Genre: Wildlife

  • Coyote Woes

    Coyote Woes

    Coyotes are common and widespread in and around Tucson, Arizona. Many washes (stream beds that are usually dry except right after storms) cross through Tucson, giving wildlife of all kinds relatively safe passage through even dense parts of the city. And once you get closer to the outskirts, for example the foothills of the Tucson…

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  • Winter Afternoons at Whitewater Draw

    Winter Afternoons at Whitewater Draw

    About 100 miles east of my former home in Tucson, Arizona, and well south of Interstate 10 is the Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area, winter home to roughly 30,000 sandhill cranes. Interestingly, the number of sandhill cranes at the much more famous Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge is only about 10,000, although the latter compensates…

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  • Ruler of the Night

    Ruler of the Night

    My first memorable encounter with an owl was on a winter dawn in the Windy Hill Open Space Preserve just off Skyline Boulevard above Portola Valley, California. It was December 31st, 1990. It was still very dark as I walked downhill down the path with my camera and my tripod. I had not made it…

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  • Birdbane

    Birdbane

    Bobcats aren’t the only predators that frequented our yard in Tucson. Cooper’s hawks were common in our neighborhood, helping to keep the population of doves and other small birds from getting out of hand. While it is not clear that they were totally successful, we saw them frequently flying at high speed through the yard…

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  • Holiday Bobcat

    Holiday Bobcat

    After 29 years living in Tucson, Arizona—and 20 years in the same house—we moved to Colorado this past January. Now that I am caught up on blogging about my trips to Santorini and Andalucía, I decided to write some posts about our old home and some of its more interesting visitors. Last year I was…

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  • Shorebirds Aloft, Oxnard Edition

    Shorebirds Aloft, Oxnard Edition

    This is a follow-up to my previous post. That post featured Oxnard Beach shorebirds actually on the beach, whereas this post features exclusively birds in flight.

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  • Shorebirds Afoot, Oxnard Edition

    Shorebirds Afoot, Oxnard Edition

    My wife, Susan, travels frequently on business to Oxnard, California, and I ended up visiting her three times over the past six months. I take some time each trip to photograph the birds on the beach.

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  • The Rattlesnake under the Shed

    The Rattlesnake under the Shed

    A trip to the dump should be simple, right?

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  • Day-Glow Gecko

    Day-Glow Gecko

    As I was waiting for my order at a parking lot food truck at the Polynesian Cultural Center in Laie on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, I noticed this gecko

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  • Summer Drive over Redington Pass

    Summer Drive over Redington Pass

    Earlier this year I purchased a Chevy Colorado ZR2. It’s an off-road beast, but I am a novice at that sort of thing. So I have been driving some dirt roads just to get a feel for it. This morning I drove over Redington Pass between the Santa Catalina and Rincon Mountains, something that I…

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