King Vulture
The passing of one year into another is often filled with many meanings and feelings. But really the new year is just the first day of the civil year in the Gregorian calendar, which is used by most countries. But somehow, we still attach so many meanings and traditions to this first day of the calendar year, either right or wrong. Many people look back and try to remember last year’s achievements but often only remember the failures. They look towards the new year with hopes of a new beginning and changing attitudes or make promises to themselves that you’ll do better. As a naturalist and wildlife biologist perhaps I look at things slightly differently. I see changing daylight. Just before Christmas on December 21 we had the winter solstice, when the earth’s northern hemisphere reaches its maximum tilt away from the sun. As a result, we have the shortest daylight and the longest nights. At the first of the year the days are now getting longer. Longer days is how I look at the new year. So, this year perhaps you can add an additional New Year resolution. It’s not difficult to do. Just open your mind to new ideas and things. For example, most people don’t like vultures. Yep, you read that correctly, think differently about vultures. But first let’s take a closer look at these amazing birds. Vultures are a group of birds that make a living by scavenging on carrion (dead animals). There are 23 different species of vulture, including the condors of the world. Here in the United States, we have two vultures, the Turkey Vulture and the Black Vulture and the California Condor for a total of three species. Many of the vultures have bare or naked heads and necks which often puts people off on their looks right away. Bare skin is thought to help the birds maintain a cleaner head especially when you consider they are sticking their heads into bodies of rotting flesh. And this makes some sense because they can reach with their beak most of their body to preen and clean their feathers but would be unable to reach their own head to preen. The bare head and neck also help the bird to thermoregulate their body temperature. On cold days they pull their head down tight to their body reducing the bare skin to outside temperatures and on hot days they stretch out their necks to expose the skin to allow for cooling. Recently while photographing King Vultures (Sarcoramphus papa) I was once again reminded that vultures are amazing birds. The King Vulture lives primarily in tropical lowland forests from southern Mexico down through Central America into northern Argentina. I was staying in a lodge in the lowland tropical forests of Costa Rica. The days were hot and extremely humid. Temperatures during the day were in the high 80’s and it rained on and off throughout the day driving the humidity through the roof. There was just no way to stay cool in these hot and muggy conditions. To photo the King Vultures, we had a short hike down a very muddy road. The last part of the walk was up a small hill. Not terribly steep but steep enough to make the muddy adventure challenging. The last thing you want to do is drop all your camera gear on the ground, let alone in the mud. Successfully navigating this last part led us to a well concealed blind with a narrow window across the front so we could put our camera lens out. Out in front of the blind was a small clearing in the forest jungle. It was early in the morning and there was already about 30 Black Vultures and 3 King Vultures visible. I couldn’t believe my eyes, right in front of us, not 75 feet away was the king of all the vultures. This magnificent looking black and white bird with a stunning yellow, red, blue, orange head and a bright white eye encircled with a red ring was right before my lens. This is something I have dreamed about many times. For the next 3 hours over 20 King Vultures flew into the clearing. I took thousands of images of these amazing looking birds and thought about their natural role in this jungle forest habitat. How these birds are the front line of recycling and reducing the waste in a natural ecosystem. How they are able to find food by following the scent of rotting flesh. How they can eat things so putrid that it would kill you and me and I could go on and on about the virtues of the vultures. Vultures in general are birds that fill an ecological niche that really is a thankless job but extremely important. So, this year let’s make a resolution to start to accept any and all things that may look or act differently from others and let’s start with the vultures of the world. Happy New Year. Until next time… Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the world to study wildlife. He can be followed on www.instagram.com, facebook.com and twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at naturesmart.com.
