Andy loves to run on the mountain behind our house and one day he sheepishly gushed about seeing a mother bobcat and her kittens.  He got to spend about 10 minutes with them and I was SOOOO jealous!  Thank heavens they came by our neighbor's house and hung out for a bit.  The lighting was tough and the other kitten was hidden, but you can see they are such amazing animals.

We see so much wildlife in Estes Park that it is easy to overlook Boulder.  On Monday, however, we went to Walden Ponds and looked for birds.  I almost yanked Andy's arm off alerting him to this one. It was so close and didn't even move while Tiva sniffed the trail and I fumbled for the camera in Andy's backpack.  Wow!

Golden-mantled Ground Squirrels are  hibernators.  It means that at this time of the year, they are putting on the pounds.  It is hard to believe that this one still fits in her fur!  Good luck this winter, little one.

Friday mornings mean bird walks at RMNP.  After a quiet week last week, Andy and I didn't know what to expect.  Well, the birds are on the move,  because we saw dozens of species at Upper Beaver Meadows!  So, in spite of the light rain, we had a great time -- just no pictures to show for our efforts.  On the way home Andy spotted a coyote!  It was wearing its light summer coat and was beautiful.  Here are my favorite pictures -- I did get one of it peeing, but decided to give it some privacy.  Too bad a bush was between us when it caught a vole.  Maybe next time...

I love pikas and couldn't wait to get back up to the Rock Cut on Trail Ridge Road.  I convinced Andy to run up the Ute trail again (this time from our house) and I got to spend time in the high country.  This time I tried the pre-focus technique for my pika pictures.  I would focus on a rock and then watch the pika run its route.  Just when it was coming through my focus area, I would "shoot" away.  This little one was pretty far away but it was fun to get some action shots.  No pre-focus needed for the marmots.  They are in energy conservation mode now.  It was fun to see two American Pipits.  One was an adult (buff colored breast), the other was a juvenile (streaky breast).  I can't wait to get back up to the tundra again!

Andy loves to run uphill.  So, we've been planning a trip where he runs up the Ute Trail and I meet him on Trail Ridge Rd.  Today was the day.  It was a bit late but some wildfire haze made the light tolerable for photography at the Rock Cut.  The marmots were enjoying the sun, but it must be harvesting season for pikas because they were running laps between the lush vegetation and their dens.  I took over 500 pictures and had fun "chasing" them with my camera.  The excitement of the day, however, was when the marmots started whistling LOUDLY.  It was a much longer whistle than usual and the pikas barked along.  I looked up and saw a beautiful golden eagle flying overhead!  I had all the wrong settings on my camera but still captured a few good pictures.  I thought for sure the pikas and marmots would hide in their dens after that, but as soon as the eagle left the area, it was business as usual.  I'm glad the marmots and pikas all lived to see another day but hope the eagle gets to eat sometime, too.

Andy loves Bighorn Sheep.  So, every time we drive up to Estes we go up Fall River Rd and stop at Sheep Lakes.  Usually we just see a vast meadow, but today we saw sheep!  Three rams, 4 ewes and 3 lambs. Or is that 4 rams, 3 ewes and 3 lambs?  What fun!

I've smelled the smoke from Colorado and western wildfires for the past few days, but it wasn't until we looked up at the moon last night did we realize just how much smoke was in the air.  It almost looked like a "lunar eclipse" moon.  So beautiful.  Hopefully it will rain on those fires soon and we can go back to having a white moon.

Thank heavens we have a dog!  As we were eating dinner on the deck last Friday, Tiva alerted us to a bobcat!  After quickly putting her inside the house, and protecting our dinner from her, we watched the bobcat from a distance.  This one was a bit skinny but had beautiful markings.  It was a bit hard to photograph but in the last picture you can see that it is napping in grass!  Now, about those bunnies...

We've had such a bumper crop of rodents this year.  From Wyoming Ground Squirrels to Least Chipmunks, our yard has been buzzing with activity.  When we were eating dinner on the deck last Thursday evening, we saw two Mountain Cottontail rabbits run up the drive.  One stopped for a bit and must have been quite comfortable with our presence since he or she took a moment to clean up for the portrait. 

