Thankful Thursday - What a Wonderful World

For me, "place" is key to my happiness. When I first visited the Colorado mountains years and years ago, I knew that it was where I belonged. I am so grateful that we found a way to set down roots here.

As an example of a "normal" but actually very special day, I started one day in late September with a mountain bike ride with Shyla. The sky was blue, the leaves were golden, the sun was warm, and I was with my best biking buddy. We had endless miles of trails outside our back door.

On this day, we didn't come home and rest after our ride. Rather, we headed to where we could watch the annual ritual of the elk rut. It turned out to be a stupendous day of viewing.

In the fall, the biggest bull elk gather harems of cow elk and their calves. The bull elk defends his harem against all other bull elk by bugling, patrolling, chasing, and occasionally even having an antler sparring fight.

On this day, we found a lot of elk rut activity very fast. In a small meadow, about five fairly big bull elk had gathered. One had a harem. The others were trying to steal a cow elk or even just spend a few minutes with her so that their DNA would help make a calf.

Here is the bull elk who was herding his harem away from the interlopers.

He was constantly trying to keep them in a tight group and away from the other bulls.

He obviously had established his physical superiority because he needed only to posture to keep the other bulls away. He never actually fought or even truly chased a competitor. Part of his posturing was driving his antlers into the grass while facing toward the other bulls.

He ended up with a grass hat! It seemed hard to believe that the other bulls would respect a guy wearing a hat like that!

He bugled and protected his harem while wearing the silly hat. We dubbed him "Grass Head". I guess that name could have other meanings here in Colorado where a certain kind of "grass" is now legal.

He was a source of tremendous amusement to us.

Eventually, he shed the grass except for a few strands, regaining his regal look!

In the meantime, some smaller bulls sparred, obviously just as practice for the day that they would be among the bigger bulls in the herd.

The stronger one would drive the other one backwards. Then they'd disengage their antlers and stand together amicably. I think that the greatest risk in this is that their antlers could become locked together. I've heard of elk dying due to this catastrophe.

These guys were so small compared to Grass Head that he paid them no attention. Instead, he answered the bugles of the bulls closer to his size.

In an upcoming post, I'll share some sounds of bugling from the meadows where the elk rut was underway.

The dance among the lion and scavengers at an elk carcass

I'm sure that some of you remember the story of the mountain lion who killed a cow elk on my friend's land that I talked about in two posts (Post 1 and Post 2). I set up trail cameras all around the carcass to capture footage of the lion and the scavengers who ate every last bit of the elk.

I haven't had a chance to tell you about the scavengers who moved in in the mid-day hours as well as after the lion abandoned the carcass on December 17. They included magpies, ravens, a golden eagle, and coyotes. The coyotes even howled occasionally!

I put footage of the scavengers together into a video that I thought that you might enjoy seeing. I think that a fascinating aspect of it is the interactions among the scavengers and the lion.

It was interesting to see how worried the coyotes were when they dared to go near the carcass during the phase when the lion was still nearby. The first coyote clip shows an example of that behavior. No doubt, the lion would kill a coyote he found the coyote eating his hard-earned elk meat.

I also enjoyed watching the magpies and ravens brazenly continue to eat while the coyote or golden eagle was on the carcass. Seeing a Golden Eagle was really a treat!

Then, in the last clip, I loved watching and hearing the coyote howling while at the carcass!

You can watch the short video here or at Youtube.

More Mountain Lion Action

Yesterday was devoted mostly to trying to keep our black dog calm and not-too-unhappy. I can't blame him for feeling upset. He just went through this same thing so very recently. What he doesn't know is that this episode should be much shorter - assuming that the pathology reports are not bad.

In the meantime, I spent some time sorting through the 200 GB of footage that I have so far of animals eating the elk carcass. For today, I'll share mountain lion footage. No other mammals, like coyotes, dared to go near the carcass while the mountain lion was still interested in it.

