As I pack my bags for a work trip out to California to shoot a few peanut butter commercials, I was reminded of a similar shot a couple of years back when I had a day off and decided, of course, to go look for wildlife. I was in San Bernardino and I simply looked at the map for green space. This brought me to Box Springs Canyon State Park in Moreno Valley. I didn’t know what I’d find, but was happy to stumble upon the only place in the US where wild burros roam free on anything other than federal land. They were all over the hillsides, as were yellow springtime flowers. For this particular shot, I was hiding (kind of) behind a flowering bush as one of the burros stared back at me.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 280mm) ISO 400, f/7.1 at 1/500th of a second

Here’s another shot from my recent trip down to Florida, and the town of Cape Coral, which has become well known for its rather conspicuous burrowing owl population. That’s mom in the background to the right. There were actually three almost-full-grown chicks but the third was hidden behind these two siblings.
Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/640th of a second

Time for the annual bunny post on Easter. This little cottontail was photographed late one afternoon in Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota. Hope everyone had a great day.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/320th of a second

The pileated woodpecker may or may not be the largest woodpecker in North America. It all depends on if there are any ivory-billed woodpeckers out there. There have been many sightings, but none verified since the 1940s, which is why the ivory-billed is listed as “critically endangered/possibly extinct.” But this post is about the pileated, a fine creature in its own right. I photographed this cooperative bird several years back in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/4.5 at 1/500th of a second

This photo has been one of my best sellers over the years and I just realized that I’ve never actually posted it to the blog. It is in my “North America” gallery but was never a photo of the day. So here it is. A roseate spoonbill from what started as a terrible day at the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island in Florida. When I first got to the refuge, I couldn’t see ten feet in front of me with the thick fog. I waited it out, however, and when the fog finally cleared, it revealed quite a bit of pink out amongst all that white. It wasn’t the blue skies that I had hoped for, but ended up being the perfect conditions for reflection shots of these beautiful birds.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (with 1.4 teleconverter attached for 550mm) ISO 400, f/9 at 1/640th of a second

It’s tough being a bighorn sheep in Yellowstone in the winter. Finding suitable grass for grazing can be quite a challenge with all the snowfall that the park gets. This ram was opportunistically feeding on whatever shrubbery he could find.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 120mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/3200th of a second

Yellowstone is a great park to capture photos of animals in the landscape. Pronghorn seem to be more and more common at Yellowstone and provide nice subjects for such shots. I remember ten or more years ago definitely not seeing as many as I see now. This young lady was taking a look back at the rest of the herd while the sun started to inch down toward the horizon behind me.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/2500th of a second

Nine-banded armadillos are quite common in Florida, but they can be difficult to photograph. They don’t have very good eyesight, but they have a great sense of smell and hearing. I spotted quite a few on Merritt Island, but would have to approach upwind to take care of the smell problem, and then quietly get into place to take care of the hearing issue. This involved getting as low as possible to get the best vantage point of these smallish mammals. The other challenge is photographing them with their eyes open, as they tend to be closed most of the time. It all came together nicely for this shot.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/640th of a second

I had always heard about the diminutive key deer that live in the southern part of the Florida Keys, but on previous trips to the area I had never gotten around to searching them out. This weekend I finally decided to see what they were all about. They are a subspecies of the white-tailed deer and true to the billing, they are small — the smallest deer in North America — but they didn’t really seem all that much smaller than the regular-sized white-tailed deer that we get in the rest of the country. Still, it was fun to hang out with these two for about twenty minutes or so as they curiously observed me before going back to eating grass.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 35mm) ISO 800, f/4.5 at 1/800th of a second

Just back from a work trip to Miami. I was able to fit in a very quick visit to a friend in the Keys and then my mother on the Gulf coast. Just north of where she lives is the town of Cape Coral. Cape Coral is known for it’s proximity to great beaches. And for its owls. The town is home to Florida’s largest population of burrowing owls. These pint-sized locals can be found throughout the town, burrowing in the side yards of suburban homes. This chick was one of three siblings. He/she was calling to the others while keeping an eye on my camera.
Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 340mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/160th of a second