NaturalVisions Blog

Mountain Goat kid – Glacier National Park (click image to view larger)
Though you can’t imagine it being good for their health, on my trip to Glacier National Park during the summer of 2006, I encountered a mother Mountain Goat and her kid lapping up coolant from people’s automobiles in the parking lot. But apparently it happens all the time from what I hear. It did give me the opportunity to get this nice closeup of the kid(and one of the mother, too), and a bit of a chuckle because the mother goat must have thought the animal I had with me (good old Roxy) was some kind of bad predator. That goat was certainly giving Roxy the evil eye, and I decided the best thing to do was leave, just in case that goat decided to give my girl a head butt.

Rainbow Point – Bryce Canyon National Park (click image to view larger)
Thursday I drove to the south end of Bryce Canyon, first to see how much snow there was, since it is 1000 feet higher in elevation that where I live, but also to see if there were any photo ops to be had. This is the view looking north from Rainbow Point down at the end of the road. Beautiful, as always, and there were snow drifts higher than I am tall. Heard some chickadees and saw some ravens but, other than that, not much wildlife activity going on.

Last week’s quiz bird was a little hard because it has a couple of relatives that look very similar, Abert’s Towhee (Pipilo aberti). This week, a species that has a very limited range in North America and you have to go to a very specific area to find it. Good luck and great birding!

Bald Eagle – Homer, Alaska (click image to view larger)
This week’s image is from one of my 2 trips to Homer, AK to photograph the Bald Eagles hanging out on the Homer Spit waiting to be fed. This one is just about to land on one of the many pieces of driftwood that are scattered along the shoreline. I’ve always had mixed feelings about the eagle feeding that took place there that attracted hundreds of Bald Eagles (and photographers). On the one hand, we feed little birds in our yards, but these are a nasty species who are, shall we say, very argumentative and tended to fight over the fish. Truth be told, however, the worst spats I witnessed always took place at the Eagle Lady’s house, while the afternoon feedings by the photographers who were there were always more benign. Of course, a few years ago the town outlawed eagle feeding but, from what I hear, someone is again running a tour up there and they take a boat, I presume out to one of the islands in the bay, where they are tossing fish once again, out of the town’s jurisdiction.

One another somewhat related note, every once in a while someone forwards me an email showing images of eagles being fed, as the story goes, by some “fishermen from Vancouver” feeling sorry for the starving eagles. Except that every one of the photos in that email is from Homer, some taken from the Eagle Lady’s porch.

Hopi Chipmunk, Canyonlands National Park (click image to view larger)
I photographed this Hopi Chipmunk a couple of years back at a picnic area in the Islands in the Sky district at Canyonlands National Park. My best guess is that it – along with the Western Scrub-jays and Juniper Titmice that were hanging around – was probably getting fed on a regular basis. Chipmunks are pretty cute for rodents, and it amazes me how many different kinds there are, usually with just subtle differences.

Teddy-bear Cholla, Organ Pipe Cactus N.M. (click image to view larger)
Probably not a “teddy bear” you would want to hug, this Teddy-bear Cholla (Cylindropuntia bigelovii) is found in the deserts of California, Arizona, and northern Mexico. This one was photographed in beautiful Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southern Arizona, a place I would to visit again. With a wet winter I imagine the cactus flowers (as well as other wildflowers) would be spectacular.

Common along shorelines (and landfills!) of the eastern and gulf coasts, last week’s quiz bird, though the fish in the photo didn’t find any humor it its situation, was a Laughing Gull (Laurs atricilla) in non-breeding plumage. We’re coming inland for this week’s quiz, as always, good luck and great birding!

Snowy Egret, Florida (click image to view larger)
A chose this photo for the week’s edition of Wings on Wednesday for a couple of reasons. First, one again it is snowing like crazy here at Bryce Canyon and, second, because this is a species you would almost have to keep you eyes closed to avoid seeing if you were attending the Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival in Titusville, FL this weekend (if you are there, say “hi!” to everyone for me). It’s one of my favorite Snowy images – just love how it appears to be “dancing across the water” while it forages.

Wood Bison, British Columbia (click image to view larger)
In northern British Columbia & Alberta, as well as the southern portion of the Northwest Territories, you may encounter bison in your travels. Found in the boreal forests, they are a distinct subspecies called Wood Bison (Bison bison athabascae). Larger than their southern cousins, Plains Bison (Bison bison bison), they also look a little different as their hump is in front of the forelegs where the Plains Bison’s hump is directly over their legs. This bull was part of a herd strolling along the edge of the Alaska Highway in British Columbia. Straddling the border of Alberta and the Northwest Territories is Canada’s Wood Buffalo National Park, which also happens to be the prime breeding ground for the largest population of one of the world’s most endangered birds, the Whooping Crane.

Denali National Park, Alaska (click image to view larger)

For months prior to, and then all during my trip to Alaska, I heeded the warning I had been given about calling this mountain Denali instead of Mount McKinley. The story goes that, if you don’t call it by the Alaska Native name, you wont see it because of clouds. They also say the mountain makes its own weather and as you can see, the one morning I visited The Great One, there was not a cloud in the sky on this cold September morning. Those who know me well know that I am not the superstitious type, but, was the mountain listening? Only the mountain knows for sure . . .