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Sharp-tailed Grouse Courtship

4/21/2021

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I spent two mornings in a blind at the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge in the north-central sand hills of Nebraska to photograph the courtship displays of Sharp-tailed Grouse. This was my second trip to photograph them in Nebraska; the first trip to a different location scuttled by floods in 2019. Arriving to the blind in the dark before sunrise I waited until the grouse came out to the "lek", the grounds where they do their courtship displays on the top of a knoll in an open area of the mid-grass prairie of the sand hills.
It is an interesting display. The males come out to the lek to impress a female and to discourage other males. The males may strut around an area that they deem to be theirs and aggressively confront any other male who might attempt to walk through or claim the same piece of turf. When females are present the males will put their head down, tail straight up in the air shoulders forward and wings out to the side inflating purple neck sacks and do a rapid  tippy-tap dance around and around to try to impress a mostly disinterested female. Sometimes the males are beak to beak doing their dance, trying to out-do the other male. Sometimes they get very aggressive, jumping up in the air and coming down feet first on top of the other male. When the females wander off in to the taller grass most activity stops until a female returns. This goes on for an hour or two after sunrise and then the birds leave, to return again tomorrow to start over again. I don't know at what point a female selects a male to breed with, but I understand that she is on her own to lay er eggs and tend to her nest and young after breeding.
Lots of photos and video below. Click an image to see larger. Captions below the photos.



Sharp-tailed Grouse video:

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Grand Lake, CO, Forest Fire Aftermath

3/25/2021

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In mid October, 2020 a massive forest fire quickly engulfed the area around Grand Lake, CO, the western side of Rocky Mountain National Park, then jumped the continental divide heading for Estes Park, CO, burning nearly 200,000 acres and destroying or damaging hundreds of homes and buildings. You can do a Google search for Grand Lake forest fire to find many articles about the destruction.
In the aftermath of the fire blanketed with snow there is an strange silence in the forest. Most of the trees are incinerated to only the trunk standing. Others still retain their pine needles but are completely scorched. In some places the heat and strong winds caused trees to fold in half bending to touch tops to the ground. There is almost no underbrush in the forest and it seems to be devoid of most wildlife. In some areas the barren trees create interesting shadows on the snow in the early morning and late afternoon. All of these photos show some of the burned and scorched trees on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park. [Click the images to see larger.]

More Rocky Mountain National summertime photos.
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Yellowstone in Winter Video

1/31/2020

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Here is a short video of wildlife, waterfalls, geysers and thermal features taken during our five-day trip to Yellowstone National Park in mid-January 2020 with the North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA) photo tour. (At the end of this, YouTube will probably take you to a page with a whole bunch of videos that aren't mine. Sorry. Just reload the page or click the back-button to get back here.) See also the Yellowstone in Winter photo gallery linked from the previous blog post.
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Yellowstone in Winter

1/30/2020

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[TLDR - Click for Yellowstone in Winter photo gallery]

PictureSoda Butte Creek in the Lamar Valley (Click to see larger)
We've been to Yellowstone National Park several times in the Summer and Fall, but being there in the Winter is a different experience. Just getting there can be a challenge. You could fly to Bozeman, MT and rent a car and then drive an hour and a half  to Gardiner or West Yellowstone, MT, but we choose to drive from Iowa, and yes, we ran in to snowy roads both directions. 
We stayed in Gardiner, MT, at the North entrance to the park for two nights. The first day in the park we drove the only road open to public traffic which is in the North part of the park from Gardiner and Mammoth Hot Springs through the Lamar Valley to Silver Gate and Cook City. Sometimes called the 'Serengeti of Yellowstone' the Lamar Valley is a great place to see wildlife year-round. We did see elk, bison, Bighorn Sheep, and three moose, but missed the coyote that several others reported and no wolves this time.

PictureSnow Coaches
Then we drove to West Yellowstone, MT, where I participated in a three-day Winter photography tour sponsored by the North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA). There were twenty one photographers and three guides in three snow coaches. The snow roads in the park are not plowed, but rather packed down by a groomer and used by specially designed snow coaches - a small bus with giant balloon tires or treads like a snowmobile. The snow roads are only open to guided tours or guided snowmobile groups, but the wildlife use the roads also. Orange and yellow stakes along the side mark the edge of the road. The snow coach drivers were great at helping to spot wildlife and finding a place to park to safely get out and take photos.


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We had three great guides with many years experience of photography in the Yellowstone and Grand Tetons area - Michael Francis, Jeff Vanuga and Trent Sizemore. We went with a different guide each day and got a different photo experience with each. Cold, snowy and windy, we ventured out each day to the geyser basins, rivers and waterfalls, for scenic photos, and all along the way watching and stopping for any wildlife which was mostly Bison, Trumpeter Swans and ducks. We saw fresh tracks of a bobcat, but couldn't locate the cat, and watched a long-tail weasel running across the top of the deep snow about sixty miles per hour, but didn't get any photos. The highlight was a stampede of several hundred Bison right down the middle of the snow road past our snow coaches, and the many thermal features steaming in the fresh-fallen snow. It is a beautiful place in the Winter without the crowds of the rest of the year.

PictureCoyote on the snow road.
Our last day in the park Suzanne and I took another snow coach ride on a sunny day with a group that for the most part was on a sight-seeing, but not photography tour. It was a beautiful sunny day. We saw more of the thermal pools and geysers and got to see Old Faithful erupt (it happens about once every 90 minutes). In addition to more bison we saw three Coyotes that day. (but still no wolves, bobcats or foxes). Despite the misses it was a good trip and I'm anxious to go back again.

Click here to see the photos of Yellowstone in Winter.

See also - Yellowstone in Winter Video
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Voyageurs National Park Association 2019 Photography Contest

10/2/2019

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Two of my photos submitted to the Voyageurs National Park Association 2019 photo contest each received an honorable mention recognition. I also see that they are using my 2018 3rd place winning photo of a Common Loon as their promotional image for the photo contest. You can see all of the winning entries here - https://www.facebook.com/pg/VoyageursNPA/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10157893002155229&__tn__=-UC-R
[Click images to see larger]

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The Milky Way from Voyageurs National Park

6/5/2019

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The Milky Way from Voyageurs National Park, near International Falls, MN. There are hundreds of billions of stars but we see so relatively few of them. It is great to get to an area with a dark sky with very little light pollution from nearby towns or farm lights. The sky was lit up from the stars, but a long 20-25 second exposure helps to enhance the stars.
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Common Loons at Voyageurs National Park

6/4/2019

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If you have followed my posts previously you know that I go on a fishing trip to Voyageurs National Park near International Falls, MN every year and try to get some time for photography while I am there. Here are a few of my Common Loon photos on Lake Kabetogema from this year, taken from the fishing boat while my buddies were trying to fish. I'm glad that they briefly tolerate my photography obsession long enough for me to get a few photos. [Click the images to see larger]
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Death Valley National Park

1/20/2019

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We spent three days in Death Valley National Park last week (January, 2019). While many of the areas were closed due to the shutdown of the federal government (grrrr), we did see some of the notable features including the salt flats of Badwater Basin 282 feet below sea level - the lowest place in the western hemisphere, sand dunes, mountains and valleys, desert,  a 200 year-old volcano crater, and very little wildlife (see previous post about the coyote). It is a pretty hot dry place most of the year, but it was cool, cloudy and rainy for most of our visit with one good day of sunshine.
(Click the photos to see larger.)

Badwater Basin Salt Flats 282' below sea level
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