Notes To My Mother

On a car camping trip to Big Bend National Park the first stop was the Guadalupe Mountains.  After sleeping in the car it was up early to catch the sunrise on Guadalupe Peak.  From there it was a several hours long drive south to Lajitas, a wide spot in the road just south of Teringua.  We had lunch in Terlingua one afternoon and the power went out in the entire town and we couldn't pay our bill because the credit machines didn't work.  It was about 105 degrees, not a pleasant temperature to get stuck in. Tucked into the beauty of the desert scenery are cactus wild flowers that present a striking contrast to the landscape you find them inhabiting. While we spent a lot of time sleeping in cars we did treat ourselves to a very luxurious stay at the Lajitas Golf Resort.  Just down the road is an interesting site to visit.  It is the old movie set located along the Rio Grande River with easy access from the road to Big Bend Ranch State Park, just a few miles fr...

At the Hood Canal in the state of Washington, the Bald Eagles come to feed and joust about with one another.  The food they are after are a fish called the Midshipmen.  The Midshipmen lay eggs in the oyster beds and when the tide recedes they are available food for a variety of birds.  For the eagles it seems there are two sources of this food, one is the Hood Canal itself, and the other is the Great Blue Herons.  Wherever you see herons standing in the shallow water, you will likely see an eagle come swooping in either right at them or just next to them.  But the eagles are always on the watch and when the see a heron flying with a fish in its claws they are off to the chase.  In the image above you can see the eagle closing in on the heron who has just release the fish which you can see just below its wing. The herons know the eagles are not after them but the fish, so letting go of the prize is a smart thing for them to do.  Here you see the eagle s...

When eagles grapple, lock talons and spin in the air, one of them has to turn over on its back and extend its feet for the other to come down and engage.  I have seen this same behavior with white tailed kites (see prior blog post).   A review on the web explains this behavior as a territorial struggle.  At the Hood Canal you could see this happen often, one eagle turning on its back and the other engaging, though often they would appear about to engage and not.  What is curious to me is why, if this is a battle for superiority, would one of them take a position upside down, which would seemingly imply a weaker, inferior more vulnerable position?  I am still convinced it is more of a courting behavior.  Of maybe just fun to do. In any case Bald Eagles are top of the pecking order and no one knows it better than the Great Blue Herons who feed in the same waters. Speaking of fun, watch the behaviors between eagles and Great Blue Herons and you are sure t...

A couple of years ago a friend invited me to join him to photograph red foxes.  I of course thought they would all be red.  As it turns out red foxes come in a variety of colors, grey, black, tan, and the multicolored as seen in the following image.  Kit foxes, the babies, are very curious and very playful.  As you can see the back kit above is checking me out.  I'm standing still, making very little noise with my camera and he seems to be wondering what the heck I am going. This is the dog fox, an adult male and the parent of the kits you see here.  He is gone most of the day while the kits stay close to home and play.  When he returns the kits mob him and he starts playing and running right with them, actually escalating the level of play. This little grey red fox was a delight to watch.  He loved the flowers and would go from one bunch to another slowly working his way closer and closer to me.  I kept thinking, "lay down, lay down!" as I w...

The Wave is a very special place located in the north west corner of Arizona.  You can not just go there, you have to enter a lottery and hope you name gets pulled.  They do the drawing every month and I met one lady who has been trying for 6 years.  I've heard of others who waited 10 years.  Three of us went and one, Andy, submitted our names to the lottery and we got selected after only 4 months of trying.  Amazing. Thank yoy Andy! The hike in is about two miles and is rated from easy (seasoned hikers) to hard (people like me).  The trail is easily lost as much of the hike is on sandstone with no visible trail.  Then there is the soft sand part. Very difficult and when you are just about there and tired, you find yourself walking up a steep hill in VERY soft sand. When I got to the top I poured myself onto the hard sandstone that makes up The Wave and rested.  And then I started exploring and what a wonderous place it is.  What you see are ...

If you Google "Badlands" you will find that there are badlands in a lot of different places because the term badlands refers to a dry terrain with soft sedimentary rock.  For instance, there is a badlands section of Death Valley, California.  These images were taken at Badlands National Park in South Dakota.  The image above is a sunset shot. I don't remember the exact location of this image but I do remember the climb to get it.  It was VERY steep and once to the top it took a few minutes to get used to it and convince myself I was not going to tumble down.  You can see here the cracked sedimentary soil and the layers of sediment deposited over the years. Sunrise at the Doors.  A person can walk into the landscape in this park but it would be very easy to get lost.  On one morning we saw a group that apparently had spent the night.  They were down in a lower area of the park and could be seen from the rim next to the road.  They spent a cons...

It is hard to pick a favorite place to be at night in the Sierras because there are so many great places. Lake Sabrina ranks very hight on my list for a number of reasons.  One, its elevation is very high at just over 9,100 ft which helps with reducing the atmosphere between the camera and the stars.  It is also a very scenic spot, both in the daytime and at night.  In the middle of the drought the water level was very low which made a shot like this one impossible.  But during wet years it is a joy to shoot.  It is also very scenic in the daytime, especially first thing in the morning.  And finally, it is easy to get to being just 18 miles on highway 168 out of Bishop.  Another easily accessible night location is Tioga Lake located along highway 120 just past the top of Tioga Pass when heading west.  The only problem with this location are the cars that keep coming on the highway to the left of this scene.  A little patience and you will get...