In the video, you'll first see one of our favorite dog friends check out the carcass and try to eat a little of it before sprinting back to his human. Then, you'll see the mountain lion arrive for his second night of eating. The contrast between the Lab's size and the mountain lion's size is stunning to me.

The mountain lion was always very wary while at the carcass. He'd stop eating to scan his surroundings regularly. I'm not sure if he'd be so wary if he weren't close to humans. He did one bout of eating from nightfall until 7PM. Then he returned at 4AM and ate for an hour. I wonder if his umbilical hernia limits how much he can eat in one bout because it must hurt if his intestines get full.

His strength awes me. When he first arrived both times, it looked as if he tried to move the elk but couldn't pull it uphill. If it were a smaller prey item or if a secluded spot were downhill, I'm sure that the lion would have opted to move the carcass to a safer spot.

Finally, when he departed at 5AM, he covered the carcass with snow, using his mammoth paws to throw snow backward onto the carcass.

Enjoy the peek into a mountain lion's life in the video.

The Drama of the Elk Rut - including a Bull Elk Bugle

A couple of weeks ago, we headed out to see the elk rut - a spectacle in parks and along roads in our area in September and October. The drive is gorgeous every year with golden aspen lighting up the landscape.

As we drove further north, we began to see elk in action. This was a bull elk with his harem of cow elk and calves around him.

Despite the lack of competition (other bull elk), he was very attentive to his harem. Look to the far left of the photo and you'll see a calf nursing from his mother. It's an odd time of year with calves still dependent on their mothers but the rut takes place anyway.

Our next stop was for a vociferous bull elk who was very upset about a young bull with "spike" antlers who had taken one of his ladies.

The bull elk bugled incessantly while chasing around the rest of his harem. He's wet from wallowing in a mud puddle that books say he probably urinated in. Yuck - but I guess the cow elk like it!

Here's a very short video that I took of this bull elk bugling. It's amazing what a high pitched sound is made by such a huge elk!

Despite the bull's best efforts, he never got his wayward cow elk back again. The big bull could scare off the young bull but the female kept choosing the young bull over him. The big bull looked toward them in disbelief.

It was a super fun day of watching elk and all the dramas of elk life!

After the rut, the elk come to our neck of the woods to spend the winter. We already have a few here but the bulk of the herd is still on their way.

A Curious Mountain Lion

We had an exciting couple of days at a scent post in the forest nearby. The scent post is on a saddle of a ridge, and it has a huge Ponderosa Pine in the middle of it. It's been exceptionally quiet for months, and then there was suddenly a flurry of activity.

First, a very curious but seemingly timid mountain lion spent a few minutes checking out the site. He looked small from this point of view.

He sniffed around very carefully.

He paced in and out of the field of view. The he (or she - I don't know which) marked the ground behind the tree.

And then the lion walked onward. In this view, You can see that the lion was big but probably young. The bar on the inside of his/her front right limb is probably a vestige of kitten markings.

When I looked at more photos taken by that camera, I discovered that a small herd of elk had crowded into the clearing. One was a calf that must have been born very late this year because he still has spots! By this time of year, the calves' spots have usually disappeared.

I also saw that a red fox had come through the clearing. He looks tiny compared to the other animals who had been there.

I made a video of the mountain lion's almost two minutes prowling around the clearing which you can watch here or at Youtube.

Seeing that video made me smile!

Wonderful Elk Viewing Time!

With all the spring snow we got, the elk herd retreated to lower elevation. We didn't see them for a while. When the most recent big snow melted, the meadows started to turn green, and the elk returned!

It wasn't the whole huge herd from the early winter but a smaller group of maybe a hundred. They spread out over a huge area so I couldn't get them all in one frame.

I was struck by the fact that mother elk were still sticking close to their calves that were born almost a year ago.

The calves are born just after the elk migrate to the high mountains, probably in June. These almost-yearlings will probably go off on their own when the next calves are born soon.

I find myself wondering how the calves do who lose their mothers during hunting season in November. There must be some benefit to still staying with a calf's mother since they all do it.

