I got up early Sunday morning with a few hours left before I had to drive back to LAX for my flight back to New York. I was too far from any wildlife locations that I knew about so I just decided to check out the closest green area on the map to see what I could find . This brought me to Box Springs Canyon State Park and the Moreno Valley. The last thing I expected were hillsides full of wild burros. Apparently the Moreno Valley is the only place in the US where burros roam free on anything other than federal land. It’s believed that they were brought to the area from Death Valley by a cowboy some 50 years ago. The hills also happened to be covered in yellow flowers creating a nice foreground to shoot across.

Nothing like a desert in full bloom. This was taken last weekend in Joshua Tree National Park in southern California. The cactus were flowering and many of the other wildflowers were still going strong. The blooms on certain species of cactus, like the prickly pear, will only last for a day.

This here is a black-tailed jackrabbit, also known as a desert hare. Something about these guys fascinates me. Maybe it’s just those ears. Or the fact that they’re the inspiration for the jackalope myth that more than one person I know believes in. Seeing them leap through the desert in Anza-Borrego State Park in California they do, in fact, seem a bit antelope like. More photos to come in an upcoming post.

Another from Venice Rookery in Florida. Egrets, herons, ibis and anhingas (like this one here) build nests on a small island in the middle of a small lake.

This one is from Mount Evans in Colorado, a quick drive from Denver. A herd of mountain goats were below the lip of the ridge and I would have driven right past without noticing if I hadn’t seen this guy poking his head above the rocks.

This is a black skimmer that I photographed on Merritt Island in Florida. When feeding, they fly just above the water, using their lower beak to skim the surface for food.

I’ve watched great blue herons nesting before in Venice, Florida, but never saw them grabbing branches as big as the ones they were on this particular day.

Black oystercatchers are a large shorebird and one of my favorites in North American. Not really sure why, but I really like their entirely black feathers, orangish-red beaks, yellow, orange-ringed eyes, and pinkish legs. Nothing flashy, just a good solid, unpretentious bird. I was on a cliff, looking down on this one near San Simeon, California. They nest just above the high tide line of rocky shorelines and prey upon many small invertebrates including mussels, crabs and barnacles. Oddly enough, however, they don’t eat oysters.

I photographed this osprey last month at one of the country’s top birding spots — Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island in Florida. Osprey’s are somewhat unique, being a single species that occurs worldwide (except in Antarctica). They are fish eating raptors, sometimes called sea hawks, and you can see the tail of a fish in this one’s talons.

This here is a California newt, also known as an orange bellied newt. These guys are pretty big for newts, growing to 8 inches in length. It was somewhat rare to come across one on land because it’s breeding season and although they are land dwelling for most of the year, they stay in the water from December to early May when they are taking care of business. They also happen to be highly toxic and if ingested can kill you. I made sure not to eat him.

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