Month: November 2021

With the Yellowstone River in the foreground, the Absaroka Range in the background, and a glorious sunrise with clouds, what better way to start our fall Yellowstone adventure? This gorgeous sunrise was the perfect to start and a great introduction for what’s to come this week. Better yet, our first day got even better. No sooner had we photographed this beautiful scene than we came across a band of Pronghorn to photograph. Later in the day we photographed Bison, Elk, and a Bald Eagle. And, on the way out of Yellowstone National Park as the sky darkened into late afternoon, we spotted a large band of Bighorn Sheep on the hillside by the old Yellowstone road. We’re here to photograph wolves but the bovines took center stage on Tuesday. We’re hoping that the canines (wolves, coyotes, red fox) will present themselves sometime during the week but we’re encouraged by all the other critters we’ve seen so far.

On our last day in Alaska, we spent a couple of hours with a small band of moose in a forest in Kincaid Park near the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. This young moose approached to check us out.

It was a “deer in the headlights” look. But not on this bull moose (moose are the largest members of the deer family) but on me, the photographer as this big guy lumbered across the road directly at me. I was so mesmerized by his approach that I barely heard Moose (my two-legged friend and purported cousin of the four-legged moose) shouting at me to “move!” I kept on shooting. We were in Kincaid Park in Anchorage and had seen so few moose on our visit to Alaska that I guess my brain just didn’t engage as I finally had my target in my viewfinder. Moose (the two-legged one) had to grab my sleeve and yank me to my senses and out of the way. Thankfully, his quick action prevented any disaster but I was embarrassed and chagrinned that I was so complacent about the approach of such a massive wild beast. I should have been more aware and should have remembered that over the years, many Alaskans I have spoken with are more afraid of encountering a moose than a grizzly bear. On more than one occasion when we found moose crossing the road or trail and stopped to photograph them, the Alaskans on the same trail turned and went the opposite direction. Another life lesson for this old broad.

The signs for a street near my home say Tarmigan. For thirty years that name has made me chuckle. I have always wondered why the developer would bother to name a street when doing so would require it to be misspelled, presumably because the real spelling of “ptarmigan” includes a silent “p” before the “t” and that silent “p” might be too much for people to grasp or maybe for the mail to be delivered. In any case, the Willow Ptarmigan is a gorgeous bird in the grouse family and it is the state bird of Alaska although I took this photograph in Churchill, Canada four years ago.

It was so much fun last week at the airport in Anchorage, Alaska when we stood on a berm paralleling the runway and photographed cargo planes taking off. Anchorage is the second largest cargo hub in the world because of its central location. With beautiful clouds and gorgeous mountains as a backdrop, we photographed plane after plane as they taxied and got airborne. We saw cargo planes from China, Ethiopia, Japan, and other places, as well as UPS and FedEx cargo planes, and even some smaller cargo carriers like Kalitta Air, seen in this photograph.

Making eye contact with a critter is so exciting to me. It gives the photograph I take a personal connection with that animal. And capturing that connection with my camera, from the smallest bird to the largest mammal, is something that gives me a thrill. I was so fortunate last week in Alaska to make that connection over and over. This is one of several Moose we came across in Kincaid Park in Anchorage next to the airport. It’s a young bull moose foraging through a pile of leaves on the forest floor.

Kincaid Park near the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport is where we finally succeeded in finding moose to photograph last week. This young bull is nibbling on a Rugosa Rose, an invasive rose species that seems to suit his palate. Someone had dumped a huge pile of garden waste on this access road near the airport which contained branches from the rose. A couple of times, we found moose sifting through the pile of trimmings to find a delicacy and all deer seem to love nibbling on roses.

Even without the massive curls, Bighorn Rams can appear quite majestic. In Flaming Gorge last month, this young ram sported that majestic look of superiority as he glanced back at our small group of photographers. He was cooperative, though, and posed for us down by the West Greens Lake nature trail for a short time.

It’s not quite the Scarlet Letter but this Scarlet Tag certainly draws attention to this young bull moose and must have been placed there for a reason. I’m not sure why he was ear-tagged but we saw him near the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. I’ve heard that moose sometimes can be a problem there. The tag is difficult to read but it is from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and printed by hand on the tag are the words: “Do not (word obscured by ID button) if killed before: (blank).” There is an ID number on the button and also printed by hand at the bottom of the red tag but the date is left blank or has washed off. This moose hasn’t matured enough to sport the massive antlers that mature bull moose carry. And, one of his small antlers has already been shed so the other one will probably drop off soon. But the Scarlet Tag will probably be there for a long, long time.