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.

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.

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.

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.

It is not often that I get to interact with two very similar but also very different species on back to back photo trips. I am talking about River Otters (Lontra canadensis) and Sea Otters (Enhydra lutris). Although they look remarkably similar, they are very different in so many ways. So, let’s take a look.

It all started while leading a photo workshop in Yellowstone National Park this winter. Along the frozen banks of the Yellowstone River, we located a family of River Otters consisting of an adult female and three young otters, which are called a pup or whelp. The adult male otters are called dogs and females a bitch (otter).

Over several days we found this family of otters swimming and hunting along the half-frozen river. River Otters never seem to stop moving. They are constantly running, playing, sliding in the snow, or swimming. Only when they pop up on the ice with a fish do they stop long enough to finish the meal but then they are off again.

Our North American River Otters are descendant from Old World River Otters. It is thought they crossed the Bering Land Bridge about 1.8 million years ago and have evolved into their own unique species. On average an adult male weighs about 25 to 30 pounds and females around 18 to 20 pounds. They are about 4 feet in length with the tail making up about one-third of that length. Their whiskers are long and thick and act to enhance their senses, especially while underwater. River Otters can live upwards of 10-15 years in the wild and up to 25 in captivity.

Watching and capturing images of these lively River Otters was one of the many highlights of this winter photo workshop. However, after three weeks in Yellowstone I flew directly to Alaska to spend a week photographing Sea Otters. Sea Otters look very similar only much, much larger than River Otters.

In order to capture images of Sea Otters we had charted a boat and spent 4 days bobbing up and down in the ocean searching for the otters. Adult male Sea Otters are absolutely huge, weighing in at 75 to 100 pounds. A few male otters have come in at 120 pounds. Females are smaller coming in at 40-75 pounds. They are nearly 5 feet long from nose to tip of tail. So, they are about the size of a small adult human.

Unlike most other marine mammals, the Sea Otter doesn’t have any blubber (excess fat) to stay warm but instead relies on an extremely thick coat of fur to keep warm and comfortable while in near freezing ocean water. Their fur is some of the densest of any animal. The fur consists of long, waterproof, guard hairs along with short underfur close to the skin. The combination of the two lengths of fur traps air and keeps the skin of the animal dry and limits any heat loss.

Sea Otters have many adaptations for a life in the ocean. Their nostrils and ears can close to aid in diving in deep water. Their hind feet are huge and webbed. They use their hind feet as their main source of propulsion. The position of their hind feet allows the Sea Otters to swim while on their back but makes walking on land very difficult. I only saw a couple of Sea Otters up and out of the water and when they were it was always right at the water’s edge.

One big difference between the River Otters and the Sea Otters is the tail. The Sea Otters tail is very short, thick, and slightly flattened. If you don’t look closely, you might think they don’t have a tail. The front legs are very short, and the paws have retractable claws. They use their front paws to hold food or their babies. The bones of the otter are denser than other animals’ bones, which helps to increase their density and helps to reduce their buoyancy and thus stay underwater with less effort while searching for food.

Sea Otters give birth year-round, and we were fortunate enough to find a female who had just given birth to a pup just moments before. The female held the newly born baby in her front paws and slowly turned the pup around and around while she licked him clean. Watching the caring nature of these huge otters was definitely a highlight of the trip. Being able to see and capture images of two different species of otter while on one trip was a fabulous opportunity and one that I won’t forget very soon. 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, www.facebook.com and www.twitter.com. He can be contacted via his website at www.naturesmart.com.

There are several animals that by their very nature are not easily observed or photographed in the wild. Recently while leading a winter photo tour to Yellowstone National Park, I had an opportunity to see but also capture some images of one of these elusive animals, the Bobcat (Lynx rufus) in the wild. It all started with a friend/photo tour leader letting me know that a Bobcat was feeding on a deer carcass in a narrow canyon.

