Photo Gallery and Blog 2023

It was a dark and stormy afternoon as a cold front blew through with a strong north wind and ominous dark clouds. The two eagles were facing the wind like weather vanes and hanging on tightly.

It turned and flew right over me.

Then the second eagle took off and flew past too. From this viewpoint you see their enormous 6-7 ft wingspan.

With their stern expression, eagles always look like they are on important business.

One eagle came in for a landing on the stick and somehow managed not to knock the other eagle off its perch.

Several juvenile eagles briefly stopped by. I wonder if they are offspring from previous years.

Avian flu took a heavy toll on geese but the carcasses provide easy food for eagles, albeit with some concern for infections. This eagle pulled this dead goose across a frozen lake, then had a big meal.

This rufous-morph eastern screech owl claimed this little hole in a tall dead tree near a bike trail, with the perfect shape to match its little ears. It spent the days fast asleep, completely ignoring passing people, dogs, bikes, train horns, even squirrels. After snoozing for hours, suddenly it had an itch on its leg. It nibbled on its leg for a bit, then looked out ever so briefly.

Then a grey screech owl displaced the red one from that perfectly shaped hole, so the red one moved to nearby woods. Often this owl would perch beside a tree trunk. You would think a red owl would stick out like a sore thumb and be easy to find, but it is not. Even a red owl can blend in with tree bark.

Owls hunt by intently watching and listening for any movement on the ground. It noticed something and it was leaning down for a closer inspection. A few seconds later, it dived to the ground and nailed a vole in the grass.

This cute little owl is a skillful predator. Even wildlife enjoys the all-natural selection at Vole Foods.

Typically the owl would perch in some secluded obscure spot and snooze until dusk. Sometimes it was well after sunset when the owl finally woke up and opened its eyes.

You can tell the light is very low from the size of the owl's irises. The owl is sitting up very tall because it is calling, making a soft trilling sound.

The owl usually chose perches cluttered with lots of branches and twigs which makes photography difficult. You just have to wait until a day when it chose a nice clear spot to get nice clear photos.

This little owl is so adorable. Sure I have lots of good photos by now but I keep going back, hoping for some great ones.

It's well after sunset and the owl is just hanging around. These photos are long exposures so it is a good thing the owl sits perfectly still.

I like the lighting on this photo.

Even though pygmy owls are active in the daytime, they are very hard to find because they are SO small. This one was perched high up in a tree and only rarely looked down at the ground which seems strange because that's where the food is.

It was just calmly sitting there when it opened its mouth and seemed to be choking. Actually it was just coughing up a pellet.

It is a cute little bugger, if you can find it.

These two owlets were wide awake at dawn, observing a very pink sunrise.

A few days later the owlet jumped up beside its parent.

Every day at ten minutes after sunset this owl would fly to the top of this tree, after the light had gone dull. I thought it would be a great photo if the owl would ever fly there sooner with warm evening sunlight. One day the moon was in the right place for a silhouette.

Apparently rabbit dinner was already in the nest but the owlets didn't know how to eat it. She began pulling off bits and feeding them.

Mama owl paused briefly between bites which made a nice family portrait.

The young moose calf sticks very close to its mom.

The calf is so cute, with those super long eyelashes.
(these were taken from my car as the moose walked by)

This cow moose has twin calves. Twins are quite rare for moose.

The two calves stay close together, ignoring the people.

They are so big already for being only a week old.

Soon more kids arrived and they climbed on the rocks. Before long there were a bunch of kids romping around and climbing on each other.

When they aren't playing together, the kids stick pretty close to their moms.

This bull was strutting around, doing his best to show off and attract attention of the cows.

At dawn, this bull was bugling madly. He has a broken tine on his antlers, probably from fighting.

A bull will sniff some cow urine and then do this lip curl called a "flehmen response" which helps him determine if the cow is ready for breeding.

This pair is being unusually affectionate.

A bull on a ridge at dawn.

Whoooooo's there? Sometimes this owl sits on a headstone, adding to the spooky atmosphere, as if a graveyard at dusk wasn't creepy enough.

It sits there like a watchman on the graveyard shift, guarding against any rascally rabbits.

A splendid wood duck with his iridescent plumage is even better in water reflecting autumn colors.