Month: September 2026

A Kodiak Brown Bear looks up from pursuing the salmon swimming upstream to spawn last year. Sometimes you’ve gotta take a break.

Yesterday afternoon when I noticed that three of the hummingbird feeders were empty, I decided to refill them before I started cooking dinner. As I entered the kitchen with the three feeders, two in my right hand, one in the left, I felt a soft tickle and looked to see some bright green leaves on the back of my left hand. I quickly realized that the leaves were moving and that it was a large Praying Mantis not leaves. The Carol of the past would have shrieked and shaken it off her hand and run out of the room. Well, I must admit I let out a loud epithet and I did shake it off my hand onto the kitchen floor but the Carol of today didn’t run out of the room. Since there was no one else around to deal with the situation, I took a deep breath, put on my big girl pants, got a glass out of the cupboard and placed it on top of the Praying Mantis. Then I scooped it up with a piece of mail laying nearby and calmly walked out to the patio and dropped it onto a lavender plant. It stayed there, cleaning its antennae and its feet. I already had my 105 macro lens on the camera so I took a few shots. He looks like his prayers were answered.

Yesterday afternoon I was practicing with my long lens on a tripod with the Wildlife head to make sure I was up to speed on using it since I’ve been home for a while and haven’t used this combo in a while. Not much was going on outside so I set up the tripod inside. When I looked out to see if Spike was there, sure enough he was, sound asleep. I put one leg of the tripod outside, turned the lens in Spike’s direction and fired away. He didn’t wake up even when another hummer showed up and buzzed around one of the nearby crepe myrtles. It wasn’t long before Spike sensed something because he suddenly looked up and zoomed off to protect the other feeder, quickly returning and falling asleep again. And, it looks like Spike’s got only one spike left, on the top of his head.

Yesterday’s CBS Evening News reported on the sighting of a rare bird in California, the Purple Gallinule, that is bringing bird lovers to Irvine where a young Purple Gallinule has found itself at the Irvine Ranch Water district’s San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary. It is only the eighth documented sighting of this bird in California. I am from California and I have seen this bird many times but just never in California. I appreciate the fact that I have been privileged to see and photograph this bird, as an adult, not in California but in Florida.

Sapphire, Emerald, Periodot are three gems that describe this flying gem, a male Broad-billed Hummingbird. With Sapphire coloring his throat, Emerald gleaming on his sides, and Peridot sparkling under his wings what else could you call this hummer but a gem? Taken July 2025 in Madera Canyon, Arizona.

And just like that, Spike’s spikes are gone. He will still be known as Spike but in just a few days, most of his namesake spikes have disappeared and have emerged as feathers. Next time I shoot him, I’m sure all of the pin feathers will be gone.

In a couple of weeks, I’ll be back in Kodiak, Alaska photographing Kodiak Brown Bears. I am excited to be returning to that pristine world and to watching these massive bears consume equally massive amounts of salmon. As we drifted along the Uganik River last September, this bear looked up at us while it munched on the remains of a salmon carcass on the shoreline. It seemed not to notice the fish paddling near the surface between us, dorsal fin and tail protruding from the water. The bear had a choice. It could continue to consume what remained or chase after a moving fish. It made a choice to keep munching on what it had in its claws.

My little Anna’s Hummingbird has a name! I realized that I have to call him Spike. His head is covered with spiky looking pin feathers surrounding his eyes and under his beak. When they emerge, they are itchy and in this image, Spike is vigorously scratching those itchy pin feathers. Spike, it is!

Every moment of sunrise is spectacular in Monument Valley. The flare of the sun and the godbeams radiating from it help to define another spectacular moment.