So, early one morning with temperatures hovering just below zero degrees F, we set out to see and photograph this Bobcat. We were dropped off on a backcountry road accessible by snow coach only. The snow beneath our boots squeaked loudly with each step as we gathered up all our gear for a hike to the Bobcats location. At these elevations breathing can be difficult but adding in the extremely cold air meant that the hike that lies before us was going to be a challenge. I was carrying a tripod with a camera and my longest lens. I also had a second camera and shorter lens slung across my body. Together, both camera setups weigh over 20 pounds, which didn’t make the hike any easier. My pockets where full of backup batteries and all the other accessories needed for a full day of photographing.

Hiking along, the trees that flanked us on both sides were completely draped with a thick blanket of fresh snow. It wasn’t long before we could hear a fast-moving river. The trail paralleled the river for another quarter of a mile. We had walked into a steep walled canyon with rock walls reaching over 400 feet overhead.

When we reached our destination, everyone set down their gear to take a breather. Across the river, on a steep, snow covered river bank, we could see where a deer had fallen to its death from the top of the canyon walls. But where was the Bobcat?

Even though the Bobcat ranges across most of the United States and as far north as southern Canada, they are rarely seen. I have been successful at photographing a few Bobcats over the years in places like Arizona, California and Florida but only once before in a snowy winter setting.

The name Bobcat comes from the stubby, or “bobbed” tail. They are a small to medium sized cat that has been successful at inhabiting a wide range of habitats from woodlands to prairie and from deserts to swamplands. Like most cats the Bobcat is solitary, except for mothers with kittens and stay in a fairly large territory or home range.

Bobcats have a tan to reddish brown coat with darker markings throughout to help them blend into their environment. They have dark bars on their forelegs that also helps in camouflage. The ears are black tipped with short black tufts of fur that are often difficult to see. Their head and face often look large due to extra long fur just below its ears and around its face called a ruff. The male’s ruff are larger and more pronounced than females.

The average weight of an adult male Bobcat is around 20 pounds, while females are around 15 pounds, which is just slightly more than your average domestic house cat. The trick to separating a Bobcat from a Lynx (Lynx canadensis) is the tail. The tip of a Bobcat tail has black on top and white underneath. The Lynx tail looks like the entire tip of the tail was dipped in black ink. 

How this Bobcat found the deer carcass in the first place at the end of a very deep canyon is still a mystery. When we arrived at the carcass, we didn’t see the Bobcat right away. The cat was hanging out against the rocky canyon wall about 60 feet above the carcass and blended into the rock wall extremely well. We set up our camera gear in preparation for the cat to make its way through the deep snow down to the deer carcass to feed.

The first morning we spent 5 hours standing in the cold carefully watching and capturing images of the Bobcat doing a variety of natural behaviors. Over the next three days we returned three more times and each time the Bobcat was doing something different which allowed us to capture some amazing images.

On the last day we arrived at 1 pm. The cat had eaten much of the deer carcass over the past week or so and was resting up against the canyon wall. Shortly after we set up the cameras the cat stood up and stretched and scratched the snow in typical cat fashion. Then without even turning its head to look around it started climbing the steep snowy canyon walls. It took less than 10 minutes for the Bobcat to climb high and out of sight. We all felt honored to get a chance to see one of nature’s most secretive critters. Until next time…

Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist who travels the U.S. to study and capture images of wildlife. He can be followed on www.instagram.com, www.facebook.com and twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com.

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. It was Darwin who noticed that the finches he saw on the Galapagos Islands in 1831-36, had different shaped and size bills that corresponded with the diet of each bird. Nearly two hundred years later, we still use the size and shape of a bird’s bill/beak as a way to group or classify birds.

All of this was rushing through my head one day while I stood in shin deep salt water off the coast of Florida. While leading a photo tour to capture images of birds in the sunshine state, we had stopped at a wonderful beach that had several very large tidal pools. These tide pools are isolated pockets of seawater found in the ocean’s intertidal zone. When the tide comes in the pools fill and recharge with lots of ocean critters such as Star-fish (now called Sea Star) and small fish, crustations and so much more. When the tide goes out, the pool drains.

I am always attracted to tidal pools because they draw so much wildlife. So, we were walking around in ankle deep water enjoying the sunshine and warm temperatures hoping to capture some images of some birds. In particular we were hoping to see some Black Skimmers (Rynchops niger).

