Photographing in the rain adds challenges, especially since my cameras aren’t weather sealed, but I love the way it makes the fur of the elk stand up and out. I found it very relaxing to sit near this herd as they lounged about in the gentle rain.
Category Archives: Wildlife
Sense of Place
It’s usually pretty hard to provide a sense of place in a close-up portrait, but this intimate portrait of an elk cow strongly hints at Yellowstone with the burned and broken tree in the background. It was indeed taken near the Madison River in Yellowstone, she was part of a herd that was resting in the rain.
Look Who’s Here!
After visiting Yellowstone each year from 2004 to 2007, I’m not going to make it in 2008. It was a hard decision not to go, not only because I have such a good time there, but also because the elk get so excited when they see me.
Mineral Springs
A killdeer walks along the white mineral deposits at Mammoth Hot Springs at Yellowstone National Park. Elk had walked through a neighboring section and left hoofprints in the fragile crust, the killdeer would sit down in them for a while like they were its own personal sauna.
I Didn’t Expect To See You Here
Yesterday after work I went to Tualatin Hills Nature Park in Beaverton. I haven’t been hiking in quite a while and wanted a little change. I took the big lens and tripod with me and two hours later it was pretty obvious I wasn’t in the best hiking shape. I went to bed more than a little sore but thankful for the time in the outdoors.
In urban areas, Oregon’s native tree squirrels have largely been replaced by eastern foxes and eastern grays. And while I saw eastern foxes yesterday, it was the black stripe of this squirrel that immediately grabbed my attention. This is a Douglas’ squirrel, a native here in the Northwest that I hadn’t expected to see in a city park. Tualatin Hills is heavily forested, so apparently these squirrels are able to share their habitat with the more aggressive squirrels from the east.
This squirrel’s handiwork was everywhere, there were little middens of soft scales from the cones all along this section of the trail. They pull apart the cones to get at the seed inside, like the one being eaten in the picture. Given the many piles scattered here and there, this shy creature seemed to be pretty well fed.