Month: November 2024

When push comes to shove with the Bighorn Sheep rams.

Thanksgiving in Redding with my family was great fun. All of the West Coast members of the family were together for the first time in a number of years. Sadie and Bella, the family Goldens were also both in attendance and although I was not successful in getting any shots of them playing together, I did manage to capture a couple of Sadie when she finally calmed down enough to sit still for a few seconds.

Happy Thanksgiving. I am forever grateful that these magnificent Bighorn Sheep are thriving in Yellowstone National Park and that I have been given the opportunity to photograph them in their natural habitat.

A few mornings ago, we stopped for the sunrise on the way from Livingston to Yellowstone National Park. The intensity of color and the increasing clouds over the Absaroka Range was simply spectacular. What a great start to any day!

I just love Bighorn Sheep. Every time I come across a band of Bighorns I am delighted by their actions. The rams, especially, have an affiliation that is wonderful to witness. They bunch close together, often touching heads and horns, and pawing at each other. This looks like a very important post lunch discussion.

A small band of Pronghorn grazed along the snow-covered grasslands along the Old Yellowstone Trail. This young buck strode across the field to meet up with the rest of the band, watching us standing on the side of the road. His horns have not developed into their characteristic heart shape but in time, the small prongs will grow and he will stride with confidence sporting a beautiful heart-shaped crown.

The snowstorm from the previous day had blanketed Soda Butte and much of Yellowstone along the Northeast Entrance Road in a layer of white. Soda Butte is not actually comprised of soda (sodium carbonate) as early prospectors thought. The name stuck, however, and it is still called Soda Butte despite the fact that it is actually a deposit of Travertine (calcium carbonate) like in Mammoth Hot Springs.

The weather on our last day in Yellowstone National Park was overcast, foggy, icy cold, windy as hell, and generally gloomy. The bright spot in our day was the last hour as we drove out of the park to find the band of Bighorn Sheep we’ve watched and photographed all week. I lost count of the number of rams we saw in what I call a scrum, as they all cluster together in a big group and agitate, butt the occasional head, and just be rams. I captured this image of three of the mature rams lined up looking somewhat regal. I call them The Invincible Trio because their haughty appearance seemed to meet the definition of invincible: unconquerable, undefeated, and unsubdued. With their heads held high, the inclement weather seemed not to deter them from their mission to mate with a ewe, although none of the ewes we saw wanted anything to do with any of the rams.

Yellowstone has had some inclement weather the past couple of days, strong winds, blowing snow, and cold temperatures. We came across this lone bull Bison standing in the midst of a willow grove protected somewhat from the wind. He is blanketed with snow that fell earlier that still clung to his back because of the cold temperatures. He looked contented to be out of the elements with something to munch on nearby. You can’t visit Yellowstone without at least one photograph of a Bison!

What a great day! Tuesday turned out to be spectacular. We spent the entire day in the park and photographed Bison, Pronghorn, Coyote, and of course, Bighorn Sheep! Here are a couple of the big rams, probably two of the three I posted yesterday but a bit clearer without a blowing snow storm obscuring them from view. One ram had lost interest in munching and had something else on his mind. I’m not sure if it was because he was watching the band of ewes moving across the snow or if the other ram was passing gas. We’ll never know but the ram on the left was obviously experiencing something that was causing him to move away from his companion.

The snow predicted Monday morning came just as we encountered a flock of Bighorn Sheep we were hoping to find along the Yellowstone River on the way to Gardiner. We watched from the van briefly and as the flakes got larger, we decided we had to give it a try so we set up our gear. The snow quickly accumulated thickly on our lenses and hats and the wind began to pick up. This was one of the last shots I took after about 15 minutes of shooting. A trio of rams with big curls gave up chasing the ewes and decided to hunker down and sit out the storm. We did too.

There’s something absolutely special about Kodiak Brown Bears. They have been isolated from other bear populations for 12,000 years and they rival the Polar Bear for the largest bear species. Revisiting images from my visit to Kodiak in September 2023 made me realize what an incredible opportunity I’ve had to see and photograph these magnificent creatures. I look forward to returning in the fall next year.

Birds show incredible enthusiasm when they are bathing, from the tiniest hummingbirds to larger shorebirds like this Willet at Bolivar Flats, TX this past April. The surf was shallow so the Willet was actually standing while bathings, the drops of water flying every which way. You might even break into a chorus of Bobby Darin’s “Splish Splash” while watching this display.

I love the drama of sunrise on a cloudy day. This is from this past April, early morning on Bolivar Flats, Texas. A few shorebirds were feeding in the surf under the colorful sky.

Silhouettes make fascinating images. In Grand Isle, Louisiana this past February, we spent time capturing silhouettes of Brown Pelicans as they perched on or took off from pilings in the bay. During sunset, the images were quite striking with the orange glow of the setting sun coloring the water and the reflected sparkles creating gorgeous bokeh that framed the silhouette.

The roads in and around Grand Isle, Louisiana offered lots of opportunities to see birds this past February, including this trio of White Ibis just hangin’ on a dead snag.

The Japanese Maple is turning red and all ready losing its leaves. I thought the yellow background from a neighbor’s tree across the street that is also turning color made a lovely autumnal background.

It seems that my juvenile male Anna’s Hummingbirds are maturing. I went out front yesterday afternoon because I saw a Black Phoebe. I took my camera with me and instead of the Black Phoebe, one of the male Anna’s Hummingbirds was perched in the Japanese Maple. When he turned his head to take off, the gorget lit up. He wasn’t at the perfect angle so that not all of it was in color but enough to show me that he’s growing up.

My backyard is aglow in fall color. The Red Maple leaves are turning a fiery red, the Crape Myrtle is sprinkled with orange, red, and gold, and the Ginkgo leaves are bright yellow. How nice it is to have spectacular fall colors right in my own backyard. Yesterday morning, as the sun rose above the fence, it highlighted individual leaves on the Ginkgo like this one, making the distinctive shape of the Ginkgo leaf stand out.