The Black Skimmer is a tern-like seabird with an incredibly large, red and black bill that is as thin as a knife blade. They are closely related to Terns and Gulls but are in their own Genus. In addition, the lower bill is significantly longer than the upper bill. This would be exactly opposite of all other birds. In general, the upper bill is almost always larger than the lower bill in other birds.

These are large birds with nearly a 4-foot wingspan and are about 20 inches from head to tail. The males are noticeably larger than the females. You never see just one Black Skimmer by itself. They are always flying in flocks or resting on the beach in small groups. They also nest in small colonies of dozens of pairs. It is estimated the population of the Black Skimmer is 90,000 to 100,000 in the U.S. and the population is decreasing over the past 50 years as it is for so many other birds.

But it’s the bill on this bird that is so remarkable and worth spending some time addressing. The Black Skimmer bill is three to four inches long. While having a long bill isn’t uncommon in the bird world, it is the narrowness of the bill that is so astounding. Once you see how these birds hunt for small fish, you will realize while the lower bill is longer than the upper bill and while the bill is as narrow as a knife.

To catch small fish, the Black Skimmer flies just above the waters surface and using its long narrow lower bill, it “skims” the water. The long lower bill slices through the water as the bird is flying. When the bird comes in contact with a fish the lower bill snaps shut, and the bird has its dinner. If they had a normal sized and width bill this kind of high speed “fishing” wouldn’t be possible.

We spent three days wondering around the tide pools hoping some Black Skimmers would show up. We had nearly given up when late in the evening, just before sunset, a small group of less than 10 skimmers showed up. They were flying low across the tide pool and heading for a shallow sandbar, to join many other shorebirds that were settling in for the night when we spotted the skimmers.

Luckily a few of the skimmers started fishing and we were able to capture just a few images of these amazing birds “skimming” right before the sunset and before they settled in for the night. So next time you see a bird try to note the size and shape of the bird’s bill. It is the key to how they feed and ultimately survive. 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, www.facebook.com and twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com.  

The spring migration is an exciting time in the natural world. Compared to the fall or autumn migration, the spring migration is faster, more agile, and it definitely seems to have an air of urgency. This is because the birds returning to the northland are in a hurry to claim the best territories and start the process of reproduction.

It also seems like the spring migration is more dependent upon the weather than the fall migration. Where I live in the northland, our lakes freeze over, and this year we had so much snow on top of the ice that sunlight couldn’t penetrate the snow and ice on the lake to allow the aquatic plants to survive. As a result, the oxygen levels started to drop in the lake and threaten to kill off the fish, so an electric aerator was deployed to keep a small section of the lake open and to restore the oxygen in the lake water.

A couple weeks ago, while snow still blanketed the ground, I was standing in my yard looking down the hill to the open water on the lake caused by the aerator. Hundreds and hundreds of ducks, geese, swans and mergansers filled the small open section of lake. I was thinking I wanted to make my way down to the edge of the lake to set up my portable blind and try to capture some images. However, I knew if I walked down to the lake all the waterfowl would fly away and I didn’t want to disturb the birds that much just to get a picture.

Just as I was mulling over the dilemma of not wanting to scare the birds a couple guys in an ATV (all-terrain vehicle) raced across the ice on the lake and stopped just 75 yards from the edge of the water. I estimate about 500 plus birds were instantly scared off the open water. I watched as the two guys jumped out of the ATV and started drilling holes in the ice to fish. Neither one of them even noticed the hundreds of ducks that they scared and were now flying right over their heads.

I took advantage of the situation and quickly grabbed my portable chair blind, camera and tripod. However, I definitely underestimated the depth of the snow. Carrying the extra weight of the blind, tripod and camera caused me to crash through the crusty snow instead of being able to walk on the surface. Each step I sunk into the snow up to my knees. Twenty-five minutes later, huffing and puffing, I reached the edge of the lake.

I picked out a spot where I could set up my chair blind and have a good view of much of the open water and not be too close to scare the birds when they return. Blind placement is very important part of being a successful wildlife photographer.

