Wildlife, landscape and weather photography
A short, fun encounter with this handsome fellow last weekend near Eleven Mile State Park in Colorado.
I happened across him and a few does near the lake and was pleasantly surprised that they didn’t take off running like they normally do. Instead, they walked right by me, not 20 feet away.
I reckon being near a state park, they have gotten pretty used to people and are more tolerant of us pesky humans than other pronghorn in more remote areas
Quite a beautiful trio, eh?
One of many images I captured of the herd that hangs out northeast of Denver International Airport. I hadn’t seen them in months so was very happy to have run across them on this day late last month.
Before the arrival of western Europeans, it is believed as many as 40 million of them roamed the open rangelands of North America – possibly more than there were bison. Hunting and fragmentation of their habitat by fences and human settlements took its toll and as few as 20,000 remained at the start of the 20th century. Thankfully conservation and education saved them from ex
This was just one of those lucky wildlife encounters that was awesome.
Driving along the backroads of Adams County, Colorado, a pronghorn herd appeared out of nowhere and ran across the road not 50 feet in front of me. By the time I stopped, they were out in a field and lingered long enough for some nice pics of them posing.
As they moved off, I thought I had a good idea where they might reappear so I headed there and waited. Sure enough, they came along and now, took off running right by me giving me a fantastic bunch of action shots.
Last weekend I was excited to come across a herd of about 20 of these speed demons. As usual though, they were not too inclined to stick around for photos. No sooner did I get a couple shots of them posing then they took off running.
Pronghorn (often incorrectly called antelope) are the fastest land animal in the Western Hemisphere and second in the world only to the Cheetah. They can sprint at speeds up to 60mph and run for extraordinarily long distances at slower speeds.
I’ve been privileged to see them showcase their speed many times and it truly is astounding but also difficult to capture and convey in a static picture. Taken in Morgan County, Colorado.
We were camping on Colorado’s far eastern plains and as is the norm, the rest of my crew was opting to sleep in. I, on the other hand, headed out to see what I could find and happened across these two. The fawn was probably no more than a week or two old and, obviously, much smaller than its mom.
Before the arrival of western Europeans, it is believed as many as 40 million pronghorn roamed the open rangelands of North America – possibly more than there were bison.
Hunting and fragmentation of their habitat by fences and human settlements took its toll and as few as 20,000 remained at the start of the 20th century. Thankfully conservation and education saved them from extinction and they now number almost 1 million.
My photo excursion didn’t quite go as planned yesterday with the lake I had chosen to go to being totally frozen over. Instead, I explored some back roads and that actually turned out pretty good.
I came across this big herd of Pronghorn, probably the biggest I have seen. There are 22 in this picture but it only shows about a third of the ones that were there. As is typical for these wary creatures, they didn’t hang around long and were soon running away but it was fun to see them.
This is one good looking guy, eh? Taken back at the end of June, I was out for a photo drive while camping on Colorado’s northeastern plains.
Pronghorn are creatures that I think are way cool – heck, they are the fastest land animal in North America and second in the world only to the Cheetah! They also are notoriously difficult to photograph, more often than not just giving you a shot of their bright, white rear end as they run away.
On this day though, this buck was willing to stand relatively close. They are notoriously curious so I employed a bit of a trick I learned long ago of waving a bright handkerchief. You could tell he really wanted to run but he also couldn’t resist momentarily checking out the motion and in doing so gave me a great shot.
This was a fun little bit of action that I had never witnessed with this particular type of creature before. Driving along I spotted five Pronghorn bucks out in a field north of Denver International Airport.
Normally, stopping would send them running but they were more interested in each other. Four of them were engaged in some back and forth battles, locking horns and pushing each other around.
I presume this is all leading up to the annual rut as they start to establish a pecking order for mating season. Fun stuff to see!
I was shooting while driving so am pretty darned lucky the images of this speed demon came out as good as they did. Haha! Taken in Logan County, Colorado.
Pronghorn (often incorrectly called antelope) are the fastest land animal in the Western Hemisphere and second in the world only to the Cheetah. They can sprint at speeds up to 60mph and run for extraordinarily long distances at slower speeds.
It sure isn’t often you find one of these wary creatures laying down. They usually see you coming from a long way away and start retreating immediately. This particular lady was the exception, letting me roll right up and snap some pictures as she laid down on the prairie.
I saw quite a number of these speed demons this past weekend, mostly does but a few bucks. I had hoped to find some new fawns but didn’t have any luck this time.
Before the arrival of western Europeans, it is believed as many as 40 million Pronghorn roamed the open rangelands of North America – possibly more than there were bison. Hunting and fragmentation of their habitat by fences and human settlements took its toll and as few as 20,000 remained at the start of the 20th century. Thankfully conservation and education saved them from extinction and they now number almost 1 million.
