This year, fall was a little late and winter was a little early.  That made for an intense couple of weeks of fall foliage.  Here are my favorites from the season.  Most are from RMNP except for the last photo of ice on a leaf, and that one was in Boulder.  Enjoy!

I often say that during the elk rut in RMNP,  it is like being in a zoo with all the gates open.  Elk are running around -- bulls chasing other bulls and cows.  Elk calves are trying to stay out of the way but visitors and photographers rush into the middle of the scene.  So, when we got to Moraine Park at 6:45am, I thought we were going to witness a goring instead of the rut.  I was so thankful for my long lens!  Everyone else was watching 3 -5 bulls chase and spar, but further up the hill I was able to watch what it is really all about.  The moral of the story is that sometimes it takes a few tries, and it is very much a mutual activity!  This set of  pictures show the 4 times that the bull mounted the cow and the two times that she mounted him!  At the end, both of them were exhausted!  While I was impressed that other bulls didn't try to interrupt the action, it didn't mean that they were completely alone.  Ah, the life of an elk.  Now, in about 8.5 months we should see the little fruit of this couple's labor! (All pictures are in chronological order and you can click on the images to see a larger version).

Last year, on my final bird walk of the season, the entire bird walk group saw a mink except me!  I was facing the other direction and missed it all.  Today was the last bird walk of the season and we saw some wonderful (and new for the season) birds including a Dusky Grouse and her 3 chicks.  Andy and I went out in the Park to celebrate the season and this time we both saw the mink!  I even got some great pictures of it.  Enjoy!

It has been a while since we've seen a bobcat, so we have been wondering if momma cat had kittens this year. Three years ago we saw a momma and two kittens on a rock near our house and we thought we'd see them there every year.  Last year they hung out at our neighbor's house one day in August.  We're discovering that they don't hang out anywhere very long.  On Wednesday, Andy looked up at the rock and there they were!  There was momma bobcat and her two playful kittens! Later in the day we saw momma bobcat napping.  Then this morning we saw the two kittens eagerly awaiting mom to return from the hunt.    What a treat!  Till next time!

Fall is fast approaching and our resident pine squirrel is feeling the pressure of a long winter ahead. Luckily, there was a bountiful crop of cones on our spruce trees this year, and he is in full swing harvesting them.  In the past we've had a female resident, but we never saw her do the acrobatics of this one.  He's fearless!

Moose don't like the heat, so we haven't seen any in the Park all summer.  But now that the cooler weather is settling in, we saw a "family" of moose at Sprague Lake.  Momma moose was just hungry and had her head in the lake most of the time.  Baby moose watched momma and the people lined up by the lake.  And then there was "wanna be" pappa moose.  One of his antlers was broken and the other was wimpy but his body size was formidable.  He was very interested in making sure he became a pappa and grunted just to let everyone know.  The moose rut is typically a bit later so hopefully his antlers will hold up to big boys!

It is already fall up on the tundra in Rocky Mountain National Park and the chipmunks and pikas are busy preparing for winter.  The chipmunks are eating as much as possible to sustain them through hibernation, and the pikas are busy stocking up since they don't hibernate.   It is hard to believe it, but they both eat thistles!  These are native Alpine Thistles,  and the  chipmunks eat the seeds and the pika eat the leaves.  In nature, nothing goes to waste.  

The elk rut has begun in the Estes Valley, so Andy and I decided to have a picnic in the park.  Unfortunately, it was too hot for the elk and we ended up watching the moon over Deer Mountain.  Just as we were packing up to go, we noticed a line of cars.  We didn't see any sheep around, but when we looked up the hill, we saw a bear!  He/she was being a "good" wild bear -- looking down at the visitors, scratching, investigating for ants under a rotten log, cleaning up the chokecherry bush and making a beeline towards an apple tree.  What a treat! 

While many of the migratory birds have left the Park, the Mountain Bluebirds have been flocking lately.  One evening, while waiting for the elk rut, I spotted this group of Mountain Bluebirds -- each working on a new set of feathers. Juveniles are speckled, males are mostly blue and females  grey-brown with a hint of blue on their wings and tails.  Oh, and a Pine Siskin joined the group, too!

Another bird species that is typically rare, and recently abundant, is the Red-breasted Nuthatch.  They are so cute with their "yank-yank" calls but so difficult to see, much less photograph.  On this evening, however, one visited us for a few minutes and tolerated my camera.  How special!

When the sun is bright during the day it is often hard for me to take a good picture.  So, at night I search for something to photograph. The sunflowers are particularly beautiful, but what really catches my eye are the insects.  So many and so varied.  Who knew?

While the native flowers have faded from Estes, we still have some great plants in our planters.  This means that our house is "hummingbird central" and it is worth fighting over.  We aren't quite sure if these are the juveniles that nested at our house or others just passing by.  We're pretty sure all of these pictured are Broad-tailed Hummingbirds   Enjoy!