No matter in what area we went in the Rocky Mountains there were always some chipmunks or squirrels present. The smallest one of them is the Least Chipmunk. They are much smaller than the Eastern Chipmunk that we have here at home in Iowa. The little guys were all very busy finding food for the long winter. The Least Chipmunk's diet contains seeds, fruits, berries, and grasses but it also eats fungi and invertebrates. We had a lot of fun watching them.
A valid question came up after I posted two bird pictures from State Forest State Park in Colorado. How does it look there? Both images were made from almost the same place, right beside our tent, and in the same direction but just from different angles. They were made also five hours apart from each other. In the first one I tried to catch the fast moving clouds against a clear blue sky and against the yellow and orange colors of the aspen grove across the willow covered valley. This is by the way great moose habitat, even if we didn't see one there.
The second photo was made a few minutes after 7PM. The sky was boring blue at that time, only a few small puffy clouds were left behind the mountains as you can see. The subject of this image is the warm glow of the aspens at the forest's edge and of the willows in the foreground, created by the low sun just before sunset. Two photos, same spot, two different intents.
More to come...
We spent a couple days in the "State Forest State Park" in Colorado. It is known for its moose population, but however, we have seen moose at other places but unfortunately not in this state park. Other wildlife was always present and while driving on a bumpy gravel road we encountered this Red-tailed Hawk sitting on top of a pine. When I'm driving on small gravel roads or off-road I always have the D300s with the Sigma 50-500 attached sitting on my lap. This allows me to act quickly and shoot handhold just out the window of the car if an opportunity like this hawk comes up.
It was windy and the hawk was moving constantly. I had to watch my shutter speed and in order to maintain 1/1000s I bumped up the ISO to 400. I try to stay in the basement with my ISO between 100 and 200 for outmost detail but sometimes a compromise will make the difference between getting the shot or not. More to come...
They know how to hide from a photographer very well. We have seen them at many locations in the mountains of the Western United States before but I never have been able to make a clean shot. The Steller's Jay may come close to a campsite or parking lot but always tries to stay in the shade of a tree or rock. Usually I'm happy if I get a well lit front portrait like this of a bird but this one doesn't show any of the beautiful blue feathers of its back and tail. Well, next time....
