Seems to be the week of the eye. This one belongs to a Parson’s chameleon. Chameleons are pretty amazing creatures — they can look in different directions at the same time, they have a tongue that shoots out of their mouths at lighting speed to catch prey, they can change colors, etc. What they’re not good at, however, is making a quick getaway, so once found, they’re easy to photograph. For this shot, taken in central Madagascar, I was only about a foot away.
Although these eyelashes may look long, they’re actually quite short for an African elephant. Sometimes you see elephants with four inch long lashes. They act as sunshades to block out the harsh light, and also dust, of the African savannah. This one was photographed in Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda.
In honor of my mother’s birthday today, I figured I’d post a crane of another sort. This sandhill crane is from Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. Every fall, thousands of these cranes, as well as snow geese, flock to the open fields and shallow lakes in the area.
This was another of the sea otters that I recently photographed at Elkhorn Slough in California. As I mentioned before, it’s rare to get them on land like this. I kind of liked the sequence here, as the otter appears to be pretty happy about something.
It seemed about time for another orangutan mother and baby photo of the day. This mother was being extremely gentle with her newborn, carefully cradling the baby’s head as she readjusted position. As with all my orangutan shots, this one was taken in Tanjung Puting National Park in Indonesian Borneo.
I thought this golden-fronted woodpecker was a particularly handsome bird. In the US these guys live only in Texas, and a small portion of southern Oklahoma. I photographed this one in Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge near Rio Hondo, Texas. Other than that, there’s not much more to say about them so I’ll attempt to educate instead by tossing out the fact that a group of woodpeckers can be called a descent, a drumming or a gatling. Now go forth and use this knowledge as you see fit.
This was a pretty good fight for a while. At one point the lizard even made a nice move and had the snake in its grip. Eventually, however, the snake was too much for the lizard to handle. After about a ten minute struggle, the snake swallowed the lizard whole in a couple of seconds. This was taken in Corcovado National Park on the Osa Peninsula in southwest Costa Rica.
Every night when I get on my computer to post an image I think to myself, why not a duck today. But then I send a monkey, or a bear or a frog. Ducks just don’t seem that exciting when compared to their fellow creatures. Today, however, I’m going to stick to my guns and give ducks their due. These two are northern pintails and they were photographed at Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico last year. For a little more excitement, check out the sound file of their call.
I was in a canoe, first thing in the morning in the Pantanal of Brazil when I saw this black howler monkey just waking up. Anyone who has been to an area inhabited by howler monkeys has probably heard their unmistakeable call — the alarm clock of the rain forest — which can sometimes sound like a jet taking off. The attached sound file is a bit mellower than some I’ve heard, but gives an idea of what they sound like.
