Wild Around Us
Wildlife Portfolio
The Bears of Brooks
Brooks Falls in the Katmai National Park of Alaska is world famous. Each summer, the bears here feast on the largest Sockeye Salmon run in the world. Getting here requires some planning, though. There are other ways to visit, but we flew Alaska Airlines to King Salmon, AK, and then took a water taxi each day from there to Brooks Lodge (at Brooks Falls). No permits or reservations are required to visit Brooks, but the flights and water taxi are not cheap. Alternatively we could have flown on daily float planes out of Anchorage, or stayed at Brooks Lodge overnight (either in cabins or at the campground). No matter how you get to Brooks, though, it's a bucket list place. You are so close to the bears, you could almost reach out and touch them (definitely not advised), and you will likely encounter them on the trails. Plan at least two days here. This will help insure your expensive trip against bad weather, and will more than double the quality of your experience.
"In Katmai, cubs will generally stay with their mothers for 2.5 years. During a cub’s first year of life they are considered cubs-of-the-year (COYs) or spring cubs. In their second year they are generally called yearlings and will den with their mother for at least one more winter.
"Katmai’s bears generally separate from their cubs in May or June of a cub’s third summer. The female probably uses threats or aggression to cause the young to disperse. Some females, however, will keep their cubs through a third summer before pushing them away the next spring.
"The average life span for a wild brown bear is about 20 years, although many bears typically live longer than this. The oldest wild brown bears known lived for about 35 years."
Source: Brown Bear Frequently Asked Questions, Katmai National Park
"Bears establish a hierarchy which allows them to interact with each other without violence (usually). It is based on a system of social interactions communicated through body posturing, scent, and vocalizations. In the hierarchy, subordinate bears typically yield space and/or resources to more dominant bears. In general large and mature males are most dominant, followed by females with cubs, other adult males and females, and subadults. A bear’s place in the hierarchy is based on its health, age, size, and disposition. The hierarchy is fluid and the rank of a bear can change from year to year or even season to season. In 2015, bears like 747, 814, and 856 were the most dominant bears observed along the river."
Source: Brown Bear Frequently Asked Questions, Katmai National Park
Spruce Grouse on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska
Marine Mammals of Alaska
There are many great places to see marine mammals in Alaska. These pictures were taken in Kenai Fjords National Park near Seward, and in Tracy Arm near Juneau. In Kenai Fjords, we took daytrips on Major Marine Cruises and Kenai Fjords Tours. Our favorite cruise was the Northwestern Fjord cruise at Major Marine.
The photos here include Stellar sealions, humpback whales bubble-net feeding, seals on glacier ice, and a sea otter. There are many others mammals to see, and no two cruises are alike.
"Bubble-net feeding is a cooperative hunting strategy that occurs within a group of whales. It is a complex, highly synchronized set of behaviors that involve communication and cooperation, demonstrating signs of high social intelligence.
"To bubble-net feed, whales dive deep below schools of fish and use bubbles blown from their blowholes to stun and trap fish closer to the surface. One whale generally leads the effort followed by the rest of the group. The leader will usually be responsible for blowing the bubbles and the other members will surround the fish, following them to the surface by swimming in spiral patterns to keep the fish trapped.
"Humpback whales are known as “gulpers”, which means they feed by leaving their mouths open, swallowing everything in their paths before closing their mouths, pushing water out through their baleen plates and swallowing the critters (usually fish and small crustaceans) they caught. During bubble net feeding, the whales swimming toward the surface will have their mouths open and gulp fish from the school they have corralled."
Source: Bubble Net Feeding: What Is It? National Marine Sanctuary Foundation.
Bald eagle taking a quick bath at Potter Marsh Bird Sanctuary
Bosque Birds and Beasts
The Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge is an amazing place to photograph migrating birds. Throughout most of the year, the Bosque is dry, dusty and sparsely populated with wildlife. But in the winter, the rangers flood the field, and the place comes alive!
Between mid-November and late January, the stars of the show are the snow geese, Ross’s geese, and sandhill cranes. During the day, the geese and cranes scour the region for food. They return to the pools of the Bosque to settle in for the night, protected from predators. The Bosque is spread out over 57,000 acres, including eleven miles of gravel roads. Bosque del Apache is approximately 95 miles south of Albuquerque.
