Desert Bighorn Sheep

This Bighorn Sheep was just outside of Canyonlands National Park, near Moab Utah.

I had pretty good luck finding these guys in Anza Borrego and Zion last year – but I was thrilled to find them in such a beautiful setting as this!

Check out more wildlife photos.

Grizzly Bear, Denali National Park, Alaska.

Even though I was “safely” by my vehicle, I must admit, as I watched through the view finder and saw this guy turn and head down the hill towards us, my heart started racing.  My camera tells me he was 35 meters away, but when he filled the viewfinder, it seemed closer!  I do kind of like the perspective of looking up at him from below

We just made it home after a short but wonderful trip to Denali.  This has been a good summer for me and bear photography.  It wasn’t by plan, but it has sure been fun.  Here are more Grizzly Bear photos.

Wild Lynx, Denali National Park, Alaska.

Wow, what a trip this has been!  But the highlight was this lynx – I have been trying unsuccessfully for many, many years to capture an image of a lynx, but a couple of hours ago that all changed. 

It is late and I’m tired, so I will write more when I get back to Seward – but I had to share my excitement!

Steller Sea Lions.

Yesterday we hit the road to spend a few days in Denali.  It may be a few days until I can post again.  Hopefully my next post will be of a wolverine!  I think it is much more likely the next post will be a moose or hare!

Horned Puffin.

We have finished our updates to our website and have a new section of Puffin photos.  Puffin rock!  We have also updated our section of bear photos.  Come to think of it, bears rock too!

In addition, we were able to migrate our all 4,970 pages of our website from the obsolete FrontPage to a more more appropriate program, Dreamweaver.  What a huge relief!

More Horned Puffin from Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

Brown Bear cub, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

These guys are really cute!  This is a different cub from the last post – they are really fun to watch.

Brown Bears, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

This cute little cub seemed to really enjoy playing with a empty clam shell!

Here are more bear photos.

Horned Puffin, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

I understand that puffin have the unique ability to catch and hold fish in their beaks, allowing them to continue to fish and capture more.  Every puffin I saw with fish seemed to have at least 5!

Horned Puffin, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

We just got home and are still beaming from an awesome trip! 

Although I loved spending time with the bears, puffin were actually at the top of my wish list.  You see I often get requests for this beautiful bird, and live next to a very large population, but have never been able to photograph them up close until this trip.  Now I can put an end to that frustration.

I have joked in the past that puffin really don’t exist – that they are just a cartoon character like Bugs Bunny.  Having seen them up close and personal, I can attest that they are real, and they are spectacular!

Here are more Puffin photos.

Brown bear sow and cub, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

This sow was able to repeatedly dig up clams with incredible effectiveness.  On the other hand, the poor cub dug and dug, but was never able to find a single clam – at least while I watched.  I don’t think it had learned exactly where to dig just yet.  After awhile, the cub went over and began watching his mom very, very closely – it was really fascinating to watch.  I don’t know if he was a very attentive student, or just really hungry!

Since we have some brief internet access, I thought I would post a quick update.  As you can probably tell, we are having an awesome trip!

Here are more brown bear photos.

We made it to Lake Clark National Park, Alaska and it didn’t take long to find bears.  Lots of bears!  And as you can see, we are even picking up internet.

Lake Clark National Park photos.

I moved my remote setup from the stream to this trail leading to the stream.  It isn’t as scenic of a location, but it is safer for my camera gear , and had more predictable bear activity.  This one turned out pretty good, but I want to keep improving on the idea.

Brown bears sure have big heads!

I photographed this cow and calf moose last week, but they ended up taking a back seat in the blog queue to the bears.  Moose are cool, but bears are more exciting.

Brown bear cub, Chugach National Forest, Alaska.

 I wasn’t able to find the bears on Sunday – this is another photo from Saturday. 

I went back to my secret little bear spot today with hopes of showing the bears in more of their beautiful rain forest environment.  I tried using a remote wide angle for some up close images - tomorrow I will show you what happened to that effort.

Brown Bear, Chugach National Forest, Alaska. 

I was very fortunate to find this brown bear sow with a cub today.  It is surprising, and a bit concerning when you see how quickly such a large animal can nearly disappear in the thick vegetation.

Humpback whale along the Kenai Fjords National Park coastline, Alaska.  This is another photo from last Thursday.

Savannah Sparrow on a lupine near Seward, Alaska.

This sparrow had a mouth full of some sort of insect.  After posing nicely in one of the most colorful patches of lupine, it flew back to the woods – to a nest I assume.

Savannah Sparrow on a lupine near Seward, Alaska.

Even though I have photographed this spot a lot over the years, I can’t help returning to this wonderful little field of wildflowers near my home, especially on a perfect morning like it was today!