A nice close-up of this guy for Moose Monday. A lot of folks don’t fully appreciate how dangerous these big creatures of the forest can be. They may seem like slow and lumbering beasts but they can move extraordinarily fast when they want and are highly unpredictable.

During the rut, the males have hormones raging and are very irritable. Females, like any good mother, will not hesitate to protect their young. You certainly do not want to find yourself in a situation where an 800-pound moose is trying to stomp you!

As for this fellow, he was lazily grazing on willows in the Colorado high country early last month. While it is a close-up, I maintained a respectful distance, have a powerful zoom lens and the image is cropped a good bit.

My favorite high-country flower and one of my favorite forms of wildlife for Moose Monday.

Taken early last month on a photo outing with my daughter. We left camp as the sun was rising and headed to a usual hot spot of moose activity nearby. Much to our disappointment, not one moose was around.

Pressing on along a very rough Forest Service road, we finally had success – two bulls grazing in an area that had been logged due to pine beetle kill. They paid us little attention as they grazed on the grasses and ate some fireweed.

After a while, it was time to start working our way back down the mountain and then we found even more of the forest’s biggest residents. In the end, the morning tally came in at nine moose – five bulls, three cows and one yearling.

Taken in Arapaho National Forest, #Colorado.

Well, this is not a situation that you are taught how to handle in driver’s education. I think if it were me, I would certainly let the big boy cross ahead of me, even if there is no crosswalk. 😀

I spent over an hour and a half with this handsome young fellow and his buddy last month in what was one of the most fun moose encounters I have had this year. I had initially spotted them a few hundred yards off the road so I hiked in to get within photo range (while maintaining a respectful distance). They slowly ate their way back toward the road then headed off into the forest once the morning temperatures started to climb.

Taken in one of Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s awesome state parks.

When a big guy like this moves in to enjoy a picnic of his own, he gets what he wants. 😉

My wife and I went for a long walk / hike last weekend while camped in the Colorado high country. We were moving at a pretty quick pace as rain was threatening and we didn’t want to get caught in it. About halfway through, we came across this handsome fellow as he had decided a picnic area was a nice spot for his own meal.

Rain or not, I had to take the time to snap a few pics. I normally would prefer not to have the “hand of man” in the background with that picnic table being seen but kind of thought it added an amusing element.

Enjoy your Moose Monday!

The change of seasons was in the air and the foliage was showing some signs of changing color. Of course at 10,500 feet it is always quite a bit cooler than lower elevations but this past Saturday there was certainly a bit of bite to the temperature of 42 degrees.

This handsome fellow and his buddies were grazing on the willow, enjoying the relative quiet while myself and a few other photographers watched from a distance.

The light from sunrise was filtered by thin clouds casting an even light on everything and making for a pleasant, subdued scene. This king of the forest looked absolutely gorgeous as he looked toward the sun.

Taken in the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area of Colorado. 

We had a very fun weekend with these kings of the forest and that provides some fresh photos for Moose Monday.

Three big bulls were the highlight of Saturday morning as we watched them lazily graze through the willows. Surprisingly they haven’t started scraping off that velvet yet but that will happen very soon. Here, one of the bulls was enjoying his breakfast but my only view of him was through a small opening in the bushes.

I kind of liked the framing around his face and despite only seeing a small portion of this huge creature, you still maintain a sense of his size and can’t help but feel a bit intimidated. Luckily I was able to capture a crazy amount of detail as well despite being a safe distance away.

With fall approaching, hormones are starting to rage and these two engaged in some pre-rut posturing yesterday morning. The sparring never amounted to much but it is a reminder of what is to come.

It won’t be long and they will begin scraping off that velvet off of their antlers and then things will get much more serious as they compete for the love of the ladies.

Now might be the time to start backing up. 😉

Before someone thinks otherwise, this image was taken from a very respectful distance and is cropped to add the drama that might be taking place if I were closer. This big guy was simply moving from one bush to another and I was fortunate that he turned and walked a bit straight toward me as he relocated.

As you can tell from the ears up position, he wasn’t threatened or concerned. Having said that…

We spent this past weekend camping in Gilpin County, Colorado, providing us a very enjoyable respite from the city – although the smoke up there from the various wildfires in the state was horrendous.

As always, I headed out each morning looking for critters and yesterday, came across this guy and his buddy. They were lazily grazing in a meadow dotted with willows. I worked myself to a spot with relatively clear viewing, pulled up a stump to sit on and spent two hours with them.

It was absolutely fantastic and so quiet other than the sound of them ripping leaves from the bushes and the wind blowing through the aspen trees.

You might notice this bull’s antlers have a little bit of deformity toward the base of them, particularly his left one. I have seen deer with similar things but this is the first time I have noticed it on a moose.

How hard is it for an 800 pound moose bull to hide? Not very hard in dense forests. The big guy you can barely make out there was right next to the road and if I hadn’t stopped to check out some of his buddies that were farther off in the meadow, I would not have even known he was there.