Great Horned Owl and Owlett

Nov 24

Great Horned Owl and Owlett

I’ve posted this image here before but this is a new version of it. It was taken several years ago very late in the day with an older SLR. Not only was the image very noisy thus not printable to much larger than an 8×10 but her wing tip was cut off as was the Saguaro arm on the top left. I loved it so much, though, that every year or so I go back and work on it. Last year, I added a wing tip and also the Saguaro arm which turned out well. This time, I went a little crazy with textures. The result is my favorite edit so far! I’m going to print a 48×36 canvas.

Can you spot the baby?

Nov 19

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Citizen Scientist

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been part of the Flora and Reptile Surveys going on in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. Well…now the Bird survey and the Small Mammal Survey have started and soon a Large Mammal (involves setting up cameras) and Insect Survey will start. I want to help with them all!!! which is why I’ve been a little lapse in posting here. Today I’m posting a photo from our first Small Mammal Survey which resulted in catching a few species of mice. The one posted here is a Desert Pocket Mouse. They were so darned cute 🙂
CLICK HERE for more photos.

Nov 17

Harris’ Hawk

Bird photography is very challenging for me so when I get a bird in focus, I’m thrilled! This Harris’ Hawk was one of four flying all around us during a Free Flight presentation at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson. If you’ve never been, I highly recommend going.

Nov 16

Free Flight

I spent today at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum with the goal of attending their Free Flight program. It was fantastic, as usual! I especially enjoyed the 2PM show featuring 4 Harris’ Hawks hunting together. Check tomorrow for a photo. This photo shows one of my friends (Tanju) photographing a Ferruginous Hawk. I wonder if he was successful?!

Nov 12

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Tarantula and Chris

Today’s post is for a couple of friends who wanted to see the fun I had with this Tarantula photo. What was even more fun, though, was taking the photo! I used my Canon compact, got on my stomach and positioned the camera lens almost touching the spider. Thankfully, he/she was OK with that 🙂

Nov 7

Black Tailed Gnatcatcher

I assisted on an MSC Birding hike in the Preserve yesterday (Sunday) with fellow steward Phil H. who knows most all of the birds in our area. Lucky us! The hike started out with NO birds which seemed strange because there was no wind and it wasn’t as cold as it had been. On the way back, though, Phil brought out his iPhone to let us hear what certain birds sound like and low and behold, we started seeing birds! This was my first sighting of a Black Tailed Gnatcatcher (must be a female or a juvenile). My lens only went to 100mm so this is a VERY tight crop and I was pleasantly surprised to see I caught the bird singing. He was more than likely responding to Phil’s iPhone app 🙂

Nov 5

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Rainy Morning Quail

How can I resist feeding these guys on a cold/rainy morning 🙂

Oct 27

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West Fork Bird

I hear birds while hiking the West Fork Trail but don’t always seem them!

conservation photographer

Posts from the ‘Fauna’ Category