Category Archives: birds

Search for the Elusive Dusky Grouse

I’ve only seen the elusive little fellow once this season, and it wasn’t a very good sighting at that. So I’ve been taking the hike to the summit of Grouse Mountain every once in a while in hopes of spotting this beautiful bird again. It’s a pretty strenuous addition to my regular hike so I’m not that eager to make the extra climb… Every once in while I have to remember a quote by the great Ansel Adams… “Don’t confuse hiking with photography…”

Dusky Grouse in the Morning Light

So there are now two parking lots at this trailhead, one at the bottom that I’m accustomed to using mostly just for the exercise. This trailhead starts with a strenuous hike straight up the side of the mountain for about three quarters of a mile and a new one that the local parks service built at the summit, along with a mock historic gold mine complete with historic information placards.

I decided on this day to park at the summit, which makes the walk across the top of the ridge and through the forest a lot quicker, increasing my chances of an early morning sighting of the little grouse. And my effort was met with success, just as I cleared the dense forest and was making my way through the mountain grass to the summit, the grouse took flight and landed in a nearby tree. It wasn’t the best view of the handsome fellow but I was able to capture a few seconds of video and a nice still.

As always, the best of these images and hundreds more are available for purchase on my website as wall art on glossy metal or acrylic sheets, stretched canvas and traditional matting and framing. Tons of cool household and gift items are also available with any image you like including coffee mugs, t-shirts, blankets and pillows, battery chargers, phone cases, stationary and much much more! Just click on any image you like and all the choices, sizes and prices will appear! For my viewers interested in images for commercial use, please visit my image licensing portal! I should mention at this time that this blog post is not sponsored by Canon or any other firm. All equipment used in the making of the blog and video have been purchased by me on my own volition.

Many of my adventures have also been captured on beautiful HD video on my Youtube Channel! If you enjoy my content please subscribe to my channel, subscribers have a big impact on channel rankings!

This post is not sponsored and all equipment used in it’s creation was purchased by me on my own volition.

Amazing Alpine Hike with the Elk Herd

Funny how things work out… As I sat sipping my coffee this morning I decided I didn’t want to do any driving today. For one thing gas prices are insane, and for another… I really don’t like spending time on the road. So the plan I worked out included a short drive to my favorite trailhead and a good hard hike.

When I reached the first summit it was so pretty and quiet out that I decided to stop and capture a few seconds of video and post it as a greeting on Facebook. I sat and enjoyed the ambiance for a few minutes while the video clip uploaded and then I headed back down the trail. But then I began to hear the birds singing over in the woods, some song that I didn’t recognize. So I decided to take the hike to the next summit and hoped I might catch a glimpse of the new birds.

Herd of elk in the Pike National Forest of Colorado

As I neared that summit I could see over to the next high peak, and on it was a beautiful herd of elk. I knew if I cleared the summit they would see me and take off, so I quietly got my camera ready and began to film and photograph. As I watched through my long lens I wondered what the cows were looking at so I moved up a bit further and saw that  they were watching over their crop of new calves! It was then that I knew for sure I was going to have to make a real video 🙂

I filmed for awhile and then decided not to disturb them by walking toward them so I just went back down through the forest the way I came. As I neared forest edge a grouse startled me by jumping out of the grass right at my feet and flying into a nearby tree. I got a few seconds of footage of that guy and took a few stills before he grew annoyed with me and flew away for good. But I was glad to see the little fellows have returned to my mountain. They normally like to run along the ground on the high ridges so perhaps I’ll get some better pictures of him another time.

Dusky Grouse in the Morning Light

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the video and if you wouldn’t mind and you like the content, please like and subscribe!

As always, the best of these images and hundreds more are available for purchase on my website as wall art on glossy metal or acrylic sheets, stretched canvas and traditional matting and framing. Tons of cool household and gift items are also available with any image you like including coffee mugs, t-shirts, blankets and pillows, battery chargers, phone cases, stationary and much much more! Just click on any image you like and all the choices, sizes and prices will appear! For my viewers interested in images for commercial use, please visit my image licensing portal! I should mention at this time that this blog post is not sponsored by Canon or any other firm. All equipment used in the making of the blog and video have been purchased by me on my own volition.