Red Fox
The Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) is one of those animals that is common, yet not commonly seen. As you know I spend more than the average time in the outdoors all year long capturing images of wildlife and the Red Fox is one of those animals that I hope to see all the time but for some reason don’t. So recently while guiding a photo tour in Yellowstone National Park in the depths of winter, I was fortunate enough to spend a couple days with a number of foxes. In fact, one day there was more than just one fox, there was five. The Red Fox is the largest of the foxes and is found throughout the northern hemisphere including North America, Europe, Asia and parts of North Africa. It has also been introduced by people to Australia. It has an amazing ability to adapt to just about any environment and tolerates being around people very well. In fact, it does so well that it is often found in big cities as well as rural areas. They seem to do very well in suburban areas as well. Some would argue that the Red Fox has followed people in the expansion across the planet. Despite their common name they come in a wide variety of colors, from nearly black, to blond and many shades between. Some have red bodies but black legs and other combinations. The different coloring often gives rise to different names such as Cross Fox or Silver Fox. These names are often used for animals with dark or gray or silver tipped dark fur. But no matter what color coat of the fox, one thing remains consistent, the tip of the tail. The Red Fox has a white tip of the tail, while its close cousin the Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) has a black tip of the tail. All of these color variations have led to biologists identifying many sub-species. Some recognize upwards of 45 different sub-species for the Red Fox. Don’t get me started on the sub-species topic. The Red Fox is a master at finding food. They eat mostly small mammals such as mice, voles and shrews along with larger mammals such as rabbits and squirrels. They also eat a wide variety of small birds, reptiles, and amphibians. They are opportunistic feeders, which means they will take advantage of any food source they find in addition to hunting for themselves. It is not uncommon for a fox to stash food for later use. Some recent studies show foxes have the ability to remember where they hid most of what they had hidden weeks before. Male foxes are called dogs and females are called vixens. The young foxes are called kits. The name fox comes from the old English which derived from the Germanic fuhsaz and refers to the thickly furred tail. Many people mistakenly believe that Red Foxes were introduced to North America. Recent gene mapping shows that Red Foxes came to North America about 400,000 years ago. Our foxes have been isolated from their European (Old World) counterparts for so long that they are starting to look different and perhaps become a separate species. Yes, some Red Foxes have been introduced to North America in the 1900’s, but it seems that the genes from these introduced foxes didn’t survive. While foxes have excellent sense of smell, their true super power is their hearing. They have the ability to hear a mouse at 300 feet and can pinpoint with deadly accuracy a mouse under several feet of snow. While photographing several Red Foxes we watched as they cock their head from side to side, with their ears pointed forward in total concentration. They push back against their hind legs like winding up a spring. When they have pin pointed the mouse under the snow they launch themselves into the air and plunge through the snow pinning the prey down to the ground with the front paws before grabbing it with their mouth. I have been taking trips to Yellowstone in the winter for over 20 years and this winter was the best I have ever seen for Red Foxes. Normally I would see one or two over a couple weeks. This year I was fortunate enough to have many foxes over several days making it one of the best trips for Red Foxes in a very long time. Until next time… Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the world to study and capture images of wildlife. He can be followed at www.instagram.com, and www.facebook.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com.
Bald Eagle
I am often asked what is my favorite animal to photograph. They want me to answer with one distinct and definite favorite critter. Time after time I disappoint them by saying my favorite wildlife to photograph tends to be whatever I happen to be photographing at the time. I haven’t met any animal that I didn’t find amazing. It is often like asking a parent which child is your favorite. You love all of your children and I love all of nature. However, I feel there are some critters that are easier to capture stunning images than others. For example, I photographed a large snapping turtle one time for a book project I was working on and no matter what I did I couldn’t capture a decent or worthy image for the book. Recently I spent 10 days in Alaska leading a photo tour to capture images of our national symbol, the Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla). Now this is a wonderful example of a bird/animal that is hard to take a bad picture. It seems that just about anyway or anyhow you photograph this spectacular bird, the images always turn out to be stunning and award winning. There is just something special about Bald Eagles when it comes to photography. When I look back at the last 40 years of my career as a wildlife biologist, author, educator and wildlife photographer, in the beginning there weren’t many Bald Eagles around. The population of the Bald Eagle tanked out in the mid 1900’s. Due to widespread habitat loss, as well as both legal and illegal shooting or trapping, and the widespread use of DDT, which caused the eggs shells of the eagle to be so thin the eggs couldn’t be incubated without the parents breaking the shell, the Bald Eagle were nearly wiped out. In the early 1900’s it was believed that Bald Eagles would grab the legs of domestic animals such as lambs and cows and even human children, leaving them severely injured. Of course, this wasn’t true at all, and so Bald Eagles were shot by the tens of thousands all in the misguided belief in a falsehood. By 1978 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said that “the leading cause of direct mortality in both adult and immature Bald Eagles was illegal shooting”. In 1967 the Bald Eagle was declared an endangered species. Amendments to our laws in the 60’s and 70’s increased penalties for violators and more importantly in 1972, DDT was banned from use in the United States. DDT was later banned in Canada in 1989. By the late 1970’s and early 80’s it was estimated that only 100,000 individual eagles existed. So, over the past 40 plus years, the population of Bald Eagles has started to rebound and now it’s not uncommon to see these magnificent birds on a regular basis. The Bald Eagle was removed from the Endangered Species list in June of 2007, and it continues to do well. Today there are an estimated 320,000 eagles. The state of Alaska has the largest and most stable population of Bald Eagles in North America. So it is only natural that is where we would go to capture some stunning images of these incredible birds. We spent 4 days on a small boat cruising around the back bays looking for eagles with an eye towards some beautiful backgrounds. Each day we would meet the boat just before daybreak. We would take a 30-minute boat ride across the bay to search for eagles. We located several hundred eagles, who in mid-winter tend to hang out together looking for food. There were so many eagles that it became a problem to decide which eagles and in what background we wanted to try and capture some images. With the new mirrorless cameras, I am able to take 20 to 30 images per second. This is a good and a bad thing because each day I was taking over 10,000 images of Bald Eagles in pursuit of just the right image. Taking this many images allows me to search through a series of images and find just the one with the wing and body in the perfect position as it snatches fish from the ocean. This kind of image shows the power, strength, and grace of these beautiful birds. So here I am, weeks after the trip and I am still editing and witling down the more than 50,000 images of Bald Eagles, but also looking back at all the wonderful opportunities we had. The time it takes to edit these images is well worth it. If you are interested in going on a photo trip to Alaska for eagles check my web page. Until next time… Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the U.S. to study and capture images of wildlife. He can be followed on www.instagram.com, facebook.com or twitter.com. He can be contacted via his website at www.naturesmart.com.
