Local wildlife safari with the camera

Before the pandemic, my trusty camera was tucked up tight in its bag like a bear in hibernation waiting for the spring travel season to start. After putting the camera into its hibernation after returning from Africa mid December, we continued to re-adjust to the cold and enjoy winter, get out to walk in all weather conditions regularly and ski of cause. The Norwegians call it “friluftsliv” embracing the season and being in nature. I started my “streaming” clips on a whim. Walking up the trail, listening to the water babble away over the ice, with the hills in the distance was so peaceful & relaxing. I just wanted to share some quick relaxing positivity.

On our walks we would often see deer or the birds returning as winter slowly slid out the door and spring rolled in.  Locals call it “mud season” as the snow melts and mud is ever present. A lot of locals escape to sunny locations to warm up after the winter, leaving town almost a ghost town. For the wildlife in our quiet mountain town it’s time to find a new menu as different plants appear from their snow covered jail.

The first moose of the season is always exciting. Every few years, a mum will bring her baby to our pond, but we hadn’t seen one in a while.  Of course, they could have swung by at night or simply not wanted to show themselves to us. The pond is a like a supermarket of food for them, whether it’s the trees around or weeds in the pond. It’s a handy, relatively safe place to stop for a snack. When the moose arrived, I raced up to awaken the camera (lucky it still had some battery life) and got some shots of him doing his moose thing before he wandered off in search of new adventures.  After recharging the battery, I safely stowed the camera back in its bag to sleep comfortably.

As spring takes over, the yard needs work waking up and the cars need some long awaited attention to let go of winter salt and grime. That’s where I found myself watching two hawks above the house slowly drifting on the thermals in circles, looking for food. Once again, I raced upstairs, upsetting Asali from her bungalow (create training learning to be alone) and grabbed the camera, but it was too late and I had to suffer thru Asali crying to be let out before alone time was finished. It was time to officially wake the camera up, putting me back into animal spotting mode, just like on the safari truck in the Mara.

Asali was a puppy and hence has a lot of energy. Walking is a good way to burn off some of that energy and for us to bond. It still is a big part of our days, so it didn’t take long and a bit of luck to stumble upon the hawks’ nest  – crazily only a street away from home. After multiple passes looking up at the nest, we finally got to see three baby red tail hawks. Strolling by most days it was a pleasure to watch them grow while squawk for food. One day they were gone. I’m sure gonna be looking up at the nest when we go by from spring on and hope they come back.

By now the camera was ready to go. I guess being at home more with an open frame of mind allows you to be more aware of your surroundings. Training Asali in the back yard brought our next wildlife adventure.  Our neighbor was mowing the lawn. He had found a snake only 4 inches (10 Cm) long with a black head and weird looking tail. “Rattlesnake” comes out of his mouth fast and before you know it, the snake is gone. Being from Australia, snakes are always dangerous so automatically we are on high alert, while even the simplest stick looks to be moving.

Training done, we go back inside to continue with the day, lunch time rolls around and Asali needs to go out. Instead of doing her business, she races to the corner of the house immediately barking. We don’t really want that kind of behavior (neither do our neighbors), so I go out and look over the deck to see she’s barking at a bigger snake at least 3 feet (75Cm) long squashed between the house and landscaping timbers. Racing down, I grab her (bare feet and all) then race inside to grab the camera. It turns out mum snake was having babies. You can see on the photo the bigger sections towards her tail.

She must have had a least 20 little baby snakes before being interrupted while heading towards the pond and stream at our back fence. Urgent pictures sent to a wildlife loving friend, Ron (thanks, Ron!), revealed it was a harmless garter snake. Harmless, as their mouths can’t really open up enough to bite anything to big but small critters and have no poison venom.

Now, not only is the camera on the coffee table, but I often stroll out onto the deck with Asali when she needs to go out, just to check for wildlife. It’s quite relaxing just looking around at the hills sometimes with a coffee or a glass of wine depending on the time of day.

Two young deer were no real surprise when they were just walking around the pond playing. By now, you’ve got to be thinking “these guys must be in a real rural area.” Not really.  We have a school less than 5 minutes walk from home, a full community around us, a main road (state road) leading into the ski resorts and shopping area just past the school. Luckily, we also have lots of open areas parks, walking and bike trails (thanks to Summit County and conservation not- -for-profits like Summit Land Conservancy. Hills are just past some more houses on the other side of the state road.

Sometimes you forget, and on a Sunday while making a test run of our margarita recipe. I let Asali out, as I’m focused on making sure the recipe is correct. Somewhere between finishing juicing the limes and straining the juice, l look out the back doors only to see a BIG moose standing in the fire pit area of our back yard. (You know a moose is big when you can see it above our deck 4 feet [1 meter] above the ground) The phone starts ringing as I race outside. What I was going to do?  I don’t know – thankfully the moose decided it was time to move on stepping over the back fence and into the pond. Relieved Asali is OK, I answer the phone. It’s our neighbors from across the pond making sure we knew there was a moose in our back yard.

Apparently Asali went down the stairs straight to the grassy area to burn some puppy energy with the moose just watching her bit of puppy crazy until it decided to wander along. A big relief, as moose have been known to kick and kill dogs that get too close or bark. Guess Asali wasn’t interested in the big moose and would rather run around. This, of course, bodes well for our off-leash hiking in the hills next summer knowing that Asali is smart enough to stay away from wildlife bigger that her. The moose hung out for about 5 days on and off. Guess the HOA (home owners association) veggie gardens were worth sampling & hanging out in.Ang confesses to watching her for hours one day

An amazing season of wildlife, even if we couldn’t go traveling. It got us out looking around, aware and enjoying where we live with the beauty life has to offer, if you just pay attention to it. The camera is still on the coffee table, ready for a beautiful sunset, cloudy sunrise or any other wildlife that may want to say hi. It also has me wondering what else do we put into hibernation’s it’s the wrong season or time, missing opportunities to grow, open our eyes and minds to? I’m paying more attention now, are you?  What’s your Hibernating camera? 

We’ve seen a bald eagle around a few times. Haven’t yet caught it with the camera, but I sure hope too.