Wildlife

7/12/2015


Wildlife


At 3:30 PM today, I was walking back from downtown Salida and the Arkansas River, to my motel on Highway 50,  when I spotted this Muley Doe, in the photo,  munching on someone's shrub.... in a very nicely landscaped yard.

Last Thursday afternoon,  I was doing the first road walk of this hike,  and was walking down dirt road #291, headed for the Chalk Creek Trailhead,  through a residential neighborhood,  and watched a 2 1/2 year old Muley Buck walk up the wooden stairs in the yard and start munching on someone's flowers.  A block later,  I saw my first Elk,  a doe,  in a thicket,  next to someone else's flowers at 5 PM in the afternoon.  I was tired,  not sure that I was on the correct road,  and did not even think of pictures.

When I stayed at a new friend's house, back in Buena Vista, there was an Antelope doe,  with her two fawns, in the grasslands, beyond his back yard.

Way back on the trail.....on the night before I went up to Georgia Pass.... I had made camp in a pine forest,  and boiled my evening meal.  The flies were bugging me,  so I went into my tent to eat.  Two Northern Shrikes landed immediately....one on a stump 3 feet from the tent door.....the other maybe 8 feet away.  I could not have gotten both of them, in a photo frame,  at the same time....they were too close.  I did not think of it.  All I thought, at first, was that they would grab some of my gear and fly off.  So I yelled at them and scared them off.  Then I realized that I had just blown a once in a lifetime photo opportunity.  Still in my tent,(which was serving as wildlife blind),  I got my phone out, and got ready,  in case they came back.  This one in the photo did come back....but at 15 feet...... not 3 feet as the first time. 

When "Bigby" and I went back down to Denver,  to hike the first two segments of the trail, I got attacked by a lunatic grouse!  I was hiking along segment #1....innocently minding my own business, when I spotted a female grouse, with some yellow markings, sitting on a rock.  I took pictures,  and then started narrating a video. The grouse got off the rock, when I started talking....to hit the road,  I thought.  But no.  It got off the rock to attack!  Maybe she had eggs, or chicks nearby.   Or maybe she was just totally nuts!  She kept attacking me and would not stop.  I would carefully flip her backwards 8 to 10 feet, with my hiking poles.... to discourage her,  but she just came right back after me.  Finally I gave up, and ran down the trail 100 yards.  I looked behind me...... and that crazy grouse was gaining on me! 

On the second day, back near Denver, on Segment #2,  I started very early, and was the first one down the trail that morning.  I saw a total of eight mule deer.  Four of them were bucks.  Two that were traveling together were really good bucks.  I had somehow gotten the mistaken notion that Muley's were not that wary....but these Muley's would not hold still for pics.  The two big ones were standing in front of a big brown rock at 60 yards, and I did not even see them at first.  They do blend in.  Then they slipped over a little ridge on me.  The wind was right..... and I was up for the hunt........so I dropped my pack and poles,  got my phone (camera) ready,  and did a sneak on them,  in case they were right on the other side of the ridge.  No luck.  They had gone down hill 100 yards.  I enlarged a long distance photo  I took,  that is now totally blurred.  But am posting it, so that you can just barely make out their large antlers.   Those antlers still had two months of growing time left.  Trust me.  Those are two big bucks.  As I said, those muley's just will not hold still...... most of the time. 

While hiking up the Ten Mile Range Crest, before Copper Mountain Ski Resort,  I had my first sightings of Marmots and Pika's, in a giant rock pile.  The marmots were lying on the rocks( or were they laying on those rocks?  Hope my grammar instructors forgive me on that one.  Sorry it just did not sink in. ) soaking up some rays.  Whenever I tried to get close....they bailed. 
The Pika's were here......there....and everywhere...and not too wary.  They were very, very cute.  No. Don't even think about putting one in your pocket.  We are enjoying nature...not pocketing it. You have already seen those photos.
The next day, when I hiked over Searle Pass and Kokomo Pass, two Marmots were on the Colorado Trail, running up ahead of me.  They would run until they got about 35 yards ahead of me,  and then they would stop, and wait for me to catch up.  Then they would run another 35 yards.  This went on for a long time.  These two Marmots had played this game before.  I could tell.  I think they both finally got bored,  and left the trail for other fun,  because I was so slow, and no real sport for them.

Oh yeah..... one more.  I had just topped a hill,  on my way to the Tennessee Pass Trailhead,  last Monday,  a ways before Buena Vista, when hiking southwest,  and decided to take a break,  before I keeled over.  I was sitting on the ground there for a couple of minutes,  and suddenly heard the loud sound of claws raking tree bark.  A large animal was doing a semi-controled fall, down a tree...... about 100 yards into the woods, and directly downwind of me.   It made a heck of a racket sliding down that tree.  And it actually hit the ground pretty hard.  Whatever it was...........it was big!!
No.  I did not walk into that woods to investigate!  It was probably just a bear.  But as you guys are right now....at that time, I was thinking Cat.... really big Cat!  Here Kitty....Kitty.  Whatever it was,  got spooked by the fact that I had stopped,  and that it was getting a good whiff of me..... and so decided to get out of Dodge.  Whoa!