The Bosque is also a good place to see Coyotes, deer, bobcats and mountain lions, though I have only photographed the first two, and not the last two.
Some of these pictures were taken at the Bernardo Unit of the Ladd S. Gordon Waterfall Complex, managed by the New Mexico Department of Fish and Game. Like the Bosque, it's a beautiful location, though without the ponds.
Sand Hill Cranes leave ‘the nest within a day after hatching, follow parents in marsh. Both parents feed young at first, but young gradually learn to feed themselves. Age at first flight about 65-75 days. Young remain with parents for 9-10 months, accompanying them in migration.’
Their ”diet varies widely with location and season. Major food items include insects, roots of aquatic plants; also eat rodents, snails, frogs, lizards, snakes, nestling birds, berries, seeds. May eat large quantities of cultivated grains when available.
Courtship includes elaborate "dance," with birds spreading wings, leaping in air while calling. Nest site is among marsh vegetation in shallow water (sometimes up to 3' deep), sometimes on dry ground close to water. Nest (built by both sexes) is mound of plant material pulled up from around site; nest may be built up from bottom or may be floating, anchored to standing plants.”
Source: Sandhill Crane, Antigone canadensis, Audubon Guide to North American Birds.
“In the early 1900s, coyotes were found only across the Great Plains, but during the last century humans have changed the environment. As urban and agricultural developments have increased and natural predators been eliminated, the coyote has adapted. Today, coyotes can be found in almost every urban, rural and wild habitat in North America.
“Coyotes are one of the most vocal North American canids, having a wide vocabulary of yips, barks and howls. Often confused with wolves, coyotes can be distinguished by their smaller size, more elongated muzzle and more pointed and prominent ears. The light-colored, thick fur of a coyote can mask its more delicate bone structure and sometimes give it an appearance of being larger than it actually is. Adults weigh 20–40 pounds, and males are slightly heavier than females. Overall body lengths vary between 48–60 inches, and tails measure approximately 16 inches.
“Coyotes are opportunistic. Readily eating carrion, fruit, seeds, berries or insects, they also will prey on a variety of mammals. Favoring rabbits, voles and mice, coyotes will prey on deer, but usually only first-year fawns or an occasional feeble or infirm adult. Coyotes can be livestock predators and may target domestic pets, such as cats and dogs in urban locales.”
Source: New Mexico Game & Fish Wildlife Notes: Coyote (Canis latrans).
Puffins in Resurrection Bay, Alaska
Skomer Island Puffins
Skomer Island sits less than one mile off the southwest coast of Pembrokeshire in Wales. Is the home to a large Atlantic Puffin colony, in addition to other species of seabirds. It is a fabulous place to visit, as the trail takes you within inches of puffin burrows. The puffins fly out to sea to gather sand eels, and then return to their burrows to feed their young. As they fly in, they often land at your feet, and hop around until you move out of the way. At the orientation to the island, they prepare you for this, making sure that you know it's your responsibility to clear off, not the puffin's.
Skomer is managed by the Wildlife Trust of South & West Wales. When we visited, prior reservations were not permitted. So we had to arrive at 6 am, stand in line, and hope that when the office opened at 8 am, we could get on the 9 am or 10 am boat. This worked out well for us, but was also a pain to get there early, not knowing if we would actually make it onto the island. Bad weather can also cancel the 15 minute sailings. Today, however, you can purchase your tickets in advance, which is a great improvement.
“The puffin nests in small colonies. The male uses his bill and feet to dig a nesting burrow on an ocean cliff or island. The nest is lined with grass. The nest may also be made in a rocky crevice. The female lays a single egg and both parents incubate the egg by tucking it under a wing and leaning against it. The egg hatches in about 40 days, and both parents feed the chick for another 40 days. The adult Atlantic puffin can carry as many as 30 small fish in its bill to feed to its chick. Male and female pairs may mate for more than one season.
“The Atlantic puffin is well adapted for life in the water. It is an excellent diver and swimmer. Its compact body, strong wings, and webbed feet help it dive and maneuver under the water. While the puffin is agile in the water, it is not as graceful in the air and on land! It often crash lands both on the water and on land.”
Source: Nature Works: Atlantic Puffin - Fratercula arctica.
