Clever Marmot

While on a quick trip to Yellowstone, we had several lovely encounters with Great Grey Owls (thank you & !). They are huge birds, and the few we saw gave us the gift of being able to observe them for quite some time without our interrupting any of their behavior.

In the last pic you can see the little points on the tips of the tail feathers which indicates that this is a young owl. This was evident in watching its attempts at mousing…

There was a bat flying around in the late afternoon light yesterday, skimming over the water again and again catching bugs and taking a drink. These are way far cropped in, but it was a fun moment to capture!

A few summers ago, we had this little hummingbird set up its nest in a tree directly outside our window. We watched it sit and sit and sit and sit, sadly it didn’t appear to successfully hatch a chick, but we enjoyed the daily hummingbird show while it lasted! Given the location of the nest and our windows, we always had to shoot through window glass. Didn’t get many very clear photos, this is the best of a bad lot, but I treasure it!

I can’t decide if I like this photo. Should the eye be clearer and less obscured? The foreground bokeh is distracting. But the shot catches my eye when I scroll past it. I like the soft pastels, and it reminds me of the beautiful warm sunlit evening we captured it.

A lot of people are missing mom hugs right now, I sure am. This little new ball of fluff was getting groomed by mom. This adds air to their fur, giving them extra buoyancy so they float while mom gets a snack. Mom will wrap the kiddo up in some kelp to keep it from drifting away. Saw these in Monterey bay a few years ago.

@ Monterey Bay, CA

You can find Black-crowned Night Herons in many, many places, but we most often run into them in Hawaii. We love watching them be monsters to the koi at resort ponds, using flood lights on the beach to hunt at night, and generally strutting around and looking absurd by the dozen in wetlands. We have a soft spot for them, and these photos remind me of being warm and windblown at the golden hour in some of my favorite places. @ Kealia Costal Boardwalk