I remember when I used to visit my husband’s folks in Morman Lake, AZ. They would be all excited to share ‘their’ elk with us. With a binoculars in hand, if you squinted real hard, you could see the little dots of elk crossing in front of the fire house, about 1/4 mile away.
John’s mom still remembers fondly how close they got to see the elk. I laugh.
If she had any idea of how close we see the elk today!
If you remember a post I did a little while back about Pat’s Fawn (https://kritterspix.com/2018/09/17/pats-fawn/), we’ve been fortunate enough to see it a few times and kinda watch it grow up, which has been a real joy. It’s starting to loose it’s spots.
But it’s still playful and skittish… and wonderfully fun to watch. Mom still dotes on her… except, apparently it’s a him.
I caught a glimpse of a little bump on his head where his antlers will be soon.
We can still call him Spots though, right?!
One of my favorite things about living up north in the mountains is the wildlife we get to see. I never saw wildlife in the big city. Here on the mountain we see a wide variety of species.
Like this elusive fox. I have seen fox on occasion, but have struggled to get a good shot. This one was no exception, taken in the dark with a high ISO, spotlighted with a flashlight. I had a hard time focusing in the dark, even with the flashlight… and today’s camera’s aren’t intended for manual focus.
We also saw this curious raccoon. He was searching for grub.
We watched him (her?) for quite awhile (albeit difficult in the dark)…. another animal we rarely see, particularly as they are nocturnal.
Incidentally, the fox came at the same time… but didn’t stick around. The fox seemed quite put off by the raccoon, and quickly circled the raccoon then made haste and left. Pity, I would have liked to have gotten a better shot.
I keep hearing the elk bugle… a magical, majestic sound… but I had yet to see the big bull that bellowed. That is, until this morning. It was just after 5am… a little dark still, when he came in.
I think I may have been a little late to the party, as he didn’t stay long. He seemed merely to have come in to collect the last of his harem, and then he was off again.
To watch the grace and ease at which he slinked off into the forest was a beautiful thing. He was so quiet and confident in his graceful movements as he jumped over a ledge like it was a pebble and quietly disappeared. Awesome.
My neighbor and friend, Pat, saw this little fawn when it was first born… maybe hours old. It was the tiniest thing… so we have been watching out for it, hoping it would survive the wild.
With a lot of support and love from its doting mom, it seems to be a happy, healthy little one.
You’ve heard of giving your two cents worth… well, here are my two bucks worth!
Sorry… just couldn’t help myself. Ha!
This one buck, we call ‘Slash’ had what looked like a deep cut, slash, ripped into his back. The other buck seemed to be lovingly watching over him. It checked out to the right… and to the left, before alerting Slash to proceed in that direction. Slash’s caretaker would rub along his healing cut, and nose him repeatedly. Maybe they are brothers.. or just good friends. We should all have such a great friend to help get us through our difficult times, particularly in the wild, where it can get quite ‘dicey’ with lots of predators out there!
It’s not very often we see ram (otherwise known as mountain sheep). I think the last time we saw them was on Canyon Lake in Mesa. We have never seen them in Northern AZ. There was a time ww saw some in Utah, in Zion National Park….
But during our trip through Greer / Hannigan’s Meadow area… an area between 8500 – 9000 feet in elevation, we saw a whole herd (of 4).
I was ready at the camera to get some shots. They didn’t pay much attention to me when I told them they should go into the light, as they gravitated to the shade (who can blame them?), or look toward me… say cheese, er, grass?
