The last three years in June and July, I’ve spent a lot of time actively looking for moose calves to photograph but have been unsuccessful. While I have found none of those previous encounters led to any photos. This week that streak finally ended when I came across this cooperative mom and calf. I was able to spend about half an hour with these two as they grazed in the water and moved around. Mom was mostly interested in eating but the youngster seemed more involved in exploring.

I went back out looking for mountain goats recently. At first none were seen so I enjoyed the alpine flowers that were blooming. After about half an hour, this goat showed up. It was the only one but the backlit scene shortly after sunrise was certainly beautiful. It was incredibly windy at the summit so I didn’t stay around too long and opted to go looking for moose which proved to be unsuccessful. Nonetheless with this image, I felt the morning was a good one.

The hummingbirds returned this week, almost to the day as the same time last summer. The first one we noticed buzzing around our flowers was a male rufous hummingbird, possibly this one. I’ve seen two males and at least one female or immature hummingbird so far. If previous summers are an indicator, many more should start arriving soon. These birds are tough to photograph given their size as one of the smallest birds in North America and the fact they are rarely still when in flight. But it feels very rewarding when I’m able to get a few decent photos.