While I was surveying the landscape in search of wolves this weekend in Yellowstone, I noticed this unita ground squirrel about 10 feet away checking me out. As I got down to take a few photos, it started making a sound that I presume was some sort of warning call. In the process, I also got a nice wink.
I learned a valuable lesson this weekend — check the weather before packing. I went to Yellowstone for Memorial Day to capture newborn baby animals frolicking in meadows of budding wildflowers. I was obviously mistaken. This shot was taken on Sunday, but it could have been either Friday, Saturday or Monday. It was like this the entire weekend — weather I might welcome were it not for the fact that I didn’t bring anything heavier than a light fleece. To make matters worse, a major rock slide on Friday closed off a major section of the park. That being said, it is Yellowstone, and there’s always something to photograph. I’ve never seen more bison in the park and there were, in fact, plenty of babies. This guy was grazing nearby a thermal pond which added to the white out of the blizzard-like conditions.
When I was in Manitoba to photograph the polar bears there was a small film crew there working on a 3D movie of the bears. This camera was set up to record time lapse panoramas of the tide rising and falling on the Hudson Bay. The camera guys were getting a little nervous that the bear might make lunch out of their expensive gear. In this instance, the bear just examined the camera for a few seconds before moving on. A few days earlier, however, a healthy chunk was taken out of one of their tripods.
A couple of photos today of mute swans. These were taken last spring in Cape May, New Jersey. From the ibird app on my iphone, I offer this interesting, yet melancholic tidbit: “The phrase ‘swan song’ refers to this swan and to the legend that it is utterly silent until the last moment of its life, and then sings one achingly beautiful song just before dying.”
I came upon this elephant seal first thing in the morning along the central California coast. It had been sleeping well back beyond the beach and the dunes. At night, they’ll often bed down quite a distance from the water. This one was a juvenile and no longer under the protection of its mother. It didn’t quite know what to think of me at first and just laid there staring at the camera. Then it decided to tell me that maybe I was just a little too close. Not wanting to disturb the seal anymore than I already had, I snapped off a final shot and headed down to the beach to check out the rest of the colony.
I spotted this mustang and her young foal in Monument Valley last year. Also known as wild horses, or feral horses, mustangs in the American west are descendants of horses brought over from Spain by early explorers. Most were brought to either Mexico or Florida. Eventually a few escaped or were stolen by native Americans and they rapidly spread throughout the west.
In honor of my mother’s birthday today, I figured I’d post a crane of another sort. This sandhill crane is from Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. Â Every fall, thousands of these cranes, as well as snow geese, flock to the open fields and shallow lakes in the area.
This was another of the sea otters that I recently photographed at Elkhorn Slough in California. As I mentioned before, it’s rare to get them on land like this. I kind of liked the sequence here, as the otter appears to be pretty happy about something.
I thought this golden-fronted woodpecker was a particularly handsome bird. In the US these guys live only in Texas, and a small portion of southern Oklahoma. I photographed this one in Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge near Rio Hondo, Texas. Other than that, there’s not much more to say about them so I’ll attempt to educate instead by tossing out the fact that a group of woodpeckers can be called a descent, a drumming or a gatling. Now go forth and use this knowledge as you see fit.
Every night when I get on my computer to post an image I think to myself, why not a duck today. But then I send a monkey, or a bear or a frog. Ducks just don’t seem that exciting when compared to their fellow creatures. Today, however, I’m going to stick to my guns and give ducks their due. These two are northern pintails and they were photographed at Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico last year. For a little more excitement, check out the sound file of their call.