Within a few weeks the golden leaves of the aspen trees will have fallen, but at this very second this bull moose has stumbled into a magical moment with his lovely lady. Autumn is my favorite season of the year, when the leaves begin to change and the large ungulates — the elk, deer and moose — try to take care of all the things they need to do before the long winter arrives. The scene shown here exists in no particular place, but is in fact a composite of several locations from Alaska to Wyoming and Montana. These hardy spruce and fir trees have seen quite a lot of snow, but they’ve been around long enough to see that spring is never very far away . . . except in Alaska. - RF