I’ve been hearing a lot of talk about river otters lately so I thought I’d post one today. This guy had just crawled up onto the ice to eat a fish. When he was done, he gave a nice head shake, sending all those water droplets into the air.

Yes, it’s true, sometimes I take photos with no animals in sight. This one was from Moñtana de Oro State Park in Los Osos, California. In Spanish it means mountains of gold, and the park was given its name because of all the yellow wildflowers that dot the landscape. Closer to the water, the layers of rock make for interesting seascapes — with or without the resident seals, sea otters, or sea lions.

There are two species of sea lions that frequent the Pacific coast of the United States — the Steller sea lions and the California sea lions. This is a colony of California sea lions, photographed at Elkhorn Slough in Moss Landing (which is just north of Monterey). Stacked on top of each other like this all day is sure to cause some tempers to flare and fights break out often. These sea lions took over a dock that was built for tourists back in 2007 and they haven’t given it up since. Sea lions are a protected species under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and they were therefore granted the right of way on the dock, which is now closed off to people for safety reasons

It’s been a while since the last black bear post. This youngster was photographed a few years back at about this time of year in Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee. I was hiking one of the park’s trails when I came across this bear, a sibling of the same age, and the mother. I watched for at least an hour as the two young bears played (and their mother made sure that I stayed a safe distance away).

Mountain bluebirds are migratory and range from as far south as Mexico in the winter, on up through Alaska in the summer. This one, a male, was in Yellowstone in late May. They are small birds that prefer open habitat and are often seen on the ground, either in the grass or on small perches like this rock. The males are a vibrant blue in color while the females are a duller blue with more grey on the chest, head and back.

Some of you might remember this fox mother and pup from a previous post. In that photo, the two were nose to nose. Just prior to that little bit of action, however, the mother was nuzzling the back of the pup’s ear. There was also a third pup to the left of the frame that made it into several other photos. It was one of those rare mornings when the light was perfect and the animals cooperated by putting on quite a show.

I was going through my files tonight and came across these two shots from Olympic National Park in Washington. In certain areas of the park, the forests can be very lush — everything covered in a coat of moss and dripping with vegetation. In the first photo, I used a 35mm focal length which eliminates any sort of extreme distortion when it comes to straight lines. In the second shot, I used a wide 17mm lens which really distorts the lines of the trees, but also creates a nice effect and sense of scale.

I captured this one on a dark morning in Yellowstone National Park (made even more dark by the fact that I was shooting into the rising sun). This was in late spring, but it had been very cold and every morning the ground was covered with frost.

I took this one a few years ago in Los Osos, California at a place called Montana De Oro State Park. There were a few of these bat stars around, tangled in the seagrass when the tide was low. The low-in-the-sky afternoon sun really saturates all the colors, as does the polarizing filter I had on my lens.

Another coyote from Griffith Park in Los Angeles. This one was howling for quite a while before two others eventually showed up. On a side note, I’ve been having a lot of issues with people not getting my posts. Hopefully I’ve worked out the problem. If you want to see any of the posts you might have missed, just click on “blog” and scroll down.