Bald eagle, mountain goats and marmot gather for ‘once in a lifetime’ photos

A Colorado photographer captured what he calls a “once in a lifetime” series of snapshots Thursday atop Mount Blue Sky.

The photos show a herd of mountain goats, a bald eagle and a yellow-bellied marmot – all in the same frame.

Dominic Weskamp shared the incredible photos in Denver7’s Discover Colorado | Through Your Photos group on Facebook , and we just had to get him on the horn to hear about them. He said he never expected such a scene to unfold.

“I used to call it a trifecta if I could take a trip and get a moose, a bighorn sheep and an elk all on the same day,” he said. “I never dreamed of getting three things in the same picture.”

Hear from Weskamp about the amazing photos in the video player below:

Weskamp drove up Mount Blue Sky Thursday in search of the peak’s famous mountain goat herd and marmots. He said the goats were “everywhere” near the parking lot when he and his wife arrived at the summit. He hoped to photograph them, only away from the parking lot and bathroom facility, so he followed as they wandered up a nearby ridge.

“My wife noticed a bald eagle soaring. And I'm sitting there trying to track it, and it finally just landed on top of that ridge,” Weskamp recalled. “It sat there on that ridge for a while and next thing I know there's a marmot right next to it. [Then] the little herd of mountain goats come walking over the ridge and they're all right there.”

“It was just such an amazing thing to sit there and watch.”

Dominic Weskamp Photography

Weskamp is friends with Michael Ryno, who recorded a video of goats climbing on a Subaru atop Mount Blue Sky that recently went viral . The two share duties posting wildlife photos to the Douglas Land Conservancy social media pages.

“That’s kind of who shamed me into going out there,” Weskamp joked on Friday. “It's like, okay, Mike's up there getting great video. I need to go up there and get some pictures, because the opportunities are there.”

Weskamp, who describes himself as “a bald eagle photographer” and says America’s national bird is among his favorite things to capture, wasn’t expecting to see one on Thursday. He said it was a pleasant surprise because of the eagle’s special meaning to him.

“I'm a retired military guy, so I'm very patriotic. I love the bald eagle,” said Weskamp, who served 10 years in the U.S. Army and 20 more with the U.S. Public Health Service before retiring in 2020. “If you go look for bald eagles and you find them, that's great. But when you're not looking for them and you find one, that's just amazing.”

Dominic Weskamp Photography

The photos Weskamp took Thursday – and many others he’s shared in the photography group over the years – are incredible. But when reflecting on his photography with Denver7, he said he hopes his work shows that anyone can get out and experience Colorado’s beautiful outdoors.

“I'm a disabled vet. So, the good thing about it is most of my pictures are [taken from] pretty close to a road because I don't hike up long trails anymore,” he said. “So these pictures are all things that the average person who doesn't want to go hike up a 14er or hike a bunch of miles can see.”

“You just gotta get out on the road and keep your eyes open.”

Dominic Weskamp Photography

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