I wonder if other cow elk watch over the "orphans". I also wonder if anyone has studied the survival of the orphaned calves.

The current "herd" is mostly cow elk. Many of them look quite skinny (see above photo) but that's at least partly due to the shedding of their winter coats. Most have lost their dark furred neckwarmers.

Some young bull elk do stay with the herd of cow elk but all the older ones with big antler racks are off by themselves.

It sure is fun to be able to watch these animals almost from our house!

I feel grateful that Shyla has learned not to chase elk. She might take a step or two toward them when we see them during a mountain bike ride but always returns right to my side without going more than a few yards toward them.

That's when I know that all the hard work at training has paid off!

Elk and Mountain Lions

It's springtime so the elk herd seems to prefer our elevation. I love watching them, and photographing them with a hand-held camera and with trail cams.

Whenever I spot the herd, I go back out in my car and shoot some photos without getting out. It seems that elk are not concerned about cars but they are very concerned about people on foot.

Last week, I watched a young and shedding bull elk lie down. The "spots" on his coat are clumps of fur that he's shedding. Lying down appeared to be quite a procedure for a big animal. Here he was, standing up and grazing.

Then he decided that it was time to rest his hooves and began the process of lying down. He lowered his front end first.

And then his hind end followed.

Soon, he was lying there relaxing. I suppose that this is one of the safest times and places for an elk to rest - in the midst of a big herd in a sunny meadow. Mountain lions, the elk's main predators, are not likely to stalk the elk in this situation.

I've also been seeing elk on my trail cameras. This is a somewhat older bull with broken antlers that tell the story of him fighting with other bull elk during mating season.

Then, he heard some people approaching but he also seemed to notice my trail camera at the same time. He gave the camera a quizzical look before heading up the hill and away from where people and their dogs walk.

When there's such a big elk presence in our area, the mountain lions soon focus on our area too. The collared cat followed in some snowbike tracks, heading toward the herd. It's a smallish cat so I'm guessing that it's a female.

A couple of miles from where my camera captured the image of the collared lion, another trail camera captured the image of a collar-free muscular muscular mountain lion, also heading directly for the elk herd.

In the case of that second lion photo, I wasn't planning to check that particular trail camera that day but Shyla "told me", loud and clear, that something scary had been in the area. She starts sniffing the ground incredibly intensely when a mountain lion has been through.

Based on her behavior, I think that the big collar-free lion had been on top of Hug Hill in the wee hours of the morning, in the same spot where Shyla and I play many days.

I once daydreamed about teaching Shyla to signal me when she found the scent trail of a mountain lion. That's starting to seem like a reasonable proposition because she reacts so obviously when she catches the scent of a mountain lion.

The elk and mountain lions always tide over my curiosity about our wildlife until the bears become active. Although I suspect that some bears are outside their dens now, I haven't found any tracks or trail camera photos of them yet, perhaps partly because their favorite routes are still snow-covered. When I find bear tracks for the first time in the spring, it's a day for celebration!

Spring at Home

Before telling you more about our desert trip, I wanted to share the fabulous spring conditions that we found when we came home. The first few days were gloriously sunny and warm.

The Pasqueflowers (wild crocuses) were blooming everywhere.

And the elk herd was nearby. All were in a phase of furious shedding for the "heat" of springtime.

As often happens, the elk herd pulled in the mountain lions. I believe that this is a female who has been in our area a lot.

She investigated the area near the elk herd carefully.

And then a male mountain lion showed up in almost the same spot less than 24 hours later.

So much snow had melted that I visited trail cameras that I hadn't seen in months. I discovered that a collared mountain lion had been around in February too - perhaps the same female as visited this week.

She sniffed in front of a camera.

And then turned to depart. What a strong creature!

Look at the thickness of her legs.

Now, after the warm and sunny sojourn, a spring snowstorm is hitting. I don't think it'll bring too much snow (less than a foot) but I feel ready to go back into hibernation. I'm tired from our desert fun and then our enjoyment of the brief spring weather here!

 Shyla's yawn sums up my energy level!