A Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) wonders just how foolishly close I will approach, and whether stabbing this creature in its camera-shaped eye will help it regain some peace. Taken on the pier in Oceanside, Southern California.
Tags: Brown Pelican Pelecanus occidentalis Southern California San Diego County Oceanside pier Pacific Ocean
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The Full Cold Moon arcs toward the horizon over the Longs Peak massif (14,259 ft; 4,346 m) in the gathering light of a winter dawn, taken near Lyons, Colorado. Moonlight gleams on the icy surface of McCall Reservoir and brings the eye to a silhouetted flock of Canada Geese (Branta canadensis), huddled and squawking about it as temperatures finally began to warm a little.
Tags: Belt of Venus Cold Moon Colorado Colorado Rockies Front Range Full Cold Moon Landscape Longs Peak Mount Lady Washington Mount Meeker National Park Rocky Mountain National Park Rocky Mountains Southern Rockies U.S. National Park Winter alpine clouds cold dawn full moon high country high elevation moon moonset morning morning light mountains pre-dawn snow snowscape Longmont United States
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Skeins of Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis) circle purposefully amongst sunset clouds before settling down to roost for the night along the channel of the Platte River near Kearney, Nebraska.
What cannot be separated from the experience of seeing tens of thousands of these birds in one place is the experience of hearing them calling and trilling to each other constantly as they coordinate their movements through the waning light. As March gives way to April and then May, upward of 500,000 Sandhill Cranes pass through the river bottomlands and farm fields around Kearney on their way to points further north. Sandhill Cranes represent one of the last great animal migrations of a single species in North America. The Passenger Pigeon, the Buffalo, and Pacific Northwest Salmon are all either extinct, or their populations are plaintive whispers of what they were 150 years ago and the animals can no longer muster a significant migration. One hundred and fifty years represents a hard to fathom amount of societal change for human beings, but this amount of time is also not quite the lifespan of a single Giant Tortoise. In this light, it was thrilling to see these birds, and even more so to see among them a few bright flashes of white. I assume those large, white birds were Whooping Cranes, but they were too far away to be certain.
In centuries and millennia past, the melting snows and attendant spring floods would fill wetlands to the brim with nutrients, worms, and mollusks, and the surging waters replenished the sandbars that afford the Cranes safety at night. Today, the flow of the Platte’s waters is generally regulated by engineering projects, and the birds depend on people to both mechanically clear the willows that would eliminate the sandbars and expose the population to mammalian predators, and to leave corn in the fields for sustenance. The wetlands have mostly been converted to commodity agriculture (dent corn and soybeans), and the Platte braids its namesake channels under human supervision.
Tags: Grus canadensis Nebraska Platte River Sandhill Crane birds birds in flight clouds cranes evening evening light magic hour spring migration sunset Gibbon United States
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An inquisitive young Yellow-Bellied Marmot (Marmota flaviventris) scales a boulder near Lake of Glass, and likely hopes for a handout from passing tourists in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.
Whether it was hungry or not I don't know, as it didn't receive any food from our party, but whatever the case it was singularly unperturbed by the presence of humans. After I captured this pose, it descended the boulder and sauntered within a couple of feet of my toes as it went off about its Marmot Business. I think encounters like this are probably only possible because dogs are not allowed in National Parks.
I hope folks are hanging in there!
Tags: Colorado Colorado Rockies Lake of Glass Marmota flaviventris National Park Rocky Mountain National Park Rocky Mountains Southern Rockies U.S. National Park Yellow-Bellied Marmot high country high elevation lichen marmot mountains rock Estes Park United States
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The bright yellow belly of an actively 'sallying' Western Kingbird (Tyrannus verticalis) is on full display in Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, Colorado.
This species of Kingbird is a member of the 'tyrant flycatcher' species group, so named because many of these species are aggressive and more than willing to punch above their weight as they drive away much larger birds that venture too close to their territory. The tyrant group is also the largest taxonomic family of birds in the world, including over 400 species. Here in Colorado the Western Kingbird overlaps with the Eastern Kingbird (T. tyrannus), which we also saw on this particular day. Upon first glance, one might be hard-pressed to make the connection that these two species are closely related as the Eastern Kingbird is largely black and white.
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Tags: National Wildlife Refuge Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge Tyrannus verticalis Western Kingbird bird birding flycatcher refuge spring telephoto tyrant flycatcher wildlife wildlife refuge Commerce City Colorado United States of America bokeh
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