Disclaimer… he had wings, he just hadn’t spread them yet as he did a free fall from the top of the pine tree. I actually missed the shot I was after, which was the flight shot but this one was still interesting enough and was quite popular when I posted it in a Montana Birding group. I spot metered off the bird to get the exposure.

It was just over a year ago we returned from a family trip to Florida. While the purpose was family, I still had time to get out and do some photography with a focus on birds.

Photographing the endangered Florida Scrub Jay was high on my list and I did a lot of research about where to find them. Of course, other birds, such as the Loggerhead Shrike below, were also photographed. Both of these birds were firsts for me at the time, so it was pretty cool.

Yellowstone National Park will shut down for the end of the summer season tomorrow morning at 8 am. Only the road from Gardiner, MT to Cooke City, MT through Yellowstone will be open as the park prepares for the approaching winter season. Yellowstone saw record attendance in 2020 with September being the busiest September on record. And those numbers are with no tour buses in the park this year which meant a lot more cars than normal. I went in twice in September, before sunrise, and almost immediately left due to the amount of traffic. This image was taken in the winter in Lamar Valley more years ago than I care to admit.

Happy Halloween! Hope this photo doesn’t make anyone too batty!

I was having a good morning backyard birding yesterda. A small flock of American goldfinches have been hanging around since before the most recent storm and the resident mountain chickadees and red-breasted nuthatches were doing their thing. The blue jays and Canada jays were squabbling as usual. A flock of pine siskins showed up for the first time in a month while the first Clark’s nutcracker of the winter came in as well. Meanwhile, the pine grosbeaks were feasting calmly. All of this was disrupted when a Northern shrike swept in. Failing to catch anything, it landed on the aspen tree right next to me, allowing me to capture a couple of images before two pine grosbeaks escorted him away. Not only was this the first Northern shrike I’ve had in my backyard, but it’s the first one I’ve seen period. They spend most of the year in the far north near the Artic and only come down into the northern US during the winter. I posted a photo of the similar but smaller Loggerhead shrike below for comparison.

I photographed this red fox last month. The coloration displayed in his/her coat is a melanistic variant of the red fox and is referred to as a cross fox. This is not a sub-species but simply a melanistic coloration. As it was not photographed in a national park, I don’t share locations in order to protect the wildlife.

Moose, like many ungulates, will sniff a female’s urine to see if she’s close to being receptive. They will then push the odor back into the nostril’s in what’s called a flehmen response. Many animals do this but male ungulates can often be seen doing it during the breeding season. The female moose was to my left and while she allowed the bull to stay close, she wasn’t quite ready to breed. He will stay close by until she is ready and chase off any challengers.

For the first time in over twelve years, I’m happy to announce that I am making two wall calendars for 2021. Both are available now here. Each one features 12 full color images and both calendars are available in two sizes.

Finding pleasing compositions within an aspen grove isn’t as easy as it might seem. There’s often a lot of visual clutter which makes framing a scene difficult. But on the occasions where it comes together, it can be amazing. I saw these mature aspens and decided to hike into them hoping for a pleasing composition. It took a little back and forth until I stumbled into just the right part of the grove and then it all came together.

At first, I wasn’t going to stop and try to photograph this fox. It was a cloudy morning and the light was very low. Plus the fox was shy and moving away from my location. Just as I was about to move on, the fox changed direction, as they often do, and started moving towards me. I pushed my ISO up and set up just in time to capture this look. Ideally the grass wouldn’t be near the eyes but when seen large, the eyes are still quite visible.