It is fairly rare to see Black-capped Chickadees at RMNP, but they do occasionally appear.  Their crisp call is so distinctive.  Here is one digging into a branch to find a treat.  The Red-crossbills have been active since last summer, but on this day the sky was blue and I was able to get a great photo of this male. Isn't that beak amazing?!

I love the morning after a snow because you can see who was out the night before.  On this morning, I had seen bobcat, coyote, rabbit and mouse tracks.  When I came upon this masterpiece, though, I stopped in my tracks.  Here is what a vole did overnight.  What a journey!

With winter in full swing, it has been quiet in the Park and we've been missing all the wildlife.  We got lucky, today, though, and this coyote got very lucky.  In 3.5 minutes it caught 3 voles!  What a feat.  It was very far away and the light was tough, but it was so much fun to watch it hunt.  That should make the chilly night more bearable!

It was snowy and windy today so Andy and I decided to head up to Sprague Lake for a quick run/walk.  On the way back we saw a car stopped in the middle of the road and wondered what was going on.  Then we saw it.  A coyote, raven and magpie all negotiating for a piece of elk.  It had been months since we'd seen a coyote, and we were so excited to see this healthy one enjoying the last bits of a hearty meal.

One of the species missing from my RMNP "collection" was the Abert's squirrel.  These black, tassel-eared squirrels thrive in Ponderosa Pine forests and they are notoriously hard to find and photograph.  Andy has succeeded a few times, but on this day, we both got to watch one bury pine cones in the forest floor.  How special!  We also got to watch a Black-billed Magpie deal with the wind and snow. It approached our car several times and asked us for food, but we took its picture instead.  Enjoy!

November is when most animals have left the Estes valley.  Too cold and too windy.  There are a few animals who stay through the winter, though, and they have various strategies for surviving the season.  The Red-breasted Nuthatch stashes pine seeds so that it can eat through the winter.  The black bear takes a long nap (not quite true hibernation) and this one was out early on a snow-covered morning to see if it was really nap time.  The bobcat eats lots of rabbits and scavenges carion.  Here is a kitten  who is waiting for his/her mom. Finally the Black-billed Magpie scavenges for anything and everything and looks beautiful doing it.

Andy and I don't eat out often, but on this day we had talked about it.  Eventually we decided we'd rather stay home. Thank heavens we did!  Just as we sat down for dinner, we noticed something moving across the road.  A bobcat!  It just walked right under the deck and up our steps.  We're so glad that Tiva didn't bark! 

There are several rock walls and wood piles around our neighborhood and hence have lots of chipmunks in the area.  In fall, they are busy fattening up for the hibernation ahead.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the season.  One eating a pine seed in a tree, another defending its rock and the last one eating lichen.

Andy volunteers with the Elk Bugle Corps at RMNP so leaves the house in the afternoon to go help visitors view the elk rut safely.  On this evening, he was most of the way down the hill from our house and saw a badger!  Thank heavens he had his camera handy and took a quick pic before he/she scurried behind a neighbor's shed.  I am so jealous...

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!

Fall is a great time to see birds because they seem to be so busy eating that they are more tolerant of people.  That was the case on this morning when we saw a Mountain Chickadee prying open a spider nest and reaping the rewards.  How neat to see it unfold. Bon Appetit!

After our bird walk one Friday, Andy and I ventured up another trail to see if the Rufus Hummingbirds were back in town.  The Horsemint flowers were late to bloom so there were no Rufus' around.  We did spot a White-lined Sphinx moth at an (invasive) Musk Thistle.  How cool to see it in action. 

I think of Red Crossbills as pretty rare birds around Rocky Mountain National Park, but this summer, the seed crop has been good and the Red Crossbills have been plentiful.  They are such a unique bird with a large crossed bill that helps them pry open pine seeds from the cone.  There are 11 subspecies of crossbill (each with a specialized bill and unique call), but these are most likely "call-type 2."  They  specialize in eating hard cones like  Ponderosa  and sometimes Lodgepole pine.  Here are some of my favorite photos from this summer.  Notice how the male is reddish, females are yellowish, first year males have both red and yellow, and juveniles have more streaking.  Another fascinating tidbit about these birds is that they tend to nest in late summer or even winter when the cones have matured enough to pry open.  Enjoy!

In late July, we noticed a female Broad-tailed Hummingbird hanging around our flowers in Estes Park.  With a bit of patience, Andy spotted her nest and for the next couple of weeks we got to see the development of a couple of Broad-tailed Hummingbirds!  What an amazing site.  The sequence covers from 7/20/2019 to 8/22/2019.  Hopefully she'll be back next year.