Photographing birds is always tricky, but I've been lucky this year.  Here are some of my favorites!  All are from 6/21/2018-7/8/2018. Click on images to learn their names.

We've been going to Lily Lake a bunch lately.  It is such a great place to see water birds!  We knew there was a pair of nesting coots in the lake but last Friday we saw the fruits of their labor!  Baby American Coots are probably the strangest looking creatures on earth.  A face only a mother (or father) could love?

Andy and I finally made it to the top of Trail Ridge Road in RMNP this year.  Between all of our volunteer commitments, Thursday morning is our best time.  We didn't see any pikas on the Mt Chapin trail but this cutie was at the Rock Cut two Thursdays in a row.  What a treat to watch him or her do what pikas do!

We'd been seeing posts by other photographers about a family of foxes in RMNP.  Not wanting to bother them, we stayed away.  But then we discovered them and got to spend a few minutes watching them (from very far away).  Here are some of our favorite pictures.  All the pictures  are of the kits (who are almost all grown up by now).  They are all Red Foxes even though some are black.

We have a bunch of White-breasted Nuthatches that come to our bird feeder and figured that there was a family in the neighborhood.  Last Saturday Andy saw some cuddling and figured they were a mated pair.  We watched them for a while and realized they were fledglings who need to take a short nap after their out-of-the-nest adventure.  They were so cute!  The sounds they make are adorable, too.

Andy volunteers at Lily Lake on Thursdays and had the pleasure of watching a Meadow Vole eating grass in broad daylight.  When we went back on Friday we were amazed to watch him/her for a long time.  What a brave little vole!

Hollowell Park isn't on everyone's radar in RMNP but it has a surprising number of birds!  On this day I was lucky enough to spot both a male (first three images) and female (last image) Wilson's Warblers as they gleaned caterpillars to feed their babies.  Hopefully I'll get to see the fledglings someday soon!

Just as we pulled up to our house in Boulder, we saw the most beautiful butterfly on the larkspur flowers. I only had my super zoom lens with me but it did the trick.  Isn't it beautiful!

Last August we noticed a pile of sticks at the far end of Lily Lake in RMNP.  We knew it was a beaver, but in spite of our efforts, we didn't see it.  We did, however, see its lodge getting bigger and bigger and its food supply carefully "planted" nearby.  We thought of it every time we went by during the winter and the lake was fully frozen.  In June, we finally got to see him or her.  What an amazing creature.  Hopefully he or she finds a mate and we can watch more of them!

For the past several years, a pair of Great Horned Owls have nested on the cliffs near the Estes Park Library.  Last year I took occasional pictures,  but this year I decided to document the process as much as I could.  I stopped by for a few minutes at least 4 days a week and enjoyed watching the babies grow up. The mother began sitting on the nest during the second week of March and by the first week of June the owlets had fledged.  Here are my favorite pictures.  Enjoy! 

On our way out of the park we noticed a bunch of visitors peering into the meadow.  We had just enough time to get a camera and binoculars and got to watch a Bald Eagle  feeding on a deer or elk carcass.  Then it flew up in a tree and soon a Common Raven was harassing it.  What a scene!

We're used to seeing muskrats in the water.  After all, they are "water voles."  Here's also a picture of one out of the water.  Fascinating!

Spring has been showing up in Estes Park.  New birds are arriving daily and the chipmunks are emerging from their dens.  Apparently, so are the bears!  We caught one on our trail camera on Monday. Time to bring in the bird feeders!

While our destination was Sprague Lake, we decided to stop at the Moraine Park pull-off on Bear Lake Rd to see if we could find a coyote.  The weather was dark and overcast, but we saw one in the distance.  How cool is that?  Then, on the way back, we stopped again and got to watch one hunting. He started with a tasty Wyoming Ground Squirrel and ended 20 minutes later with a vole.  Click on images to read the captions and hear the story.

It was a dreary afternoon so Andy and I decided to go to RMNP for an afternoon adventure.  Little did we realize what we would find!  So many animals that we'll have to post twice.  Here is a post about all the birds we found a Sprague Lake.  It is so nice to have so many of them back.  (And apologies to the American Crow, 2 Wild Turkeys and the Hairy Woodpecker  that didn't make it in the photo line-up).