Blue Heron Catching Huge Trout

Watch my new video which includes a great blue heron catching a huge trout! What a great day of photography as I get to see pelicans, heron, baby geese and the bald eagle triplets!

Watch “Colorado Wildlife Photography Eagles, Heron and Deer in the Fog” on YouTube

Come with me on a foggy video journey in Eleven Mile Canyon Colorado and enjoy a herd of deer crossing the river, a beautiful great blue heron, and a family of bald eagles in HD video!

Also be sure to visit and support my Patreon channel! Exclusive content and free gifts for subscribing, monthly benefits for supporting the channel include exclusive content and images!

Watch “Colorado Hiking   Misty Mountain Adventure” on YouTube

New video of today’s foggy adventure in the Rockies. I didn’t see the dusky grouse but I did get a new life sighting with my first ever green-tailed towhee! The mountains never disappoint!

Misty Mountain Morning Hike

I was tired this morning… tired enough that just sitting in my chair drinking coffee sounded like a pretty good plan. However when I got up to get that cup of coffee I saw all that beautiful fog outside and I knew I was going to have to go out in it! Fog in these mountains can turn an ordinary day into a glorious day of photography 😉

Foggy Pike National Forest

Fog was really all I expected to see but much to my surprise I was met by a herd of mule deer at the top of the ridge. For some reason they were a bit wary of my presence today so I wasn’t able to get a whole lot of pictures before they wandered off into the deep forest.

The fog was inspiring enough that I decided to make a video out of today’s hike and while I was filming the amazing looking fog I mentioned all the songbirds I was hearing on the summit. First time this year I have heard any at that elevation! I discussed how they like to hide in the grass on the mountaintop and fly away the second you find them but I was surprised to notice a little bird off in the fog that wasn’t flying away. So I put my camera on my monopod and snapped a few stills of what turned out to be an amazing looking little yellow and black bird that I didn’t remember seeing before! He stayed long enough that I switched the

Yellow Rumped Warbler

camera to video and filmed him for a couple of minutes hopping around plucking things off the  ground! Later in front of my desktop computer, I discovered that the little fellow was a yellow-rumped warbler, a version of which I have apparently spotted before according to my ebird account.

I also decided to drive on up to Goldfield to see how the fog was affecting the old historic mines there. on the drive to the top to Victor Pass there wasn’t much fog so I didn’t worry too much about pictures. At the turnaround as I looked back though, one of the mines was obscured by a bit more fog so I snapped a few stills as the fog rolled in. It wasn’t long and the mine was completely obscured by a dense mist. Good thing I got the shot in when I did!

Biscuits and Gravy

A nice plate of hot biscuits and gravy  with coffee at the Gold Camp Bakery seemed like a fitting way to end this cloudy misty morning so I turned Old Blue back toward Victor. As usual the place was quite hospitable and a nice place to sit and enjoy being inside and out of the cold wet fog!

Please don’t forget to visit my YouTube channel to watch the video of today’s adventure in the mountains, and if you wouldn’t mind I could use the thumbs up and a subscribe if you enjoy the content and want to help my channel!

As always, the best of these images and hundreds more are available for purchase on my website as wall art on glossy metal or acrylic sheets, stretched canvas and traditional matting and framing. Tons of cool household and gift items are also available with any image you like including coffee mugs, t-shirts, blankets and pillows, battery chargers, phone cases, stationary and much much more! Just click on any image you like and all the choices, sizes and prices will appear! For my viewers interested in images for commercial use, please visit my image licensing portal! I should mention at this time that this blog post is not sponsored by Canon or any other firm. All equipment used in the making of the blog and video have been purchased by me on my own volition.

Mule Deer in the Woods

Fog in Mine Country

Happy Easter 2021

Easter, my favorite holiday… and probably the most important day in Christendom, to me even more important than Christmas. It is the celebration of the resurrection, the transformation from man to King sitting on the throne at the right hand of God. For me it is usually a day of peace, while everyone else is scurrying around for the semi-annual trip to church to show off new dresses and three piece suits I have His magnificent creation mostly to myself.

This morning at sunrise there was no wind, total silence save for the chirping of happy birds greeted me at the summit of my favorite mountain. The weather today is beautiful, the sun shining with the temperature in the low 40’s. We’ve had so few nice days this spring, bitter cold and snow were the rule for the entire month of March and now finally it seems like spring has set in for the long haul. Perfect conditions to walk and contemplate the magnitude of the gift that we were given on the cross that day.

