After traveling for almost two months, we took a break and camped for a week on the bank of a small glacial pond on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska. It was a beautiful spot with dynamic weather and lots of rain. It was nice to have the time to watch the activity of the wildlife in the area. This is a female Barrow’s Goldeneye that was very protective of the pond. The duck couple was nesting along the banks of the pond and were on alert the whole time we were there. The day before I took this photograph, we watched this female make a huge fuss at a moose that was getting too close to her ducklings. Sometimes it’s nice to spend an extended time in one place.
This is a large grizzly bear that I photographed catching salmon near Hyder, Alaska. During the salmon run, the water is completely full of fish. Many steams and small rivers have several types of salmon spawning at the same time, and it’s interesting to watch how selective the bears are in picking what salmon they want to catch. We spent over an hour watching this particular bear. The salmon in this area can reach 40-70 lb. It was pretty impressive to see how easily this bear could catch salmon that weighed 50 lb or more.
This is small group of elephants that were peacefully grazing on fresh tall grass. Elephants have really interesting social behavior. In the wild, they seem very intelligent and wary. I took this photograph in a beautiful valley in the Tarangire National Park in Tanzania. Tarangire is an amazing place and reminds me of the Garden of Eden.
Zebra are very common in east Africa. After a while you almost start to ignore them because they are everywhere you go. However, I started to really like them. I’ve always thought that zebra were artful creatures. Seeing thousands of plains zebras in the great migration is really something to witness. I love the way the animals blend together.
This is a little Amargosa Vole that I photographed along the California coast. We seem to be noticing them more often than in previous years. They can dig quite a network of tunnels, and are an important contributor to the food chain. They are quite timid and require some patience and a bit of luck to photograph. It is neat what you find when you slow down a bit and look at the natural details around you.
