its amazing, here we are in mid September, the weather is cooler but still beautiful and there are so many birds and animals active. Around the local ponds I found black-capped chickadee, osprey, pelicans, cormorants, snowy egrets, lots of flickers, kingfishers etc etc. Lots going on.

Elk rut, this bull was thrashing his antlers against the grass and the trees to display his strength and causing havoc, even breaking good sized branches off the trees. Leaves were falling everywhere.

Rocky mtn natl park, Elk rutting, pikas and marmots making their beds, sapsuckers sucking...paradise!

Went looking for whitetail deer today and didn't find any until at the last minute this mother and fawn showed up and ran across the road and back into the woods. Cool.

Went to Rocky Mtn national park again at dawn today to shoot the sunrise over Sprague Lake and to later find some coyotes and elk. I especially liked this coyote shot. It shows the animal in context quite nicely. And it was soaked from the wet grass!

Rocky Mountain national park early this morning revealed few elk but several interesting birds. This is a female blue grouse, one of a pair.

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Took a run down to Denver Botanical Gardens today and found a surprising variety of plants and animals. Very well maintained gardens and well worth a visit. They have nice ponds and a great collection of water lilies.

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And then again patience often pays off. I was driving through Rocky Mountain national park and noticed lots of bluebird activity. One bird was sitting on a bush close to the road so I tried to stop beside it but the bird flew off. So I decided to wait them out and thought that sooner or later (hopefully sooner) one of them would again sit on that bush, which was now close to my car window. And sure enough it didn't take very long and one hopped along the ground and then up into the top of the bush. Even better it patiently waited while I took some photographs! Life is good!

Sometimes when you are trying to do one thing, in this case shoot some photos of elk backlit by the early morning sun, the animals conspire against you. In this case the elk was much more interested in the bird sitting on it's back than on me standing only a few feet away!

Well it was a hot day, 99F (37C), and little shade but still the Broomfield airshow was well worth the visit. Free-fall parachutists, a MIG fighter, old aircraft and an F16 made it a good day.

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