. Something seemed to be bothering her as she was laboriously breathing and swaying. I've seen moose do something similar when seated and digesting their food, but this was a bit more intense. All things considered with the deep snow, thick forest and mama moose not feeling so well -- I didn't try to get any more pictures of her today. Great to come across them this time of year, though.

Gorgeous day to go take some pics! Details TBD...

Large group (60-80 birds) flocking together and swarming around bushes before flying back up into the trees together...

I was really lucky to even see this young male hustling through the forest. Something must have been chasing him, because he acted very concerned and was focused on something downhill. He ran, paused, ran and paused before running off out of sight.

I accidentally interrupted this coyotes hunt...

This was a very brief but fun encounter with a moose that was on her way to somewhere else in the forest this morning. Sometimes moose will stay put for hours on end and other times they're steadily on the go. I caught a glimpse of her and instantly knew that I only had a moment to try and get a picture before she was long gone. The early morning shadows, her stance and the direction she was walking made it impossible to get a great shot. So- with nothing to lose I tried a little experiment to see just how well she could hear me. At this point, I was inside my house and she hadn't seen me. I took a couple pics inside, but I knew that I needed to get outside for any chance of a clear shot. Dressed in only my PJs, I was in no position to stand out in the cold, but from my garage there's a little window that I could open to see her directly. She was about 75 yards away at this point and there was a light breeze which always helps mask sounds. Knowing that this little window makes a bit of noise to open, this was my test. Could she hear me slowly open the window just an inch? Yes, yes she could. A human with their eyes closed would have had no chance hearing the window from 10 feet, but from ~200 feet away she immediately looked my direction despite the breeze and facing the opposite direction. I was really impressed since the "test" was really quiet given I hadn't even opened the window up enough for a picture yet. My presense prompted her to continue on, and a few moments later she disappeared into the woods.

Not a lot of pics today, but there were a lot of happy birds out and about today. A pair of woodpeckers let me sit closely with them which was a nice treat. Another fun exchange was with a group of Chickadees. Those that know me well have heard my love/hate relationship with Nuthatch and Chickadees -- but as long as it doesn't involve pecking on my house, then I have no issue with them :) . So, lately I've been photographing them more often and I joke with them that they need to come get close for a good picture so that I can repair all the damage they've done. Well, today the chickadees got closer than ever. At one point they were literally hopping around my boots, but I didn't get an pics because it was so close, fairly brief and I opted to watch them through my eyes for a moment instead of the camera. They stuck around for a handful of really nice close-ups. Here are a few from today-

Amazing day. Details TBD

Soon-to-be mother moose stopped by this afternoon for a brief snack. The single digit temperatures kept me from taking more pictures -- that and the snow and light challenges. She was very comfortable with me, and even approached to within about 15 feet. Most of the time her face was obscured by branches, but I got a few pics that at least show her well.

Same mother from last week's magpie + moose encounter... so I think I'll call her Maggie! She's very comfortable in the neighborhood and her boys just follow her lead. Quick round of pics with what little light remained.

What a fun encounter! I spotted these two just a quarter mile away from the house, but they were all sleeping and I wanted to venture out a little further. I stopped for a moment and took a few pics and videos – particularly of the young moose whose nose is buried in the snow. He was out cold and dreaming! I have never seen a moose twitching in a dream just like a cat or dog that's deep in sleep. It was really funny, but I left them alone and went on about my way. Later, when I came back home they were still in the same spot so I took a few more pics. Shortly after, a group of magpies came to visit and the encounter got a lot more interesting. I wasn't sure if the magpies were searching for bugs or if they were harvesting fur for their winter nests. Looking more closely at the pics, I'm pretty sure that fur was their interest – but perhaps it was both. In any case, the mother (who I now affectionately call "Maggie") was very annoyed with the birds. The kiddos didn't care at all, but mom kept trying to bite the magpies or shoo them away somehow. Undeterred, the magpies would sweep in and perch on the backs of the moose. Eventually, mother had enough and she stood up and tried to chase the birds off a bit. The calves stood up as well and they all began to graze, even as the birds continued to try and pluck more fur from the moose. In an interesting twist, the kiddos walked off one direction but mother took an interest in me. She slowly began working my direction as I stayed put taking photos. At her nearest, she was about 10 feet away and I was curious if she was using me as a strategic shield – the magpies weren't so bold when I was also so close. I wondered just how close Maggie would come to me when a loud truck approached and scared her away. I saw this group a few more times in the coming days, but this was the closest encounter with them so far. Fun times! Addt'l pics and video coming soon.

Young moose passing through the forest. She noticed me -- and was unafraid, but also mostly uninterested in me. She was fairly small and snacked on various branches as she meandered through the snow.

Lots of bucks grazing today in RMNP, plus a brief bonus group of elk.