Prothonotary Warbler
There is a group of birds that a lot of people find very interesting and yet at the same time very frustrating. These are the warblers. The New World Warblers or sometimes called Wood-Warblers are an interesting group of birds that are often brightly colored, small and spend much of their time at the tops of trees. The bright colors are why many people find them interesting to look at but their nature of hanging out at the tops of trees makes them difficult to watch and very frustrating to correctly identify. Warblers are unique to the New World. For those not familiar with the term “New World”, this means the America’s—North, Central and South America. Our warblers are not closely related to the Old World Warblers or Australian Warblers found in Europe, Asia and Australia. Most of these birds are arboreal, feeding high up in trees and building nests in the upper branches of tall trees, but a number of species feed, live and nest on the ground. We have 53 different species of warbler in North America. There are many more in the tropics of Central and South America. Our warblers are highly migratory and move up into the northern tier states and Canada for nesting and return to the tropics for winter. Most of our warblers are highly migratory. Most warblers have complex and pleasant-sounding songs. Typically, the male is the songster and belts out a loud and musical song in spring to attract a mate and to announce he is willing to defend his territory. Warblers also have a variety of calls. Calls are different from songs. Calls are usually a single sharp note that is given when the bird is alarmed or threatened. These “chip” notes are given by both males and females while males tend to be the sole songster. The songs of warblers tend to be loud and clear. Birds who live, hunt and nest close to the ground tend to have lower pitched songs. The low pitch helps the song carry across the forest floor. Birds that live, and nest high in trees usually have higher pitched songs which allows their songs to travel further due to less obstacles. So basically, the song is optimized for the habitat that they live in. Warblers tend to be small birds, usually under 7 inches in length. Our New World Warblers are often brightly colored, and males tend to have the flashy colors and females’ trend towards the duller side. In spring it is often easier to identify the warblers migrating through your area because of the brightly colored feathers. But in fall many of the warbler species molt into non-breeding plumage, making them all look similar and very difficult to distinguish between the species. All of this info about warblers was rushing through my head the other day while photographing one of the more interesting warbler species. A friend of mine let me know about a pair of Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea) nesting nearby. I dropped everything and went to see it because this is a very interesting bird species. The Prothonotary Warbler is the only warbler species found in the eastern half of the country that nests in a natural cavity. They can also be attracted to nest in wooden nest boxes. They often nest in old woodpecker cavities but are also known to nest in other natural cavities. Although it is often stated that they can excavate their own nest cavity in a rotten stump, I find this highly unlikely due to the size and shape of their bill. They are insect eaters and have a small thin bill to capture insects and doesn’t make for a good excavating tool. The name “Prothonotary” comes from the Byzantine court, official scribes in the Catholic Church, whose members wore golden-yellow robes. Both the male and female Prothonotary Warbler are bright yellow in color, but the male is noticeably brighter. These birds breed mostly in hardwood wetlands, usually in flood planes of major river bottoms. It didn’t take long after I arrive in the flood plane forest to locate the pair of warblers. The male was singing loud near the nest and it’s not difficult to spot these brightly colored birds. Both the male and female were feeding the babies and coming to the nest cavity every 5 mins or so with an wide variety of insects. Each visit the parents would reach into the cavity to feed the young inside which allowed me just enough time to capture some fabulous images of these super color warblers. Until next time… Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the world to study and capture images of wildlife. He can be followed on www.instagram.com and facebook.com. He can be contacted via his website at www.naturesmart.com.
Otters
It is not often that I get to interact with two very similar but also very different species on back to back photo trips
Bobcat
There are several animals that by their very nature are not easily observed or photographed in the wild
Black Skimmer
When it comes to birds, it is all about the bill. Ya, you know, the bill or beak. The bill of a bird is what really makes the birds unique
Bufflehead
The spring migration is an exciting time in the natural world. Compared to the fall or autumn migration, the spring migration
Roseate Spoonbill
While guiding a photo tour in Florida last week, we where fortunate to capture some amazing images of one of North America’s most
Winter Weather
Winter weather has been in the news a lot lately. In particular, the amount of snow blanketing many parts of the northern states.