Western Birds and Other Critters

 

Capturing this rainbow on our first day in Colorado signaled a stellar start to a magical 10 day trip! 

I spotted the rainbow over the shoulder of my sister Ann at her and Paul’s beautiful home in the Estes Park area. 

Moving to their back porch I changed my iPhone setting to wide to capture the rainbow in full glory, then enhanced the image using the handy Snapseed app. 

Ann snapped this picture of me as we prepared to go to Mass. I was in photographer heaven out West in raw and rugged Colorado and New Mexico. From June 8-17 Alesia and I took a relaxing 460-mile multi-day drive from Estes Park, Colorado to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The ultimate destination and event was my niece Nicole and Tyler’s wedding in Santa Fe. 

This post is the first of several documenting our interesting and illuminating trek. 

We visited Colorado in August 2022 and I wrote a post that also includes many bird and animal photos. 

I wanted to capture the lay of the land, from the many mountain ranges we would see…

…and the often fast-flowing rivers, creeks and streams…

…to the arid geography of southern Colorado and New Mexico. 

Colorado Critters- Birds, Butterflies and Land Animals Large and Small

 

Our early August visit to Colorado to see family and celebrate birthdays was full of festivities and fun. 

We were in the Estes Park area for several days and were fortunate to partake in the abundant beauty of this mountainous region. As a bird and nature photographer, I was excited by this landscape that is so different from our beloved South Carolina Lowcountry. 

Check out my video shot with my new Go Pro Hero 8 camera! 

Thanks and gratitude to my sister Ann and her husband Paul for hosting us for a special family get-together and for showing us so many of your Western home’s treasures. 

This post will focus on the animals I was able to photograph, starting with…

ELK

I read that Colorado has more Elk than any state in the U.S. with some 290,000.