When you’re a polar bear, there’s really not much to do while waiting for the ice to freeze. These two males spent days playfighting and otherwise hanging around as they patiently waited for the Hudson Bay to freeze over so that they might journey out to hunt for seals.

Some of the oldest photos that I have in my collection are of Alaskan brown bears. Alaska (because of its bears) is one of the places that I really want to get back to as soon as possible to update and refresh what I photographed way back then. This mother bear had two cubs and she was fishing for salmon in this marshy area of Katmai National Park.

Another rarity for me (no animals, plus a man made structure). Anyone who has been to Grand Tetons National Park will recognize this barn. Several such structures sit in the shadow of what is arguably the most picturesque mountain chain in the American Rockies. On this particular trip, I was only there for one night and was hoping for some spectacular light. It wasn’t to be, but I did like the way that the little creek (the result of some heavy rains) leads the eye into the frame.

Puffins are a lot quicker in flight than you might think, making them tough to photograph as they dart back and forth. I photographed this one from a boat, just before we docked on Machias Seal Island off the coast of Maine.

Here’s one for the frog fans. This handsome fellow emerged from a pond of duckweed soup and crawled up onto that log for a little rest. The location is Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge in southern Indiana.

This prairie dog was living in a small town near the base of Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming (that’s what they call an area of active burrows — a prairie dog “town”). I got down low in order to frame the animal with all that out of focus green grass.

I’ve been hearing a lot of talk about river otters lately so I thought I’d post one today. This guy had just crawled up onto the ice to eat a fish. When he was done, he gave a nice head shake, sending all those water droplets into the air.

Yes, it’s true, sometimes I take photos with no animals in sight. This one was from Moñtana de Oro State Park in Los Osos, California. In Spanish it means mountains of gold, and the park was given its name because of all the yellow wildflowers that dot the landscape. Closer to the water, the layers of rock make for interesting seascapes — with or without the resident seals, sea otters, or sea lions.

There are two species of sea lions that frequent the Pacific coast of the United States — the Steller sea lions and the California sea lions. This is a colony of California sea lions, photographed at Elkhorn Slough in Moss Landing (which is just north of Monterey). Stacked on top of each other like this all day is sure to cause some tempers to flare and fights break out often. These sea lions took over a dock that was built for tourists back in 2007 and they haven’t given it up since. Sea lions are a protected species under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and they were therefore granted the right of way on the dock, which is now closed off to people for safety reasons

It’s been a while since the last black bear post. This youngster was photographed a few years back at about this time of year in Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee. I was hiking one of the park’s trails when I came across this bear, a sibling of the same age, and the mother. I watched for at least an hour as the two young bears played (and their mother made sure that I stayed a safe distance away).