These two bulls were sitting among three others in RMNP

What an incredible day! This will go down as one of the most memorable experiences that I've ever had with any wild animal. The encounter began about 2 miles into the hike when I noticed fresh tracks in the snow. It's really amazing how moose can blend into the shadows and forest, and in just a few more steps I spotted two young males in the willows. They were very relaxed with me being there, but I didn't spend much time with them in part because the sun hadn't yet risen high enough for them to be in the light. As I snapped a few pics, I heard the unmistakable sound of antlers against other antlers. It was then that I saw Mr. Big, another bull and a young female nearby. Mr. Big was clearly the dominant bull in the area. The bulls were only play fighting – almost as if I was trying to arm wrestle Shaqueal O'Neal and he was amusing me. They'd push against each other for a bit, and then go back to grazing. I hiked a bit closer and found a good spot to watch from a distance. From this vantage point, I was 80-100 feet away. They had noticed me across the lake, and were fully aware of my presence. Slowly but surely, they started to work their way my direction. Eventually, Mr. Big decided to walk right up to me, sit down and take a nap. His buddy did the same, only slightly further away. At no point did they behave in an aggressive or agitated manner. I couldn't believe the comfort level and curiosity that he seemed to have. At the closest, he was about 10 feet away, and when he came to rest, he was only about 15 feet away. In total, I spent about 90 minutes with this group and it's always a pleasure when these magnificent animals show such incredible comfort with me. After they took a nap, I stuck around for ~30 minutes but I felt like it was time to head back home and leave them to peacefully rest. The largest bull had 21 points – 22 if you count one that had broken off earlier in the year. At this size, he is in a protected class by Colorado's "Samson's Law". Truly an impressive animal and an amazing experience.

Wow, this was a personal record for the number of moose to see in such a short time. A combination of great luck and good timing, it seemed like every half mile I was in the midst of a different group. In total, I photographed 14 different moose -- and saw at least one more (but didn't get a pic). Several really unique situations emerged over the course of these two short hikes in under 20 hours. Most of the moose were mothers and their calves, but there were several young females with young bulls. In one situation, a young male was bedded down in the snow and in the blink of an eye, a young female ran up and forced him to get up. The two of them walked off into the forest, but they both seemed so young that I wouldn't have expected them to be mature enough to mate yet. In another encounter, I found myself ~8 feet away from a young female that I would have expected to also be with her mother (see image "Orphan sister"). This may be the closest I've ever been to a moose. Strangely, she was with a very young bull and I got the impression that they were both having their first season away from their mothers. I stayed with them for a few minutes, but I could tell they were a little nervous so I didn't stick around long. More images and video coming soon, so check back or subscribe for updates when more content is posted.

Whenever I visit Rocky Mountain National Park, it's almost as though I'm cheating since wildlife is so abundant! This brief encounter with a group of elk was, admittedly, just by the roadside. There were 20-30 individuals with one main bull in charge. He was VERY intent on keeping his ladies together. I snapped a few quick pics and then hiked up the nearby Fern Lake trail and spotted a few other elk along the way. Gorgeous day out on the trail.

What a fun day out in the forest! Before I even had my camera ready, two moose ran right by me and I barely caught a quick video of the third that was following behind. These first three were interesting because there was a mom, calf and then a third female that was at least a couple years old. They were also vocalizing to each other as they hustled through the forest. Shortly after seeing the first three, a fourth walked by. I could hear her coming since it was just an unbelievably quiet morning. She stopped to take a look at me and then slowly went on about her morning. Not much further along, I decided to stop in a nice opening and I thought to myself – this seems like a perfect spot for a moose to come by. Only a minute or two later, another moose came by! She grazed for a while in front of me, but I was heading a different direction so we parted ways. The highlight of the day were the final two moose that I encountered. The last two were a ~5 month old and mother. We hung out for about 30 minutes or so before they decided to sit down and digest their breakfast. It's always a highlight when a moose (especially one with a calf) decides to sit down near me. It's a great sign of acceptance and trust. The calf took its cues from mom and wasn't bothered by me one bit.

We spotted this young female crossing the St. Vrain in Indian Peaks Wilderness. It was a brief encounter since we had a long way to go that day and she seemed like she'd rather just wander off into the woods. I call her "Little Belle" as a play on words because her "bell" (the flap of skin hanging from a moose's neck) was so small. Always fun to see these great creatures out in the wilderness. I have a few short video clips that I'll upload at some point, so subscribe for updates, follow me on social media or come back to the site soon!

More details coming soon.

Behind the house... He noticed me from a distance... I sat down... he walked directly at me... walked fairly close and then walked about 40 yards away before sitting down

A very brief but great encounter with a young female moose on a gorgeous spring morning.

This was one of the most unique and closest encounters that I've ever had with a moose. I sat with him for 2.5 hours and laughed at myself after realizing that I took 433 images. It began when I returned home to find this large, but young, male was resting in my yard. After establishing a bit of a relationship and determining that he was comfortable with me, we started the photo shoot. He was so calm and relaxed the entire time. After a couple hours he finally stood up and gave a good stretch. He then started snacking on my aspens and I needed to get on about my day, so I said my good-byes and went inside. I was blown away when I looked at these images in large format -- my favorite getting the namesake "house sitter".

Brainard lake with Alex - 2 males in the woods... didn't engage closely

Number 358 -- we meet again.

