I’m off for a few days for the 4th, so this will be the last post until later next week. What  you see here is prickly pear cactus and some desert indian paintbrush. What you don’t see is the snake that came slithering out of those rocks after I almost stepped on it.

Another photo of the wild burros that I stumbled across in Moreno Valley, California. These two kept chasing each other back and forth, enabling me to get some nice slow shutter speed, motion blurred shots.

This used to be called a rufous-sided towhee, although the powers that be have decided that the western and eastern variants in the US are separate species. So to be hip, we’ll call it its new name, the spotted towhee (the eastern guys are appropriately called eastern towhees). Regardless of the name, both suffer from the cruel injustice of the female cowbird. Seems the cowbird sneaks into the towhee’s nest when an expectant mother isn’t there, removes the towhee eggs and then deposits a few of her own. The cowbird splits the scene before the towhee knows what’s going on. Unable to distinguish that a switch has occurred, the towhee will incubate the eggs as if her own.

This coachwhip snake was out hunting lizards when I came across it on a hike in the Colorado Desert of southern California. Of course, my first instinct when I see a small animal is to get down on the ground for a few pictures. Fortunately, the snake cooperated by raising its head up out of the bushes for a few seconds before continuing on its way.

Another black-tailed jackrabbit from Anza-Borrego State Park in southern California. The ears, of course, are for hearing but they also help to reduce and regulate body heat, enabling the rabbit to live in the hot conditions of the desert.

A couple of attempts at panoramics from my neighborhood in Brooklyn. I really can’t think of a place in the city that has better views than those just outside my apartment in Dumbo. For the top shot, I merged three HDR images into one (total of 15 exposures) and for the bottom I used 4 HDR images for a total of 20 exposures. Being a :3o second walk from my apartment, I’ve taken photos at this location several times but still haven’t quite gotten the shot I’m after. I’ll keep at it and post when I do.

Some sea otters are just cooler than others — like this guy that I photographed in Elkhorn Slough in the town of Moss Landing, California. I sat for about two hours at the end of a jetty watching the otters as they went about their business, slowly becoming habituated to my presence.

Not much to say here, just a couple of Canadian geese swimming past the reflection of a lighthouse. This one was taken last spring down in Cape May, New Jersey at Cape May Point State Park.

Here’s another one from my recent trip to the desert. Cholla cactus in the foreground and ocotillo in the background in Anza-Borrego State Park in southern California.

This will be the last post for about a week as I’m off on vacation tomorrow. As for the photo, it was taken in the Badlands a couple years back very early in the morning. I was out before sunrise to photograph prairie dogs when I saw this, and another pronghorn moving in and out of the desert sunflowers along the roadside.