I was able to flatten down a section of snow and pop up my chair blind. I mounted my 800 mm lens on the tripod and pulled the fabric of the blind over my head completely concealing me within the blind. It was dark inside the blind and bright and sunny outside. I tried to get comfortable and made all the necessary adjustments to my camera settings to ensure that I wasn’t fiddling around with the camera when the birds came back. I wanted to be ready when the time was right.

Eventually the two guys packed up and left to fish in another part of the lake. In less than 30 minutes after they left a couple small flocks of ducks and mergansers started returning to the open water. Because there was very little open water available in the area, I was confident that most of the birds would return to the small patch of open water at some point.

It was exciting to hear the whistling wings of the ducks flying overhead then hear the splashing when the birds landed on the water. Now I just had to wait for some of the birds to swim near me. About 30 minutes after they first returned, I was surprised that a pair of Bufflehead ducks (Bucephala albeola) started to swim in my direction. I was thrilled because over all these years, this small duck species seemed to elude me from getting any decent images. These ducks are one of the smallest of waterfowl and can be difficult to approach close enough to get some quality images.

The male has a large bulbous head compared to its small body with a large white patch of feathers making them a beautiful duck. I spent the next 2 hours amazed that the Buffleheads swam past me many times allowing me to capture some very satisfying images. 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, www.facebook.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com.

While guiding a photo tour in Florida last week, we where fortunate to capture some amazing images of one of North America’s most stunning birds, the Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja). Standing nearly 3 feet tall, the Roseate Spoonbill is hard to miss this pink, red, white and yellow bird. So when we came across a nesting area containing several pairs of spoonbills we knew it was going to produce some amazing images.

The Roseate Spoonbill is a highly social bird (gregarious) in the Ibis and Spoonbill family (Threskiornighidae). They nest in small colonies with other long-legged wading birds such as Great Egrets. These colonies are usually located on small islands, often in mangroves. They lay two to five eggs in a small platform nest they construct with old vegetation of aquatic plants.  

In the United States they are only found in parts of Florida, Texas and Louisiana. But small populations can be found in Georgia and South Carolina. The vast majority of the spoonbills range is in Mexico and South America. Plume hunting in the early 1900’s nearly drove the spoonbill to extinction. Their beautiful bright pink feathers were used to adorn fancy hats. Major laws passed in the mid 1900’s have led to populations increasing in recent years.

As its name suggests, this bird has a long bill with a flattened, spoon-shaped tip. They feed on crustaceans, small fish, and aquatic insects. It uses its long spoon shaped bill by sweeping the bill back and forth while it walks in shallow water. The tip of the bill is packed with sensitive receptors to feel for any food items. When it bumps into a prey item it quickly snaps its bill shut and it tosses the item back into the mouth. The spoon-shaped bill also allows the bird to sweep its bill through muddy bottoms and sift out any small hidden insects.

Just like the American Flamingo, the spoonbills pink color is derived from its diet of prey that contains carotenoid pigments called canthaxanthin. The color of these birds ranges from pale pink to bright magenta red on the wings and base of tail. The older birds and breeding adults obtain the brightest colors.

After locating this nest colony, we returned for three mornings in a row to see if we could capture images of the Roseate Spoonbills in soft and warm early morning light as they flew from the nesting area to the surrounding area to pick up nesting material.

On the first morning we waited over 3 hours and while the spoonbills were flying in and out of the rookery, none came close enough to capture any images. On the second morning the warm light was blocked by some low hanging clouds which completely shut us down for the morning. We tried again in the afternoon, and we were successful at capturing images of the birds in flight but we didn’t capture the ultimate images we had hoped for.  

On the third and last morning the sunlight was beautiful and slightly filtered by thin clouds. The birds seemed to be a little extra active and while we watched many of the spoonbills fly out of the rookery and off into the distance without coming close enough to capture some images, we did get a few individuals that flew directly towards us.

