This sea otter appears to be having a rough morning out on the open water of Elkhorn Slough in Moss Landing, California. Either that, or it’s just giving its head a good cleaning after munching on a feast of clams and mussels.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/160th of a second

This one goes out to all my fellow Cheshire High Rams that I had such a good time with last Saturday night at our 30 year reunion. Cheshire, being in Connecticut, doesn’t have any real bighorn sheep among its residents — Wyoming, on the other hand, where this photo was taken, has plenty to go around. Enjoy, and see you all at the next reunion.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 310mm) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/1250th of a second

Some of you might remember a horizontal photo of horseshoe crabs spawning on the beach that I posted a while back. Here’s another shot from that night I was in Cape May, New Jersey. The horseshoe crabs spawn during the month of May at high tide. Full and new moons bring the greatest number of crabs ashore.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 400, f/20 at 13 seconds, graduated neutral density filter

Since my trip to Minnesota in late June it seems like I’ve been posting a black bear pic each week. No reason not to keep the streak going. I love the way these two cinnamon colored black bears look almost bald on their faces as their cinnamon coat gives way to the more traditional black fur around their eyes, forehead and cheeks.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 800, f/2.8 at 1/400th of a second

This nine-banded armadillo on Merritt Island in Florida was searching everywhere. For what, I don’t know, but it must have been important because he was quite frantic about his search. He even looked inside this moss-covered log for that thing he wanted so much. I didn’t stick around long enough to see if he ever did find what he was looking for.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 19mm) ISO 800, f/3.2 at 1/640th of a second

A few years back, I was down on the Delaware Bay photographing the curious, yet not entirely surprising mating ritual of the least tern. Male least terns catch a fish and then use that fish as payment for services rendered by the female. I watched while lying face down on the sand and took many low perspective photos of this pair as he returned from the sea and showed her the fish. Satisfied with what she saw, she allowed him to mount her and do his thing — about a 3 minute performance. The whole time, he kept the fish in his mouth, shaking his head back and forth until finished. Then she turned around and he dropped the fish, not in her mouth, but rather unchivalrously to the side, as if not completely satisfied. Both, however, seemed to get what they wanted and flew off in opposite directions. I had been watching several other terns doing the same thing and noticed that sometimes the female was not satisfied with the fish and refused the male, while other times the male checked out the female, fish in his mouth, and decided that she wasn’t worthy and flew off in search of another female. These two were the only ones that allowed me a close enough approach to capture the action.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 200, f/6.3 at 1/1600th of a second

This bear was pretty fun to watch as it stood up on that fallen trunk and surveyed its territory. It was as if the bear was playing a game of king of the hill, several times warding off other bears.
Top photo — Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 116mm) ISO 1600, f/2.8 at 1/500th of a second
Bottom photo — Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 110mm) ISO 800, f/2.8 at 1/200th of a second

These two grey squirrels were jockeying for position inside the hollow of a tree in the front yard of my old house in Michigan.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 600mm f/5.6 manual focus lens, ISO 200, f/5.6 at 1/125th of a second

A couple more black bear cubs from my Minnesota trip. These guys had two other siblings who were further up the tree. Black bears learn to climb almost as soon as they are born so that they can stay out of danger while Mom is out foraging in the forest.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 350mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/320th of a second