Category Archive

I normally wouldn’t share an out of focus image, but this is too cool not to share. I had my camera trap setup at the water hole when this bird swooped in and grabbed a mouse! I set my focus for the edge of the water, and because I was maximizing the stars, I had a fairly big aperture of f/4, thus limited depth of field. The bird was well beyond my focus point.

I believe this is a great-horned owl. We have a pair on the property, along with a pair of western screech owls. Based on the size, I’m thinking great-horned, but open to other opinions.

Olympus E-M1 II, 12-100 lens at 15mm at f/4, 20 second exposure, two Godox flashes at 1/64 power, Camptraption motion and flash transmitter / receiver triggers. Combining wildlife with the stars only works on near moonless nights where there isn’t ambient light.

A morning, mourning dove yesterday at sunrise. So close – just 14 minutes earlier a gray fox came in for a drink. Too bad the fox wasn’t just a bit later. Maybe it is just as well, as the rock in the center of the frame would have made me crazy. I had put it there in the dark to help with focus, but then in the dark forgot to move it off out of frame. 🙂

A hooded skunk last night at one of my water holes. I think this is a surprisingly striking mammal. Hooded and stripped skunks are regular visitors to the waterhole every night. I often see them in person, and they don’t really pay me any attention. The spotted skunk (maybe even more striking) visits less often, and I don’t think I have seen one in person until last night. Last night, on my way to check on my camera, I ran across a spotted skunk twice! The first time it ran, but the second time is watched me from a crack in a large rock. Pretty fun. Surprisingly, it never visited the waterhole, so I still don’t have a good photo of one.

A Pyrrhuloxia also from New Year’s day.  Also known as the desert cardinal.  

I spent the first evening of the new year photographing in the lower blind – so much fun! He is a white-crowned sparrow right at sunset.

A Lesser Goldfinch at the reflection table blind.

A mockingbird at the Reflection Table Blind at the Desert Photo Retreat yesterday.  Does the bee add or distract?  

I have captured this scene before, and probably will again as it is too hard to not photograph!