Each time one of the spoonbills started flying in our direction the group would all stop talking and concentrate on the birds. Capturing images of birds in flight is an art form and takes a fair amount of practice and luck. One of the fun new advances in the camera world is mirrorless technology. These new cameras can shoot at 30 pictures per second, and they do it silently. So, each time one of the spoonbills would fly towards us there was no noise from the cameras. Only after the bird landed and we started looking at the images we just took did everyone start talking again. Usually, it was more like oooh’s and awes and remarking about how incredible the images look. So, after three days we managed to capture the images of our dreams. 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 at www.instagram.com, www.facebook.com and www.twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com.

Winter weather has been in the news a lot lately. In particular, the amount of snow blanketing many parts of the northern states. Where I’m located in the upper Midwest, we have had over 4 feet of snow along with some bone breaking cold temperatures. So, the natural question to ask is, does the deep snow and cold impact wildlife/nature in a negative or positive way?

The deep snow represents an advantage for some animals and a distinct disadvantage for others. Some animals such as Raccoons, Skunks and Opossum will spend upwards of a month or more held up in a protected spot under a building or inside a hollow tree for the coldest and snowiest parts of the winter. This is not a hibernation. This is self-preservation and avoiding the harshness of winter and could be seen as a negative.

Some animals such as Moose enjoy winter weather. Their long legs help them to navigate through the deep snow and food is plentiful. Moose have issues with Winter Ticks. These tiny blood suckers can overwhelm a moose in winter and deplete them of their blood thus weakening them in winter. The extremely cold temperatures help to kill off the Winter Ticks and improve the health of the individual Moose and is definitely a positive.

In general, owls do very well in cold winters and deep snow. In fact, the hunting is so good that the Great Horned Owls nest at this time of year. Yep, you read that correctly. Great Horned Owls start to nest in January and February. The female chooses a nest site. They don’t build a nest but rather take over an existing nest, such as a Red-tailed Hawk or Crow nest. The female simply moves the snow away and settles in. Winter is a positive for owls.

Of course, small animals such as Chipmunks and Woodchucks are in their dens hibernating during winter. The process of hibernation reduces the animals’ heart rate, respiration, and metabolic motility. Woodchucks don’t store food for winter. They try to put on enough fat in the summer and fall to last them all winter. Chipmunks on the other hand have small bodies and can’t put on enough fat to last all winter so they store large amounts of food in their den and will wake up every three to four weeks to feed on their stored food before falling back into hibernation. So cold and snow really doesn’t affect these critters.

A lot of species depend upon deep snow. Ruffed Grouse will dive into a snowdrift to roost overnight. The snow acts like an insulating blanket. Under the thick snow, near the earth’s surface, the temperature is around 32 degrees F. while the outside air temperature can be well below zero. The greater the temperature gradient between a bird’s body core temperature and the outside air the more energy it takes for the bird to keep warm. Energy comes from eating food so if they don’t eat enough, they will run out of energy and die. The blanket of snow goes a long way to reducing the temperature gradient between the bird and air temperatures.

Many animals are well adapted to snow and cold. The Snowshoe Hare for example has large hind feet that act like snowshoes, hence their name, and during winter they grow more fur on their feet to add more surface area which allows them to stay on the top of the snow. By staying on the top of the deep snow allows the Snowshoe Hare to reach twigs and other food that would normally be out of reach with no snow.  

Canada Lynx and Bobcats also do well in winter weather. They grow thick fur that keeps them warm and dry. The long legs of the Canada Lynx help them to get through the deep snow.  Their feet are huge and act like snowshoes. Winter is a time of plenty for these cats which hunt birds and small mammals in winter.

Small birds such as Black-capped Chickadee and American Goldfinch put on extra layer of fat for the winter. Most small birds put on about one-third more feathers during winter months. Like putting on a down-feather jacket this keeps them warm during winter and the extra fat fuels their thermoregulating system.

Extreme winter weather is nothing new for wildlife. Nature is always seeking a balance so extreme snow and cold is not just a negative but is also a positive for wildlife. We just need to have a better understanding of the workings of nature. 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, www.facebook.com and twitter.com. He can be contacted via his website at naturesmart.com.