Dark-eyed Junco

A few birds are starting to arrive at the higher elevations, including a good sized flock of robins joyfully flitting from high elevation shrub to shrub. Unfortunately they were moving much to fast for my camera to focus on so I was just satisfied to watch and enjoy the advent of the new season. As the trail wound it’s way down in elevation a few more birds began to appear, although not the plethora of song birds that will populate the open space as the spring turns to summer.

I spotted some kind of ground sparrow foraging for bugs and grasses on the forest floor that I thought I might get a shot of. So I fastened my camera to my monopod, set my shutter speed to 1/1600th of a second and the aperture to F8. and waited. Soon he and his diminutive friends were comfortable with my presence and drew near. I watched for them to position themselves just right in the sun and snapped a few pictures.

Now that I am home on the computer I have learned that these little sparrows are actually dark-eyed junco… who knew? I am continually amazed at the variety of sparrow alone we have up here in the mountains, not to mention the vast variety of song birds and raptors we have here in Colorado. Up until last summer I was blissfully unaware that we had anything but the ordinary sparrow. Since then I have been enjoying the assistance of a great little free phone app developed by Cornell Labs called Merlin. It’s a wonderful little tool that allows you to just show it a picture and it will quickly return what it believes to be a match.

Anyway, I hope you all are having a wonderful  and blessed Easter.

As always, the best of these images and hundreds more are available for purchase on my website as wall art on glossy metal or acrylic sheets, stretched canvas and traditional matting and framing. Tons of cool household and gift items are also available with any image you like including coffee mugs, t-shirts, blankets and pillows, battery chargers, phone cases, stationary and much much more! Just click on any image you like and all the choices, sizes and prices will appear! For my viewers interested in images for commercial use, please visit my image licensing portal! I should mention at this time that this blog post is not sponsored by Canon or any other firm. All equipment used in the making of the blog and video have been purchased by me on my own volition.

When Eagles Soar

It was another excellent day with the eagles… My original intent was to just go for a hike on my trail close by, but the second I arrived so did my nemesis with his wildlife chasing dogs. So I jumped back in my truck and took the four wheel drive road to the summit to make sure there wasn’t any wildlife there, and indeed I didn’t miss anything. So I drove back out and decided to head to my backup location and better photo location, Eleven Mile Canyon. It was my hope that I would find wildlife there, especially the eagles. I’m also watching the osprey nest with great anticipation!

Bald Eagles in Eleven Mile Canyon

All in all I would have to say it probably worked out for the best, I had several eagle sightings and some great captures! Plus there was a bonus at the end as I spotted a small herd of mule deer feeding on an island in the river. I stopped to grab a couple of captures and the gentle creatures didn’t seem to mind my presence so I was able to get some fairly closeup images. And much to my surprise the little herd decided to actually cross the icy river… an event that I came close to missing. Fortunately I was able to scramble up the trail a bit and get into position to capture most of the beautiful beasts in the water 🙂

Be sure to check out my video of the day which has the best clips and pictures of the day included. Also please be sure to click the notify, like and subscribe buttons if you enjoy my content and want to help my YouTube channel!

Mule Deer Doe in River

As always, the best of these images and hundreds more are available for purchase on my website as wall art on glossy metal or acrylic sheets, stretched canvas and traditional matting and framing. Tons of cool household and gift items are also available with any image you like including coffee mugs, t-shirts, blankets and pillows, battery chargers, phone cases, stationary and much much more! Just click on any image you like and all the choices, sizes and prices will appear! For my viewers interested in images for commercial use, please visit my image licensing portal!

This blog post is not sponsored. Any equipment used in the production of this post was purchased by myself on my own volition.

 

 

 

 

Exciting Eagle News

It appears we’ve had an exciting development on the bald eagle watching front! Mama eagle is exhibiting signs of new motherhood! As of yesterday she has begun sitting on the nest indicating there are or soon will be eagle eggs! Watch my new video to witness the new bavior, plus more amazing imagery of the great birds hunting and fishing! Also don’t forget to smack the subscribe and share buttons!!!