A few winters back I captured this bighorn ram working his way down to a patch of exposed grass on an otherwise snow-covered mountain. Photographed in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 210mm) ISO 400, f/11 at 1/500th of a second.
Here’s another of the white squirrels I met out in Olney, Illinois. The town has a healthy population of this white variant of the eastern gray squirrel. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/400th of a second.
Two coastal brown bears look back in unison as they patrol the shoreline of Lake Clark National Park, Alaska. In late summer through fall, the bears come to the beach in search of salmon. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 360mm) ISO 640, f/4 at 1/1250th of a second.
A Galápagos sea lion floats through the clear waters of Rabida Island in the Galápagos. I like that you can see the tail on this one. Each afternoon of our Galápagos trip we had the opportunity to snorkel with sea lions. They rarely disappointed. Nikon D800 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) in Ikelite underwater housing, ISO 800, f/9 at1/320th of a second.
The Baird’s tapir is the largest land mammal in Central and South America. This impressive male was foraging in the leaf litter as I sat quietly on the ground waiting for his head to rise up for a portrait. There are three species of tapirs native to the Americas. The Baird’s occupies the northern range from Mexico down through the northwestern tip of South America. I photographed this one in Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica. Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 78mm) ISO 3200, f/2.8 at 1/50th of a second.
Motmots are always a good find when birding in Central and South America. In Panama, there are four different species. The tody motmot is the smallest of the four and the only one without the distinctive long tail. This tody motmot was enjoying a breakfast of frog up in the mountains of central Panama. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 1600, f/4 at 1/80th of a second.
I captured this image of a bull moose in northern Colorado a few years back on a rainy day. It’s always nice when you can photograph the wildlife from the comfort of the driver’s seat of your car. It was early July and the moose’s antlers were covered in velvet and quite a ways from being fully grown. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/100th of a second.
A female Dall sheep walks along a granite cliff beside the Seward Highway south of Anchorage, Alaska. Dall sheep, also called thinhorn sheep, are characterized by their white fur. They range from western Canada on up through Alaska. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 350mm) ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/250th of a second.
I’m assuming this is an adult opossum with a youngster trailing behind. They were caught on one of my camera traps as they walked along one of the many fallen ash trees in my back woods. An invasive beetle — the emerald ash borer — has been killing nearly all the ash trees in Connecticut, and across thirty other states. Terrible news for our native forests, but the fallen trees provide plenty of habitat for opossums and other small woodland creatures. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 500, f/14 at 1/200th of a second, Cognisys camera box, trail monitor and flashes.
I generally don’t like to post photos like this but it’s important to understand the consequences when it comes to human interactions with wildlife. Feeding wild animals is never a good idea. This brown pelican, and many other shorebirds, are often the victims of what some think is an act of kindness — tossing them dead baitfish and fish carcasses. Pelicans that are fed associate people with an easy meal and often mistake a lure for another handout. Undoubtedly, that’s what happened to this brown pelican in the heavily populated seaside town of La Jolla, California. Fortunately, this story had a happy ending, as local authorities were able to safely remove the hook. Many other birds aren’t as lucky. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/8 at 1/1250th of a second.