Most Recent

Black Bear

We could see it moving through the tall, dull green grass of late summer, and it is moving in our direction. I told the group that we better move back and get our cameras ready. It looks like it will be walking directly towards us, and it was a big one. Next, I told the group, “For this...

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

I spend a lot of time improving the habitat on my 30-acre lake property. The goal is to provide nesting opportunities for as many bird species as possible. For example, I have put up a Great Horned Owl nesting platform and low and behold, I have had a pair of Great Horned Owls nesting on my nest...

California Condor

It has been 17 years since I last wrote about the largest bird in North America. A bird that was almost killed off and is being brought back from the brink of extinction through some heroic captive breeding and reintroduction efforts.

The California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) is a...

Elegant Trogon

Going to Arizona in the middle of summer doesn’t seem like a smart thing to do. The heat can be stifling and pushes any wildlife to be active only during the early mornings before the sun comes up or late in the day at sunset. The middle of the day most wildlife lays low and tries to stay...

Elegant Trogon

Going to Arizona in the middle of summer doesn’t seem like a smart thing to do. The heat can be stifling and pushes any wildlife to be active only during the early mornings before the sun comes up or late in the day at sunset. The middle of the day most wildlife lays low and tries to stay...

Double-crested Cormorant

We people love to assign blame or shame no matter the situation. For some crazy reason this translates over to our view of nature. There are a number of species that people don’t seem to like at all, based on nothing other than our desire to assign blame. The Double-crested Cormorant...

Dickcissel

We people love to group, label, and pigeon-hole what we see and experience around us in nature. I believe it helps us to understand and organize in our brains the vast number of species that we share the planet with. But like most things, we often take labeling and grouping a little too far from...

Loon Flight

I find it strangely comforting that there is still many things we don’t understand in nature. I’m not sure if it is a good thing or a bad thing. And perhaps it is just the way it is, and we will never understand. We often make assumptions about the kinds of behaviors we see or...

Common Loon 4 Chicks

Nature never stops to amaze me! After 40 years of field work, capturing events and species in nature with my camera and audio recordings, it is tempting to think you have seen it all or worse yet, know it all. But Mother Nature is always showing me that no one person can know it all or have seen...

Solitary Sandpiper

I love the diversity found within nature. I also really love the nature rule breakers. You know, the critters that don’t seem to follow the rules that we people think nature should follow. So last week while leading a photo workshop to photograph Black Bears in northern Minnesota I was...