| Well as it turns out, there are a lot of different kinds of critters that live in Northern Arizona. Some are quite common while others are rare and thus one often has to venture from the beaten path to find them. Here are a few I've had the pleasure to stumble upon. Hope you enjoy these videos.
I might mention that I am fortunate enough to have a lot of wonderful folk musician friends. They very graciously let me use recordings I have made of them as background music. All of them are way better than they sound here. That's because here they were recorded with my little home DV camera and in some cases the recordings were made at events they were playing at where a lot of back ground noise and even stage sound problems might have been present. At any rate check out their websites and try to find a way to help support them, they really are great people! |
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Tiny Turkeys |
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| We had just walk out across this big open meadow and decided to rest a moment on the edge of a smaller meadow near a little cow pond. Then out of the trees comes this hen turkey with her poults. It was awesome watching them chase the grasshoppers around.
It's actually Williams Valley over in the White Mountains. The song is "Questions of a Child" by Larry Peterson of Flagstaff. He hosts an open mic night on Tuesdays at Charlies in the Weatherford downtown at 9:00. I'm sure he would play it for you if you requested it. |
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Bears at Work |
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| I can assure you it's pretty rare to happen upon something like this. Bears are not uncommon in Arizona but they are very shy and thus you usually have to get pretty lucky to find them.
Most experienced campers know that it is wise to properly stow the food when camped in bear country, which happens to be a lot of Northern Arizona. They are sure fun to watch though. Bear cubs have got to be the cutest critter in nature. My buddy Tony Norris was kind enough let me record the song when we were at his place in Mexico this spring. |
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The elk invasion |
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| We were out for a leisurely hike when we noticed a couple of cow elk feeding below. And, like the proverbial tip of the ice burg, where there is some there is probably more. Sure enough the longer we waited the more elk began to avail themselves. This herd had a bunch of cows and a few spikes but there were a lot of little ones that frolicing gayly about as well. They seem to be descending right toward me as if I was a water hole or something. If you listen close you can hear them calling.
Then this little knobby spike obliviously started gracing right toward me. He must have been real hungry because he rarely even picked his head up. Then finally he noticed me. Of course, the surprised look of realization on his face brought me to laughter and that sent them all thundering off. |
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The Lone Bull |
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| There is not much in nature more magnificent in natures' animal kingdom then a mature bull elk. This guy gave me several minutes of wonderful video that I have edited down to this for you. It's pretty entertaining to see him sparring with that juniper bush. Notice those horns come in real handy for scratching those hard to reach areas too.
While travelling through Northern Arizona you'll want to keep a most watchful eye for these guys grazing along side the road. (Especially at night!) Some areas are nothing less than thick with these magnificent animals and make no mistake about it, the bumper on your car will be practically useless if you encounter one of these guys at high speed. Don't overdrive your headlights. |
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