Funny – you can go a year and never see anything more of elk than tracks and scat. And in fact that’s all I ever see of them in person, except that lately there’s lots and lots of both all through my stomping ground. Probably in the fullness of time they’ll head out somewhere else, but right now they’re not shy about being right here. I pulled the mem card out of the game camera this morning, not expecting much because it’s only been three days or so. Instead I had over 1100 images of at least one elk herd just sort of hanging around, no apparent care in the world, at two different times. It’s always evening or the middle of the night, but the first of these was still in full sun and that’s unusual.
That’s just a random 100 frames, it doesn’t matter: I spent nearly an hour going through the card contents and at no point did anybody do anything particularly interesting or amusing. It’s just unusual that they hung around so long so nonchalantly in such numbers.
And they were quite aware of the camera, of course…
…they mostly just didn’t seem to care.
Clearly they don’t need the waterer to the extent that cattle do, I can go days and nights without ever seeing a single ungulate of any kind and of course last winter there was hardly an elk for the camera to find. But right now they seem to have decided that their place is here, and since that’s so why not have a drink?
Hunting pressure at higher elevations driving them your direction?
Looks like the elk have gotten used to the IR flash.
Judy, you could be right. I think a lot of elk and deer know they cannot be shot (allegedly) in a residential/improved area. Safe places to hang out during hunting season. And yes, I imagine lower elevations are attractive. Joel, Llovely to see all the elk. They are also tasty. **