Month: November 2023

A young male Vermilion Flycatcher is growing into his adult plumage in his desert oasis. This flycatcher is a fascinating bird, small and busy and fortunately for us, consistent in his habits. We found him in the same vicinity every day. He would sit on a perch like this one, watching for flies and insects, then flit off to capture one, then return over and over to the same perch. Then, he would alter things a bit, flying first to a fence post, then to another twig, and repeat that pattern for a while, and then change things up again, but almost always returning to the same or a neighboring tree. He was a welcome photography subject and I finally realized that if I stayed put, I would eventually be prepared for his return and get an unobstructed view.

The concentration this Black-crowned Night Heron displayed was awesome. It didn’t move while it stared intently into the shallow water under a fallen tree branch on which it stood, watching for a fish or some other prey to pass beneath its unfaltering gaze.

It took a bit of maneuvering for this immature American White Pelican to flip a fish it scooped up from the pond into its throat pouch so that it would slide easily into its gullet. It was one big gulp.

Bighorn rams tend to gather in small groups and go everywhere together at this time of year. This quartet, four of the more mature rams, stuck close to each other perhaps discussing how to interest the ewes in something more than just munching grass.

When Bighorn Sheep ram curls his upper lip and bares his teeth, inhales with nostrils closed, and holds his head high, it is a way to determine if a ewe is in estrus. It is that time of year. The rams have one thing on their minds.

In Yellowstone National Park a couple of weeks ago, a bull Elk paused briefly as he munched the grasses and raised his head so I could get a better look at him.

The sun had was over the horizon as we turned west and headed away from the morning sunrise on Caddo Lake. Sunlight reflected off the Spanish moss that cascaded down the Bald Cypress tree branches. Fall colors were on display.

This Tom gobbles thanks that he made it through Thanksgiving unscathed. The Thanksgiving he’s gobbling about was actually 2016 and I took this portrait of him in June 2017 in Madera Canyon, Arizona using my Nikon D5 and Nikkor 600mm f/4 lens. I’m thankful I’m not lugging that beast around anymore (although I have taken some of my favorite images with it) and I look forward to capturing many fabulous images with my new (and significantly lighter——5 1/2 pounds lighter!) Nikkor Z600PF lens.

As sunrises go, Caddo Lake sunrises can be over the top sensational. And, after experiencing the intense reds from our second day there earlier this month, I voiced disappointment in the more subdued colors from our third morning there. When I asked to trade places in the boat on our last morning, I took a bit of a ribbing about it, as if 18 inches further forward in the boat could possibly make a difference in the color. In my defense, I actually asked to trade so I could be in the front with an unobstructed view of the lake and laughed off the good natured ribbing I took from my companions. However, on that last day, there was almost no color in the sky. And, now, a couple of weeks removed from the trip and a second look back at sunrise images from the third morning, I was struck by how much color there actually was. And, the color is intensified and expanded because of the reflections of the sunrise in the water. I don’t know why I could have possibly felt disappointment in this sunrise. It is subdued but it is every bit as spectacular as the other sunrises we experienced there.

When they’re less than a year old, young Bighorn Sheep are called lambs. It was fun to watch the lambs bounding across the meadow and playing with each other.

During the rut, Bighorn Sheep rams vie for dominance in the herd, the older, larger rams generally dominating. The confrontation seems to start with a nudge, then a circling dance. It doesn’t always result in a clashing of heads and horns but it is always fascinating to watch their intricate choreography.

A Bighorn ewe looks up from her breakfast of grasses growing around the sagebrush. I didn’t see any of the sheep eating sage while they were standing in the midst of it although they will eat it when the grasses are no longer available to them.

With his massive curled horns, this Bighorn Sheep ram is one of the big boys. The rams stick together, crossing the sage covered meadow after descending from the cliffs where they spend the night in safety from predators. They show up in small groups of four or five, reminding me of the “cool kids” in high school who stuck together and bullied their way around the halls at school. The rams harass the ewes and occasionally face off with other rams and crack heads in battles for dominance. The right curl on this ram shows a little brooming, the result of wear and tear over the years. After grazing on sedges and other plants, they lay down to rest or nap. Gnats swarm as we took his portrait. I attached the Nikon 2X teleconverter to my Nikkor 600mmPF lens for this portrait.

Yesterday was our last day in Yellowstone National Park. The Pronghorn herd that greeted us each morning as we entered the park and each evening as we left, were grazing on their customary meadows. One doe climbed a knoll and stood atop it and posed for us. I like to think of it as a farewell.

A couple of Bighorn Sheep rams didn’t object to a young lamb as they foraged yesterday afternoon along the Old Yellowstone Trail Road that parallels the Yellowstone River outside Yellowstone National Park. The little one walked away from its mother and joined the two rams munching alongside them.

Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep! They are among my favorite mammals to photograph and a fall trip to Yellowstone National Park is the time to see them. In the mornings they come down from their nighttime safe place, the high rocky crags in the Gallatin Range, along the Old Yellowstone Trail just outside Yellowstone National Park. They descend to the meadow to munch grasses and then proceed to the river to drink. A group of mature rams hung together, jousting a bit and feeding together until one by one they crossed the road and lay down in the field across from us where we stood with our tripods and long lenses, eager to capture their behavior and expressions. When this ram lay down to rest, he looked at us as if saying, “inquiring minds want to know.” I suppose it is an odd thing to witness, a half dozen people standing behind long lenses on tripods, photographing their every movement. It’s their world and if we act appropriately, they accept us in it. Yesterday, they crossed within a few feet of us. What a thrill it is to know that we have behaved properly and that they tolerate our presence.

The first day of “Yellowstone in Search of Wolves” was a real hoot. We stopped for sunrise along the Yellowstone River on US 89 and Moose heard and then saw a young Great Horned Owl. We heard a second and followed its calls into the wooded area at a place Google maps called Grey Owl Fishing Access. Yesterday it should have been called Great Horned Owl Fishing Access. There were lots of twigs and leaves that partially obscured the owl but having the lens wide open made them disappear and my brand new Nikkor Z600 f/6.3 proved it was up to the task.

Words cannot describe this: another glorious sunrise on Caddo Lake last week.

The weathered, hand painted wooden sign nailed to a Bald Cypress tree in front of the dilapidated structure on the edge of Caddo Lake near Uncertain, Texas known as Dick and Charlie’s Tea Room reads “House Rules 1. There ain’t none. 2. There never was none 3.There ain’t gonna be none. Local lore says this place was rocking during Prohibition because it was in a “wet county” so people in the “dry” county across the river ventured over to imbibe. The real story published a couple of years ago in a local newspaper isn’t quite as romantic. I’d rather believe the local lore.

In the mornings, as we headed east on Caddo Lake to savor and photograph the sunrise, the water on the lake was smooth as glass——most of the time. Sometimes a bass boat with an anxious fisherman powered by creating a huge rooster tail and lots of waves. But, the ripples in this image were created by our own boat as Captain Rich turned it around to head another direction well after the sun had risen and most of the deep reds of the Caddo Lake sunrise had disappeared. The reflections of the sun and the clouds in the ripples created a completely different look.