Animals and Flowers bursting out in June

Whetstone Mountain

 Amazing summer happenings here at Star Mt. The wildflowers are in full bloom and wild animal sightings are everywhere. We've just come off a week with good friends from Naples visiting, and I have so many photos, I'm breaking this into separate posts.

the bear crossed over the road and I walked right in its path

Bear sightings galore! First, a very large black bear popped out while I was walking early one morning. You can see he ambled down the road to pass quite close to our back fence. I stayed quite far away and just used my zoom lens on my camera.

he's wet from getting out of the pond -photo by Don.

Mark and I saw two other bears between the two of us (no photos sadly) and then while taking friend Don on our ATV for a ride, Mark and Don saw this one at our pond. They are all black bear by designation but come in a variety of colors. Beautiful!

moose number 1

moose number 1 

moose number 2

Moose number 2

moose number 3

Onto the moose - as in plural. WOW is the reaction we all had. These were all sightings when taking our company, Don and Roxanne, around to see various places, so I have to think they had some sort of moose whisperer vibe going. Moose number one (juvenile) was on the paved back road to Crested Butte. Moose number two (another juvenile) was the same day on the way back into Crested Butte for dinner. Moose number three (adult male) was near Ouray and Silverton area a few days later.

glacier lily - a bear favorite 

sunflower

lupine

Columbine - Colorado state flower

photo by Don

Oh the flowers! The scope is hard to show but it is a magnificent display in every direction.

red fox with prey

doe

dusky male grouse - it's a fake "eye" to scare away from the nearby nest

Some more of our creatures on my morning walk.  I never know what I'm going to see. Makes it extra interesting to get out there.

And while these are not wild animals, I'm including them, as all the while we play,  the cowboys work their cattle around us. A slowly dying way of life. We are immensely lucky to have it in our area.  It's also a reminder our leased cattle will be descending on us soon in Star Mt. proper for the summer until October. The rancher is waiting for the larkspur to die down at Star Mt. which is a beautiful purple wildflower but poisonous to cattle.