Nature clicks #123 - Rocky Mountain Elk

 

Rocky Mountain National Park is known for being a good location to see Rocky Mountain Elk, also called Wapiti. The rut was in full swing and we had many opportunities to see the male elks wrangle for control over the harem and fight for the right to mate with the females. For me there is no better sound in the world than the one from a bugling bull elk. We even had two nights at Timber Creek on the Westside of the mountains with the herd in the campground, spending the night between tents and RV's or nearby. I can tell you, it can keep you awake but didn't bother me a bit.

The elks I can show you here belonged to a group of seven bull elk, resting and grazing during the day at Milner Pass, just slightly below the alpine tundra. They obviously didn't "own" the harem yet, some were probably still too young to challenge the big bull that claimed control over the herd. Most of the time the elks had their heads down eating grass. The challenge was to catch moments of an interesting pose or at least when they stopped chewing for a moment so that the faces didn't get all blurred. I hope you enjoy!

Finally some drama

 

If you follow my blog since a while you already know that I'm not a big fan of blue skies if it comes to landscape photography. I believe all postcards in this world are already made and a boring blue sky just can't beat the dynamic of fast moving clouds that are illuminated by great natural light. We only had two nights with rain during our whole vacation but after the clouds broke off in the morning we knew there would be a good chance for some drama in the higher elevations of Rocky Mountain National Park. It didn't take very long to drive from our campsite at Timber Creek on the Westside up to elevations above 12,000 feet (~3650m). Trail Ridge Road, the road that goes across the National Park to the Estes Park on the Eastside, is North Americas highest major highway. It offers stunning views over the alpine tundra and to many of the 72 named peaks above 12,000 feet. Winter is never far in these high elevations and even during summer you may have some snow coming down. We only had a few rain showers and as you can see it can be very rewarding going up and not staying in the valley. More to come....

Nature clicks #122 - Yellow-bellied Marmot

 

We found them at many places in the Rocky Mountains but always in higher elevations in the alpine tundra zone above 10,500 feet (~3200m). In some areas they are used to people and they may show up right beside the trail. In most instances they disappear between the rocks if you get too close. It needs a little patience and luck to catch them in a nice pose and good light. Quite often they sun bath on a rock or watch out for predators. The Yellow-bellied Marmots feed on green vegetation exclusively and in the fall they put on a layer of fat, which sustains them through hibernation during the winter.

Most of my images of the marmot were made while waiting patiently for another critter, that is much more difficult to get in front of the lens. I will report about this one shortly, so please stay tuned....

Great timing

 

Before our trip to the Rocky Mountains I had some concerns that we might be too early for the fall colors. It turned out that we came just at the right time to see the aspens changing from green to orange and yellow. We stopped many times along the road for taking pictures of the beautiful aspen trees. I can promise you already that you will see some more fall colors here in my blog in the next few weeks...

Keep it stabile

 

One of the things I wanted to experiment a little more during our trip to the Rockies was shooting of flowing water with long exposure. I really like the abstract look of photographs with this subject. I have done this before and after studying my previous photos I really believe it is all about composition and about keeping things out of the frame to make an image work. These shots are quite often made in narrow valleys or canyons and a stupid branch coming from the side or a log in the water at the wrong place can have a very negative impact on the photo. The degree of how much the flowing water gets blurred can be a little bit of personal taste and I experiment a lot with the exposure time in order to obtain the results that satisfy me. Sometimes it is enough to just close the aperture but mostly I use a polarizer or a neutral density filter to extend the exposure time.

The best spot to make the click is not always the most stabile place. Quite often I have the legs of the tripod (and my own as well) in the water of the creek or between slippery stones. Every vibration of the tripod is fatal for a long exposure time and I have trashed many pictures because the rocks in the creek were blurred too. These kind of images are not very difficult to make from a technical standpoint but keeping the tripod stabile is very essential. Finding the right composition and the right light is the more challenging part...

Nature clicks #121 - White-tailed Prairie Dog

 

On our way from Colorado's State Forest State Park to Rocky Mountain National Park we stopped a couple times at access points to the Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge. It is situated in a glacial basin in north-central Colorado and is known locally as North Park. According to the information brochure of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service the refuge provides habitat for a variety of wildlife including 208 species of birds, 37 species of mammals, 6 species of reptiles and amphibians, and 10 species of fish. We saw quite a few animals including Moose, Mule, Deer, Northern Harriers, American Avocets, and others. The downside of just passing through an area during day time is that the photographer has no chance to wait for the best light or even wait for the wildlife to come. Our travel plans allowed only for a short but very pleasant visit.

One of the little critters you may find there is the White-tailed Prairie Dog. We have seen its cousin the Black-tailed Prairie Dog in the Badlands, South Dakota before but the white-tailed lives in higher elevations like North Park. They warn each other with alarm calls if danger, like a circling bird of prey, shows up and within a moment every prairie dog disappears in a hole. This one here stood almost motionless between the sagebrush and was obviously on guard. We had great fun watching them.

Family of five

 

I like to interrupt my little report about our adventures in the Rocky Mountains for an actual update on some birds I have written about many times here in my blog. I'm talking about the Trumpeter Swans at the Mill Creek Ponds 30 miles south of here. I haven't been there since June 2, when I found the female sitting on the nest. To my surprise I found yesterday a whole swan family swimming on, what was left of the pond. The size of this little lake has shrunk by about 60-70 percent. As you can see three young swans have been raised during the last three months. I was thrilled to see that they all looked healthy. The only advantage of the dilemma with the drought, and as a result a much smaller pond, is the fact that it was much easier to get close to the Trumpeter Swans. With other words, no really need for cropping any images... :-)

Nature clicks #120 - Least Chipmunk

 

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.

State Forest State Park, Colorado

 

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...

Nature clicks #119 - Red-tailed Hawk

 

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...