It’s been awhile since I posted a puffin. In fact, it’s been a while since I’ve seen one. This photo was taken on my first trip to Machias Seal Island — off the coast of Maine — back in 2008. Not sure what that little eel-like thing in its beak is, but it was nesting season and all the Atlantic puffins were busy flying back and forth from sea to nest, bringing meals to their young. Nikon D200 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 200, f/4 at 1/1000th of a second.

An encounter with a red fox is always a good thing. This guy looks like he knows something that I don’t. Photographed while on a coastal brown bear trip in Lake Clark National Park in Alaska. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/1000th of a second.

This barred owl had just devoured an eastern lubber grasshopper and was looking back toward the branch he/she had just descended from and would eventually fly back to. Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 280mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/800th of a second.

A few winters back I captured this bighorn ram working his way down to a patch of exposed grass on an otherwise snow-covered mountain. Photographed in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 210mm) ISO 400, f/11 at 1/500th of a second.

Here’s another of the white squirrels I met out in Olney, Illinois. The town has a healthy population of this white variant of the eastern gray squirrel. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/400th of a second.

Two coastal brown bears look back in unison as they patrol the shoreline of Lake Clark National Park, Alaska. In late summer through fall, the bears come to the beach in search of salmon. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 360mm) ISO 640, f/4 at 1/1250th of a second.

I captured this image of a bull moose in northern Colorado a few years back on a rainy day. It’s always nice when you can photograph the wildlife from the comfort of the driver’s seat of your car. It was early July and the moose’s antlers were covered in velvet and quite a ways from being fully grown. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/100th of a second.

A female Dall sheep walks along a granite cliff beside the Seward Highway south of Anchorage, Alaska. Dall sheep, also called thinhorn sheep, are characterized by their white fur. They range from western Canada on up through Alaska. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 350mm) ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/250th of a second.

I’m assuming this is an adult opossum with a youngster trailing behind. They were caught on one of my camera traps as they walked along one of the many fallen ash trees in my back woods. An invasive beetle — the emerald ash borer — has been killing nearly all the ash trees in Connecticut, and across thirty other states. Terrible news for our native forests, but the fallen trees provide plenty of habitat for opossums and other small woodland creatures. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 500, f/14 at 1/200th of a second, Cognisys camera box, trail monitor and flashes.

I generally don’t like to post photos like this but it’s important to understand the consequences when it comes to human interactions with wildlife. Feeding wild animals is never a good idea. This brown pelican, and many other shorebirds, are often the victims of what some think is an act of kindness — tossing them dead baitfish and fish carcasses. Pelicans that are fed associate people with an easy meal and often mistake a lure for another handout. Undoubtedly, that’s what happened to this brown pelican in the heavily populated seaside town of La Jolla, California. Fortunately, this story had a happy ending, as local authorities were able to safely remove the hook. Many other birds aren’t as lucky. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/8 at 1/1250th of a second.