Wow! Can you say BUSY! I’ve been shooting ’til my finger is numb with barely enough time to do my editing. Still, when the opportunity came yesterday to go to Estes Park with my friend Michelle for the “bugling of the elk”, I couldn’t resist.
For those of you who don’t know, this time of year is elk mating season and the males fight each other for the right to mate with the females. It’s called “bugling” because that is the sound the female makes to call the males.
Having recently moved to Colorado from Texas, I was awed by the mountain scenery. The trees at that elevation have changed colors much more than in the city and the crystal blue sky with a few scattered puffy white clouds was the perfect backdrop to contrast with the magnificent mountain scenery.
I didn’t get to see any elk bulls fighting, however I did come across one bull with his harem resting contentedly under the thick branches of a grove of trees. He looked “plum tuckered out” if you ask me, but he did manage to raise his head once to check out his surroundings before going back to sleep.
I also came across another lone bull busily chomping grass. Since he didn’t have a harem and there were no other elk around, I can only guess that he was the looser in recent battles. None the less, he was magnificent with at least 10 points on his antlers.
Here are just a few of the images I snapped. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did taking them!
Lone Bull
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