Bulletin 248 - Best of 10 years #11 - others

This is my final episode in the series as I looked back at my first 10 years of bird and nature photography. Obviously birds are my passion, but I will also shoot other subjects that interest me. Each photo brings back a pleasant memory as I can recall exactly where I was when I took the photo and usually at least the year, if not the month I took it.

Most of these will be mammals, but they are few and far between to see while out in the daytime looking for birds. Squirrels and deer are about the only subjects that one can reliably find.

First is a newborn Northern Raccoon. Normally, raccoons live in hollow trees and a mother will have her babies there. Well this mother had her babies on a pile of reeds at Anahuac NWR. Fortunately for us observers, it was right below a boardwalk. This was on 4/1/2006 in my first 4 months of photography and I had gone to Anahuac for spring migration. I was hoping that I would watch the babies grow over the next few weeks, but of course by next weekend she had moved them to a hidden location. This is one of the 2 most memorable photos of that first year. 

Northern Raccoon - newborn

And here is mother holding one of the babies close to her. The tenderness of the maternal instinct of all animals is innate and a joy to behold.

Northern Raccoon - mother and baby

Striped Skunks are very common, but nocturnal. I have only seen one in the 10 years. It was Jan 2, 2010 as I was leaving Anahuac NWR in the late afternoon. I saw this skunk walking along the shoulder of the road. I turned around and drove past him in the direction he was walking. I wanted a memorable photo so I sat on the grass to get to his eye level. When I looked at the photos, I realized that he didn't have any white stripes down his back, just the white crown on his head. I posted 2 of the photos with the caption 'Striped Skunk without stripes!'. The first had his nose sniffing the ground, but in this one, I think he caught my scent and was looking around. This photo has had 4250 'hits' , the most of any of the 4000 photos on my pbase web site. It was also honored by being selected for the 50th anniversary of Anahuac NWR book in 2104.

Striped Skunk - without stripes

A trip to Alaska with the Texas Ornithology Society in the summer of 2010 produced several notable large mammal photos. The first is a Humpback Whale, while we were on a pelagic trip. We got close enough that when he breached, I was able to clearly see the barnacles on his lower jaw.

Humpback Whale

Also on that pelagic trip we encountered a Black Bear on a cliff who was looking for eggs in seabird nests among a field of flowers. I had seen this species a few times before, but this is the only one I have photographed.

Black Bear

This is the only Grizzly Bear I have ever seen and he came walking right past the van we were in. This picture was taken from inside the vehicle, when he was about 100 feet away.

Grizzly Bear

The members of the dog family are seldom seen, except for coyotes which I have photographed a couple of times. I have never seen any wolf. I have seen a Red Fox 3 times and photographed twice. This one on the Alaska trip is my best 'dog' photo.

Red Fox

Pronghorns are related to deer and antelope, but are in a separate family of their own. I have only seen them 3 times. On a trip to Big Bend National Park in April 2009, we had a pair quite close to the road. They have very colorful rufous and white markings and the pink flowers add a bit of art to the picture.

Pronghorn

My trips to the tropics have produced a couple of favorite photos. In Panama in Feb 2014, we had a troop of Mantled Howler Monkeys stop right above the car. We watched and photographed them for about 20 minutes. I call this one 'Chilling Out'.

Mantled Howler Monkey
Chilling Out

Well if dogs are hard to find, seeing cats in the wild (outside of Africa) is almost a lost cause. I have only seen 2 species. I saw a bobcat 3 times in my life and got a distant photo once. So this Puma (aka Cougar, Mountain Lion) on my Costa Rica trip at Easter 2015 was the most amazing wildlife experience ever. To have this big cat just lying in the woods 60 feet away was unreal. We watched him for 20 minutes along with many other lucky people who happened to be at La Selva that day.

Puma
La Selva, Costa Rica

Monarch Butterflies are known for their incredible migration. Pacific Grove outside Monterey, California hosts a colony of hibernating monarchs from west of the Rockies. All the ones east of the mountains go to Mexico for the winter. I took several photos of the skeins of monarchs in February 2008. Some of these butterflies have tags on them to measure their travels. This is my second most viewed photo, after the skunk above, with 1800 hits.

Monarch Butterfly hibernation
Pacific Grove, CA

I am not good with flowers as I don't photograph them often. However, beginners luck on the same day as the raccoon newborn produced my favorite flower photo and the other favorite from the first year. Imagine, the 2 best photos from a whole year were just several hours apart. What are the odds of that? This is apparently a False Indigo, as best as I can tell. It was also selected for the Anahuac book in a full page spread.

