I love this time of year in the canyon. Young wildlife is past the newborn stage and are just now experiencing the joy of their new legs and wings. Young osprey are especially excited about their newfound powers and unlike their more mature parents, they spend much of their day in flight. They don’t realize it yet, but their games are preparing them for a 4000 mile journey to South America that will begin in about a month. Their parents will depart first, leaving their young to fend for themselves. Then when the weather turns cold in mid September, without knowing how or why, the young osprey leave their birthplace and meet the rest of their species on the warm shores of the ocean in South America.
So exhuberant are these young ones, that they even seem willing to extend their games to other winged species. This young fellow almost appeared to be playing tag with a young red-tailed hawk about his own size. I couldn’t quite capture them together in the same frame, but did catch them playing king of the hill on an interesting pine tree.
This young red-tail arrived at the tree just as the osprey departed. Shortly thereafter, he took off and followed the osprey to the next tree. Soon the red-tail was flying in the other direction with an osprey juvenile right behind. Perhaps they were both too young to understand the idea of territory and survival. At this point in their lives, flying and fun seem to be their top priority.
It could be my imagination, but it seems like the fawns are developing a bit slow this year. I normally see a a few spotted youngsters in May on my hikes in the Pike National Forest, but this year the spotted young ones are appearing in late august. These babies were willing to stick around and pose, but mother deer was soon showing them the way back up the mountainside, away from people… and nosey photographers.
At one point in time, we saw osprey, a red-tailed hawk and a few buzzards all soaring together in the sky over the pristine waters of the South Platte River. Without a wide angle lens, it was impossible to capture them all in one frame, but I did grab a few shots of the red-tailed hawk rising higher and higher into the blazing blue Colorado sky.
Many of the images you see in my blog posts are also available as prints and gifts on my website. Prints are available on beautiful glossy metal and acrylic sheets ready for hanging, stretched canvas, and traditonal matting and framing. You choose the matte and the frame online! Cool gifts and household items are also available with one of my images, including coffee mugs, t-shirts, battery chargers, phone cases, tapestry and much much more!
Also, If you enjoy this content, and would like to learn more about Colorado wildlife and how to capture beautiful images for yourself, please consider purchasing one my photography books, now available on my website and Amazon, including this one, Seasons of the Raptor. This book complete wiith dozens of full color glossy pictures tells the story of a year in the life of Colorado’s great raptors.
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Steven W. Krull is a renowned photographer and author who has been photographing and writing of the beauty and wildlife of the Colorado Rocky Mountains for over two decades. Please visit his website at S.W. Krull Imaging to view his work, including thousands of prints for sale, stock images for commercial use, and his library of published books.
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Colorado Photographer / Author / Wildlife Advocate | Steven W. Krull 