Alaska’s fascinating wild creatures
Cordova, Alaska hosts the Copper River Delta Shorebird Festival, which happens annually in early May, timed to coincide with the great migration of many birds that utilize the Delta as a refueling and staging location. This year, the large groups of Western Sandpipers that often congregate at Hartney Bay, were only found in small groups. They may…
With each successive year, I become increasingly more fascinated, intrigued and concerned about the the arctic itself and the inhabitants that live in that beautiful but austere landscape. I was proud to participate in a book project over the past few years that sought to help bring public awareness to some sensitive areas in the…
I’ve just returned from another successful aurora photo tour into Alaska’s arctic, but to give a little break from aurora pictures, which I’ve been posting a lot of lately, here is a little creature of the boreal forest that takes shelter from its predators in the shrubby willow thickets. The snowshoe hare turns white in…
To take a little break from winter and the subzero temperatures hovering over Alaska’s interior, I went back in my summer archives and reviewed some photos taken in June. This picture is from a great encounter with a young grizzly bear, that curiously posed for a long time, which in wildlife photography, is anything longer…
A few years ago I witnessed and photographed an amazing natural history moment. The Grant Creek wolf pack in Denali Park attacked and killed a baby moose while the cow moose attempted to fend off the predators. Someone sent me a link yesterday to a video taken of that event, the first one that I’ve…
If there is one excellent feature among the new genre of super telephoto lenses, i.e., the Canon 500mm in this case, it is the Image Stabilization technology. In many situations, I end up photographing without a tripod. It is counter-conventional wisdom for many, but when an effective method and style is learned, there is a…
A young polar bear walks along a barrier island in Alaska’s arctic. To the south is the Alaska mainland and to the north is the expansive Beaufort Sea and the north pole. This bear straddles those two environments and soon will head northward as soon as the sea ice freezes solid. I use a variety…
As this red fox trotted across Alaska’s arctic coastal plain, I grabbed a quick burst of 5 frames. That it was a quick grab shot is revealed in my exposure, since I have no idea what I was doing at f/13. Not that it mattered much since the shutter speed was high enough thanks to…
Off the far north arctic coast of Alaska lies the Beaufort Sea. On windy days the surf pounds the outer barrier islands which are inhabited by polar bears waiting for the sea ice to form. The broad sky in this composition hints at the wide open space that goes on for miles and miles beyond…
For those who have had their eyes on the weather in Alaska this autumn, it has been unusually wet in many regions. This has been true in the Brooks range area also and northward into the arctic coastal plains. The water soaked tundra is now freezing as the temps begin to drop. A light covering of snow…