Thought I’d take a quick break from all the Africa pictures and revisit the polar bears for today’s post. These two male bears had been play fighting for about ten minutes before finally tiring out and collapsing into each other. I like the way that the bear on the left appears to be telling the other guy a secret. This was shot at Seal River in northern Manitoba, Canada.

I had to go out to Los Angeles this weekend and was able to squeeze a couple of hours in this morning to visit Griffith Park. I’ve always wanted to check out this park and finally got around to it at sunrise today when I was immediately greeted by three howling coyotes. It’s hard to believe such wilderness exists amidst the urban sprawl of LA. All I can say is the place is big. 4210 acres big. By comparison, Central Park is a mere 843 acres. The official website states that “Griffith Park is the largest municipal park with urban wilderness area in the United States.” Most of the animals found around the Los Angeles basin are found in the park, including coyotes, bobcats, and deer.  The only exception is mountain lion, although there was one that made its way into the park back in 2004. Next time I’m in LA, I’ll have to set aside a little extra time for further exploration.

As my final post for the next two weeks I figured I might as well go with a big ticket item. These male polar bears are trying to prove dominance by who has the bigger mouth. As for my next two weeks, I’ll be in Kenya and hope to return with many more big ticket items. Stay tuned.

The last time I was visited Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado I took a bunch of panorama shots (usually five or so frames across that I later stitched together in Photoshop). They look great big with tons of detail, although quite small and underwhelming in the format of this blog. I never posted any because of that. But if you click on this image, the full size photo will load (you might have to click it again after it loads to go full size). If you’ve never been to Great Sand Dunes, it’s a great place. One of my favorite national parks, and also one of the newest, having only recently been upgraded from a national monument to a national park.

I photographed this young black tailed deer a while back in one of my favorite locations, Olympic National Park in Washington state. The little guy was eating grass along the side of the road with his/her mother and took a quick break to see what I was up to.

I’ve posted quite a few photos of elephant seals before but I keep finding new ones that I like. This mother was protecting her newborn pup from other agitated seals that were sharing space on the beach (and perhaps from the close approach of a photographer — the only one on the deserted beach last winter near the small town of San Simeon, California).

This mother moose and her son seem to be having a bit of a conversation as they walk through the snow. I was driving through Silver Gate, Montana when I spotted them through a stand of evergreens on the side of the road.

At about this time every year, thousands of snow geese and sandhill cranes descend upon Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. It’s quite a spectacle seeing giant flocks take off en masse every morning at dawn. It’s also nice to witness the quieter moments — like the morning I photographed these two cranes wading in a shallow lake.

I was just finishing breakfast when I saw these two polar bears through the dining room window of the lodge.  I quickly grabbed my equipment and hustled on out to a side patio to record the action. Turns out I could have taken my time as they kept at it for a good 20 minutes or so. They were obviously play fighting on the ice, but at times it really did look like they were out on a giant dance floor.

Tule elk are the smallest subspecies of elk in North America. They live only in a few small pockets of California. One of the most reliable places to see them is at Point Reyes National Seashore north of San Francisco. It was getting near the end of the day when I came across a small herd of females, including this young lady who was obviously reacting to a particularly funny joke that I told her.