Driving up to Forest Lakes with Alex -- stopped the jeep and hung out with him for a bit

Two really nice bulls today and a couple deer as well. The big bull was the star of the show. The only camera I had on this day was my phone, so unfortunately these aren't nearly as good as they would have been otherwise. It was a great encounter, regardless. The large bull saw me and I kept my distance. Before long, he sat down and then his buddy followed suit. I finished my hike up to Gibralter's Lake and when I came back the boys were MUCH closer to the trail so I got a few additional pics on the return. They were very mellow fellows with zero sign of concern about my precense. Great day.

At the house... hunting and catching dinner

Wow! - where to start with today's hike!? Unbelievable flowers, a random bull elk kill and then a close encounter with a moose and her calf where I witnessed something (presumably) very rare. Notice in the moose pics that the calf keeps nudging its mother's mouth. The calf is craving saliva! These kisses fortify the calf's gut for a healthy biome that will last a lifetime.

Mother's ear is an easy mark, so I know I've seen her before. This was a really fun exchange where the mother was very comfortable and the little one was rather curious about me. "Goofball" walked right up to me at one point, while mother casually rested in the snow nearby. Surprisingly though, her 11 month old calf in this encounter was nowhere to be seen when I saw "Broken Ear" six months earlier in October. Looking back at the last encounter, it's really surprising that I didn't see the six month old and instead there was a different adolescent moose present. Perhaps Goofball was there last time, but hiding in the trees? Was the yearling in October an offspring from the year prior?

This shy gal stopped by to graze on a snowy but gorgeous spring morning. Some moose seem to project confidence, others run away immediately, others are indifferent. She was timid and shy but ultimately unafraid of my presence.

This is a very interesting encounter for a couple reasons: #1 - I was able to witness a mother running off what appeared to be her yearling. Moose are known to do this when they're ready to mate again. There was a big bull wandering ahead of the mother and yearling, and so it made sense when I saw mother chasing off the younger moose. But in a big plot twist, and reason #2 why I love this encounter so much is that several months later I spotted the same moose that is missing part of her left ear (aka "Broken Ear"). In the May 2021 encounter, she's with an ~11 month old, but the moose she's chasing away here is clearly older than a year. And, it would mean she has a six month old calf at this point, but it is nowhere to be seen. In the May encounter, I name the little one "Goofball" because of his goofy and inquisitive nature that day. But, there's a disconnect somewhere which makes me wonder who the young moose is in this image and where was the little one during this close encounter with her?

Just out getting the mail...

This is one of the funniest animal encounters that I've ever had. I strongly reccomend listening to my audio story first and then watch the actual videos of the encounter. So hillarious and surprising. Video @ https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VY_p82Qc3Bfe7453yXIaGHQTFec7kHzI/view?usp=share_link

Today's mission was to find a moose for a friend that hadn't ever seen one. About a quarter mile into the hike, we saw Guardian...

My first encounter when a moose saw me and actively approached... and then also sat down with me for an extended encounter

Fun day with a coyote and a group of foxes -- a couple of them were melanistic. Mr coyote sped through, but it seemed like the foxes would have let me sit around and play with them all day. I only snapped a couple quick pics before heading on down the trail with a friend.

I spotted them through the trees and was able to get a few photos. Mom was VERY thin and presumably had given birth within the last week or two. This was likely her first calf, and I could tell she was nervous, so I didn't push it at all. I continued to see this pair for a few weeks... and it became one of my most memorable encounters.

What an amazing adventure down the Havasupai. Waterfalls, bighorn ... and even a school of fish at the confluence of the Colorado River.

What a fun encounter with this group of wild horses. The day started out at a hot springs, but I explored the area once the sun came up. At one point, I noticed the horses about 1/4 mile away. I stopped to take a few pictures. To my delight, they noticed me and began walking my direction. Two horses in particular were curious about me -- and these two were very fond of each other. Afterwards, I was treated to a small family of burros -- wild donkey. One mother had a newborn in tow.

Big outing up above Arrowhead Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. At least five moose and dozens upon dozens of elk.

Along peak to peak ... by the lake

Foggy fall afternoon at the house...

What an incredible moment. The hike to Black Lake in RMNP is a solid 4.5 miles with a steady incline. This day was very snowy and I was the first to break trail after the storm. Upon arriving to Black Lake, I realized that a Bighorn was behind me. As it turns out, he had followed my tracks for nearly 2 miles and I had no idea until I stopped. My long lens was at the shop getting cleaned and I only had a 50mm lens...

A day full of encounters that kept going right until the sun went down. On a hike to the summit of Mount Ida, a small group of bighorn were resting above treeline...

On the way back from summitting Humboldt Peak, we were treated to a close encounter with a herd of bigorn! ...

Mountain goats on the way to the top of Quandry

Prior to this morning, I don't recall ever having any thoughts about moose at all. After this morning, my relationship with wildlife and nature started taking an increasingly important part of my life. Before I began the hike, my buddy Shawn who was training for an ultra-marathon, warned me about moose. He cautioned about their aggression before he set out on his big run. A couple hours later I had my very first encounter with a moose -- and she had twins!