Colorado Photographer / Author / Wildlife Advocate | Steven W. Krull
Renowned Colorado wildlife photographer and author advocating for our wild living legacy
Many mornings as I sip my coffee, I try to think of locations where I might find new adventure and capture amazing scenes that I haven't yet experienced. Most of the time nothing comes to mind, and I just head out to my nearby trail for some exercise. However, I'm also often astonished at the surprising experiences I encounter there.
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 that will begin in about a month.
A sure sign of the advancing season is the arrival of juvenile osprey to the canyon. Each spring our osprey nesting pair returns to mate and raise a new family of chicks. They travel thousands of miles from their winter vacation to meet at the same nest and greet their lifelong partner for the joyous event. As August nears, their young gain stength and skill and finally take flight in a burst of energy, hope and a bit courage too I imagine.
It was supposed to be a regular photo trip to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge. However as it has been so many times this summer, photography in the Refuge was a stunning failure. Birds we have seen in abundance the last few summers are strangely absent. The coyotes were sleeping and the bison nowhere to be found. That's when it began... our short road trip was extended.
I know my July newsletter is a bit late, in fact tomorrow will be August. Summer photography is a struggle for me, the sunrise is way too early, all the good wildlife locations are crowded with tourists, and the animals scarce. However, in just the last few days beautiful song birds have returned to my usual hikng location, and the pelicans have reappeared at Manitou Lake. Stay tuned to my blog though, on the 1st of August, we will be visiting the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Area in search of burrowing owls and snowy egret!
There's nothing like a piece of new gear to jump start waning interest in an old hobby, and my new Garmin 22x GPS handheld should do the trick. Back in the day, before blogging and vlogging were even a thing, and social media wasn't an idea yet, I was posting trail reports on my website.
May was a great month for wildlife photography in the Pikes Peak region. Many birds have returned to the Pikes Peak region, including mountain blue birds, many species of sparrow, hummingbirds, swallows and much more. We are still looking forward to the return of the snowy egret, which we have yet to spot this season.
For many of you who have been following my blog for many years, the Three Amigos are a familiar sight. But after a long cold winter, it always brings my heart joy to see them in the spring, happy, healthy, and still together after almost a decade of following them.
Finally getting to my May newsletter, after a month of hard work on my new substack account. May has been an exciting month, with the end of the long Colorado winter, and the return of many species of birds to the high country rivers and lakes.
May finds us on the precipice of an unimaginable ecological catastrophe. Mining, ranching and hunting interests have aligned with the new administration in an all out blitz to strip away all reasonable environmental and species protections. The judiciary in it's zeal to oppose every trivial move Trump makes, is setting itself up to forfeit it's power on issues that actually matter.
Colorado Photographer / Author / Wildlife Advocate | Steven W. Krull 