I’m not sure of the exact species on this hummingbird, but it’s just one of the many that I saw at the Tiskita Lodge in Pavones, Costa Rica. The flower the hummingbird is perched upon, however, is clearly a species of heliconia.
Another shot in the red fox series from Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware from several springs ago. The light was great that morning, I was in perfect position, and the foxes were cool with me being there. All in all a great morning in America.
This young lady was in the middle of a nice power nap late one morning in the Masai Mara of Kenya. Lions usually sleep up to 20 hours a day, which makes sense when you think about it. They are fierce hunters and most hunts end in failure. They’re only successful about once a week and must exert a lot of energy to catch that one meal. Most of the rest of their time is spent recovering and resting up so that they can do it again.
I’m usually all about trying to get precise focus on my animal subjects, but sometimes I go for something a little more abstract. This shot was taken a few years back on Sanibel Island in Florida at the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge (strange name, I know, but one of the best places in the country to photograph birds). The sun had completely set and twilight was fading fast. It was too dark to freeze the action of this roseate spoonbill coming in for a landing so I used the slower shutter speed to my advantage and panned my camera and lens downward with the motion of the bird.
Today I found out that I won a photography competition for an image that I took while on safari in Botswana last year. I’m happy to say that the grand prize is a trip back to Botswana. In addition to the grand prize, I also had the top photo in five of the competition’s nine categories (see the link here for a quick write up and the winning shots). The photo above is a Cape buffalo and it has absolutely nothing to do with the contest, other than it’s also from Botswana. I have previously posted all the winning images so didn’t want to post again.
This is a California newt that I came across one day while hiking in the woods outside of San Francisco. They are pretty big for newts and can grow to about eight inches in length. They also happen to be highly toxic if ingested. Fortunately, I have no desire to ingest California, or any other species of newt.
Part of my trip to Uganda several years back included a day of chimpanzee trekking in Kibale National Park. It was somewhat difficult to photograph the chimps that day because they were so high up in the trees and there was a white sky in the background. I was able to get several okay shots, however, when there was enough foliage to fill the frame. This lady (at least I think she’s a lady) was busy eating fruits when she took a glimpse back to see what all the clicking was about.
The Pantanal in Brazil is full of yacaré caiman. In fact, at roughly 10 million individuals, they make up the largest crocodilian population on earth. This is a fairly young caiman, but when fully grown they can get to be about 10 feet in length. It was late in the afternoon when I took this shot and the dark shadows in the water were caused by the surrounding trees.
Seemed about time for another lion cub post. This little guy appears to have found something awfully tasty on the bottom of that foot, or maybe he was just scratching an itch with those sharp teeth. There were six cubs in this pride from the Masai Mara in Kenya. The above foot biter was one of three that were roughly a month old.
These pelicans are very cartoony looking with those big yellow eye pads. I saw quite a few of them on Kangaroo Island in South Australia. They also have the distinction of possessing longest bill of any living bird species.