False Indigo

The last is the only non-nature photo that I consider a favorite. Carmel, CA is a favorite vacation spot and there is a small wetland at the Carmel River mouth and beach where I would frequently go birding. One morning in 2007, there was not much happening bird wise, so I looked up towards the sun rising over the trees and saw this cross on a hill. I thought it would be neat to have the yellow sun with bright blue sky behind the cross. I had to position the tripod several times and of course, looking straight at the sun wasn't a great idea. So I would move the camera slightly and quickly take a glance. I snapped several photos. When I got back to the hotel and looked at the photos, it was extremely overexposed, but, the error is amazing and several friends have asked for copies to hang in their homes.

Carmel Cross

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2016 David McDonald

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Bulletin #104 – Duluth MN winter wildlife #2

David McDonald Photography

Friendswood Texas
March 7, 2010

Bulletin #104 – Duluth MN winter wildlife #2

Hello friends,

Duluth Minnesota in winter is a magnet for birders, as many specialized northern species (owls, grouse, finches, gulls etc) winter in the area. I spent 3 days last week there. For many birders, most of the birds found are lifers, and it was no different for me.

I was fortunate to be able to obtain the services of 2 expert guides.

Kim Eckert...web site
Sparky Stensaas...web site

The local grouse are another reason I went to Duluth, as I did not have photos of any of these species. There are 3 in the area and like the owls, I got 2 of the 3. The first is the Spruce Grouse (Falcipennis canadensis). As the name implies, it is found in the boreal spruce forests. We drove down some logging roads and if you are lucky, you may find them on the edge of the road, picking up grit for their crop. Well, we were fortunate to find a group of at least 5 birds. These birds are rather tame and can be approached closely to take a photo. The male is gray and white with black throat and breast feathers. He also has bright red eyebrows!

The other grouse we found was the Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus). These brown and white birds have a shaggy crest and tend to be very skittish and fly away immediately. However, we found one on the shoulder of the road, also picking up grit. We got out of the car, and he calmly walked up over the snow bank towards the woods. Instead of flying away, he climbed up into some branches about 8 feet over our head and fed on their usual diet of buds.

Here are 3 photos. Look at the intricate pattern on the breast, spots on the back, and striped tail. Also, you can see the very heavily feathered legs to protect them from the cold.

Both the northern nuthatches were present. The Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) is the more common species and we saw many of them, especially at feeders. The male has a black and white striped head and rusty red breast. The female in the second photo is more dark gray and white on the face and the breast is paler. This was my first occasion to see enough of these birds to differentiate the sexes.

The White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) is gray and white with solid white face. This is the eastern form of this species and is another potential split.

I was hoping to also see some mammals. As we all know, squirrels are the most commonly encountered mammals on our travels as they are diurnal. I did get some photos of the Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus). This cute little guy along with the Eastern Gray Squirrel, were the squirrels of my youth in Ontario.









Also, we saw 2 Red Foxes (Vulpes fulva). This small fox comes in the usual red phase and also a black phase called the silver fox. Intermediate forms also occur. We saw a red phase animal, but he ran off before I got a photo. However, as we drove down one of the logging roads, one of the intermediate phase animals was in the road and ran ahead of the car for a long distance before going off into the woods. Notice he has a black back and face, but reddish flanks. The third photo shows him running in front of the car. The white tip on the tail is diagnostic for a Red Fox.

I will be leading a 9 day bird photography tour to Costa Rica in conjunction with Lillian Scott-Baer of Baer Travel in March 2011. We have worked out an itinerary to visit La Selva Preserve, Savegre Mountain Hotel in the central mountains for Resplendant Quetzal and other montane species and Wilson Botanical Gardens (Las Cruces). We have also retained the services of local guide Rudy Zamora to accompany us and locate and ID the birds for us to photograph. We will also have beautiful flowers and hopefully some mammals - tamanduas, monkeys etc as well.


The price will be $1960 double to $2380 single. This includes hotels, all meals, guide, transportation in Costa Rica etc. The only other cost will be airfare and personal purchases (alcohol, souvenirs etc) . Space is limited to 10 persons to maximize our opportunity to see and photograph the birds. I have birded in Costa Rica previously. It is a wonderful country to visit and the bird life is exceptional. I hope that you can join us.

Here is the schedule of payments for the trip.
$ 25 reservation fee (not refundable)
$ 575 due April 30, 2010
$ 600 due July 30, 2010
$ 740 due January 15, 2011

Please send deposits to:

ScoBar Inc.
34 Galway Place
The Woodlands, TX 77382

Note - we will try to pair up singles and triple would be $1890 per person.

All comments and suggestions are welcomed and appreciated.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
email: davidkmcd@comcast.net

photos copyright 2010 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask for subscribe.