2017 Mixed Bag: Day 102 - Channeling My Inner Wildlife Willie

Well...it goes without saying that you can't spend 72 hours with the world's one and only Wildlife Willie and not find yourself jealously inspired. Certainly, at my age and stage, I'll never be as well-equipped as Wildlife Willie (see his stuff below), but I can still get out and give it the old college try!

Click the pic for the true telephoto experience

Told you he had impressive stuff!

So...I picked his brain without him knowing it. He shared that he frequented "wildlife reserves." I think that's where he acquired the moniker, "Wildlife Willie." A little research revealed that there is one of them thar reserves a mere 40 miles northeast east of "The Boat" on the way to Walden Colorado. Nuff said...Lizzy pack 'em up; here we go! We thought we were troopers heading out at 5:00 AM, but the sun was already coming up. Imagine that!! How on earth can Wildlife Willie rise and shine in time to beat the sun up? Oh, well...on we go.

The GPS instructions suggested the we turn on CR-34. As we do, we're convinced we're turning into some farmer's back yard, so we get back on 14 and keep heading toward Walden. The morning was beautiful, especially with all the low hanging fog in the valleys between the mountains. Reminded us a lot of Carrollton back home, dontchsee?

Along the way our first encounter was some elk cows...

...and then a couple of Mule Deer bucks...

We waited while he made his decision...

...decision made! I use-ta could jump a fence like that!

My equipment, unlike Wildlife Willie's, is a bit old and slow for pre-dawn shots of any quality. Well...maybe that better describes me!

Finally, we found one of the 432 entrances into the Arapaho National Wildlife Reserve...whew! The rest is history. I almost ran out of film...and my camera is digital! Imagine that!!

Here goes, folks; it's all in a day's ~~work~~ play!

Pronghorn were everywhere...this is a mom and her offspring

By far the most abundant wildlife...Prairie Dogs

These rascals even built their towns/holes in the middle of the dirt road!

Is it the barn? Or is it the setting?? Who cares!!! It's gorgeous!

Rare sighting...a Sage Grouse. Take that, Wildlife Willie!

Not sure what this is, but I could swear I heard the other critters refer to him as, "Jack."

We spent the entire morning in the reserve and the hits just kept on coming!

Lots of Canada Geese. They're most beautiful in their natural habitat rather than on the golf course.

Sorry! I dig colorful mountain meadows, too.

Goose Flats

Walden Colorado is the moose capital of Colorado. That said, in almost a dozen trips there, we might have seen 3 meese. The next photo probably explains why; they're incredibly lazy! We watched his majesty for over an hour and he refused to move anything but his ears.

Lazy, lousy moose...we never got closer than 300 yards and he wouldn't budge.

Pronghorn in their element.

Well, either I ran out of film or Lizzy got hungry....hmmm. But, we had to skeedadle. On the way out, we managed to grab a few more memories of this glorious morning, in cool, colorful, Colorado!