Category Archives: Wildlife

Wildlife Photos. Notes and thoughts related to wildlife photography.

Northern Hawk Owl photo

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Northern Hawk Owl, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

Owls rock!

Here’s a Northern Hawk Owl (Surnia ulula) taking flight from its perch on the top of a white spruce tree. These owls seem to be much more tolerant of my presence than their larger cousins, the Great Horned Owl. They’re also much more active during the daytime. Northern Hawk Owls tend to live in the boreal forests of the north, but do move south in leaner years when food is scarce. This year it looks like a bumper year for owls up here, so I doubt many of them will head south. Hopefully, that means I’ll get some photos. 🙂

Cheers
Carl

Bald eagle, Alaska

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Bald eagle, catching a fish, Kachemak Bay, Homer, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

Just as a head’s up – unfortunately, my posting here is about to slow down considerably. I, apparently, have a great deal of work to catch up on. And I was hoping, if things worked out well, I’d have some good internet time in the next few months .. but that appears to be unlikely now. I’ll try to keep posting here as possible, it’ll be a little slower for a while, I think. Bummer, eh?

In moving along with my ‘showing some older, pre-blog-photo-era images, I thought I’d post a bald eagle image. This is from the winter of 2002. Continue reading →

Spruce Grouse

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male spruce grouse, Wrangell St. Elias national Park, Alaska.

hey Folks,

Here’s a male spruce grouse that I photographed a week or so ago. These birds are SO cool, and will completely bury themselves under the snow in the winter, blasting up from their hides in a frenzied eruption of snow, feathers and noise when you stroll by – and scaring the hiker immeasurably in the process.

I’ve not had any luck with photographing grouse in the park before, though I have photos from other places, so this one I was glad to catch.

Male spruce grouse, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Cheers

Carl

Muskox photos, Arctic coastal plain, Alaska

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Muskox photos, Arctic coastal plain, alaska.

Hey Folks,

Here’s another image of muskox from our trip to the arctic coastal plain this past summer, and a float trip down the Canning River in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. As you can see from the muskox photo, the mosquitoes were out in the droves this summer in the arctic. Fortunately the winds we experienced kept them down much of the time – but I had headed out to shoot these guys in shorts, a long-sleeved shirt and a ball cap – not really the gear I needed to keep the bugs at bay. After about 15 minutes of nonsense, I left the muskox, went back and donned some more suitable attire, and returned to the fray.

Muskox photos from the coastal plain, arctic Alaska.

Cheers

Carl

Pectoral sandpiper, anwr, alaska.

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pectoral sandpiper, anwr, alaska.

Hey Folks,

Here’s a Pectoral sandpiper photo, taken on our recent trip to ANWR, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska. The shorebirds out on the coastal plain were really a treat – we were so lucky to see a number of cool birds. I’ll try to write a thorough report when I get time. In the meantime, dig this.

Cheers

Carl

PS – I edited this after the great biologist Milo Burcham pointed out the error of my initial post, which said the bird is a buff-breasted sandpiper – Milo, of course, is correct, and I, of course, was wrong – the bird is a pectoral sandpiper. Thanks Milo.

Pacific Loon, Section 1002, ANWR, Alaska

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Pacific Loon, Section 1002, ANWR, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

Here’s a Pacific Loon image I got late one evening near the Canning River, on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ANWR, Alaska. This photo took me quite a while, and a lot of walking, to swing. I think it was nearly 2am when I clicked the shutter here. I’d been over near this pond earlier, but not able to get close. I ended up walking around for a long time, finding a few other birds to photograph, and then cam back by the loon pond. This loon and its mate were getting more and more comfortable with this strange tripod-toting creature wandering around, and finally came close enough for me to manage a few photos. I wish the light was a little brighter, and the wind not present, as the rippled effect on the water isn’t as nice as a calmer surface, but one takes what one can in the arctic. At least the wind kept the bugs at bay.

Section 1002, the coastal plain, of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is the area hotly debated over with the proposals to drill for oil. I think the wildlife that live there, will be much better off if drilling and gas extraction aren’t allowed; I think we’ll be better off for it, too.

Cheers

Carl

Wild MuskOx photo, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ANWR, Alaska

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Wild MuskOx, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ANWR, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

Here’s another Musk Ox photo, from the Canning River, Section 1002 area of the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska.

This trip was the first time I’ve seen MuskOx, and it was great to get some images. They’re almost a prehistoric looking creature, very cool, and reasonably calm, if approached carefully.

We took over an hour just slowly getting closer and closer – but photos were few and far between, as they tended to stay in the willows and thicker brush, making decent photos hard to come by. Patience was rewarded, and I got this and a few other images that I liked.

Muskox photos.

Cheers

Carl

MuskOx Calf photo, coastal plain, arctic Alaska

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MuskOx calf, coastal plain, arctic Alaska.

Hey Folks,

As I don’t have anything new to post from the Skolai Trip I did last week, I’ll post a few more Muskox. This young calf was hanging around with his mom and the herd one afternoon, and it took quite a while before I got a decent opportunity to shoot a portrait of the calf. Muskox really protect their young well, mostly by hiding the calves behind the adults, and often keeping them in the thicker brush. Finally this calf ran out in the open, stopped and looked back, and I took this photo. You can see the Mosquitoes were plentiful up in the arctic this summer.

Muskox photos.

Cheers

Carl

Bull MuskOx photo, arctic coastal plain, Alaska

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Bull MuskOx, arctic coastal plain, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

So I just got back in from a nice long trip to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). I drove up to Fairbanks, picked up Bob and Erika, a lovely couple from Florida, and we headed on up the Dalton Highway, almost to Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay, where we met our pilot, picked up a raft, and flew in to the headwaters of the Upper Marsh Fork of the Canning River.

It was quite an adventure, an their first time in the Refuge, so we all had a great time. I’ll tell you some more about it over the next week. Before we flew in though, we were told about a small herd of MuskOx just north of us, on the Sag river. With some time to kill, and gigabytes on the memory cards, we figured we’d go take some pictures. Continue reading →

Long-Tailed Jaeger, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska

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Long-tailed Jaeger, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska.

hey Folks,

I just got back in from a long and really cool trip to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge – awesome place! This is a photo of a Long-tailed Jaeger, sitting on a small mound on the coastal plain, taken around 1:00am; gotta love that summer arctic thing!

I’ve got about a million things to do, so this is just a quick short post – but do stay tuned. I have some ground-breaking stuff here, new, never before taken photos from the Refuge, and some discussion that will likely amaze a number of readers – the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a topical place right now, with the oil prices, and all, and I’m sure you’ll find some of my findings very interesting, maybe a little disturbing (or disturbed), and even surprising.

Cheers

Carl