I came across this male red-winged blackbird one morning last summer at the Wellfleet Wildlife Sanctuary in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He must have been protecting a nest that was very close to a little bridge over a pond because when I walked past, he started chirping noisily and even took a few dives toward my head. These birds are fairly common throughout the US and into Central America. I see them a lot when driving around the country. The male has the namesake red wings, whereas the female is a nondescript brown color.
Another hoary marmot from Mount Rainier National Park in Washington. This guy was clearly more partial to the red indian paintbrush than to the other flowers.
Another photo from Saint Augustine, Florida. This is called a tricolored heron. They are smaller than great blue herons and a bit more colorful as the name suggests. They were obviously very approachable at this location and I was able to get within ten feet for close up portraits.
As promised, here’s another armadillo from out on Merritt Island in Florida. As I mentioned in the last post, armadillos are practically blind but they have a very good sense of smell. As soon the wind blew in its direction, the armadillo would sniff the air for a second or two, know that I was there, and then scurry into the woods. The tricky part was getting on the ground quick enough to get a shot.
The ringtail lemurs that live in southern Madagascar like to sit in the sand and sunbathe on nice mornings. I caught some good light on this guy when he took a quick look back to see what I was doing. One of the things that I really liked about Berenty Private Reserve (where this photo was taken) is that it’s one of the few places in Madagascar where you can hike through the forest without having to be accompanied by a guide. This is because it is privately owned. At all the national run parks, it is mandatory that you be with a guide. Ordinarily, I think this is a good thing because the guides can show you things that you would miss on your own, but there’s something nice about being alone in a forest — just you and the animals.
Here’s one that I haven’t yet been able to identify. For any of you entomologists out there, suggestions are certainly welcome. I was hiking in Pavones, Costa Rica, near the Panama border when I came across this little guy crawling up the stalk of a plant.
Not much wildlife to be found in Death Valley National Park in California, but plenty of landscapes. This was my favorite spot to shoot. It’s an ancient dried out lake bed called The Racetrack. It’s known for the mysterious moving rocks that leave trails in the cobbled mud. There are several theories as to how the rocks move, but the one that gets the most agreement is that heavy winds do the moving during the rare times when the lake bed gets wet (which is hardly ever — Death Valley being the driest spot on the continent). Of course, no one has ever witnessed the rocks moving so this is all just a theory. Another interesting thing about this type of dried lake is that it’s the flattest naturally occurring land surface. The Racetrack is in a remote part of this remote national park and very difficult to get to. A high clearance four wheel drive is recommended. I did it in a Ford Focus. And I now owe the rental car company a hubcap.
The female proboscis monkeys don’t have the large potato-like noses of the males, but they’re still a bit odd looking. This one, however, seemed to think she was the shit with her black lipstick and all. She must have been eating some kind of dark fruit just before I took the photo.
When I was hiking in Colorado recently, I came across a large group of mountain goats. These three young ones were running around playing with each other, unmindful of the fact that most of the adults had moved high up the mountain.
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