"’Sand Eel’ actually covers a whole load of different small fish species, all in the Sand Lance family. They are distinctively slender with a pointed snout - giving them an eel-like shape. Between April and September they swim in large shoals close to the seabed and will burrow into the sand to escape predators. In the winter months, they bury themselves up to 50cm in the sand. They are an incredibly important part of the marine ecosystem and are a favourite food of puffins, harbour porpoises, terns, pollack and mackerel. Ever spotted a puffin with a beak full of skinny silver fish? They are Sand Eels. You may sometimes see their name written as Sandeel. They feed on plankton - mainly copepods, a type of tiny planktonic crustacean.”
Source: North Wales Wildlife Trust, Sand Eels.
Gulls on an iceberg in Tracy Arm, near Juneau
Spectacular Kruger Creatures
Going on safari in Africa can be spectacularly expensive, easily in the range of $1000 per person per day. But careful planning can make a safari affordable. Kruger is one such affordable destination. If you stay at a luxurious private safari lodge in South Africa, then expect a hyper-luxurious price tag. But if you stay at the public South Africa National Parks camps and lodges, then you can drop the price tag to as little as $120 per person per day, including game drives. Even less, if you tent-camp.
When we visited Kruger, We rented a bungalow at the Skukuza rest camp, one of the largest camps at the park. The restaurant served delicious food and had a great camp store. We rented a car at the airport near Skukuza, which meant we had the freedom to drive around the park wherever fate took us. We also booked numerous game drives through the park, which we loved.
At Kruger, we saw elephants, giraffe, zebra, lions, leopards, rhinos, hippos, water buffalo, cheetah, ostrich, and the star of the show, African wild dogs. There are many places to see wildlife in Africa, but Kruger is one of the most affordable and accessible.
“The wild dog — also sometimes called the hunting dog or African painted dog — has a colorful, patchy coat; large bat-like ears; and a bushy tail with a white tip that may serve as a flag to keep the pack in contact while hunting. No two wild dogs are marked exactly the same, making it easy to identify individuals.
“Throughout Africa, wild dogs have been shot and poisoned by farmers who often blame them when a leopard or hyena kills livestock.
“The principal threat to this species is habitat fragmentation, which increases human-wildlife conflict and localized, small population extinction due to epidemic disease. Larger populations have a higher chance of recovery from such outbreaks. As human populations expand, leading to agriculture, settlements, and roads, wild dogs are losing the spaces in which they were once able to roam freely.
“African wild dogs live in packs averaging from seven to 15 members and sometimes up to 40. Before the recent population decline, packs of up to 100 were recorded. Within the pack, these canines have a unique social structure. They cooperate in taking care of the wounded and sick members, there is a general lack of aggression exhibited between members of the pack, and there is little intimidation among the social hierarchy. Every hunting pack has a dominant pair. They are usually the only pair that remains monogamous for life. Wild dogs also have a large range of vocalizations that include a short bark of alarm, a rallying howl, and a bell-like contact call that can be heard over long distances. Elaborate greeting rituals are accompanied by twittering and whining.
“Both males and females babysit the young and provide food for them. The hunting members of the pack return to the den where they regurgitate meat for the nursing female and pups. Although the litters are large, very few pups survive. Sometimes the dens are flooded, or the pups die from exposure or disease. When pack numbers are reduced, hunting is not as efficient, and adults may not bring back sufficient food for the pups. In some cases, more pups survive in packs where there are more helpers.”
These shots are from the southern coast of South Africa. We particularly enjoyed the Boulders Penguin Colony, though it was a bit crowded.
American plains bison at Maxwell Wildlife Refuge near McPherson, Kansas
Belize Wildlife
Our favorite location in Belize was San Ignacio near the border to Guatamala. The iguanas pictured here were photographed at the Green Iguana Conservation Project. The crocodile and monkey (spider monkey, maybe?) were photographed on a river boat en route to the Lamani Archaeoligical Preserve further north.
“The green iguana (Iguana iguana) is one of the largest lizards in the Americas—they can grow up to 6.5 feet long (2 m) and weigh 11 pounds (5 kg). Green iguanas live in the rainforests of northern Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean Islands, and southern Brazil. Green iguanas have a long body covered with green leathery scales. They have sharp teeth and short legs. Each foot has five toes with sharp claws used for climbing. There is a row of spines extending from their head to their tail.
“Their long tails make up over half their body length and are sometimes used to drive away predators. The tails can even be detached if they are caught; if this happens, green iguanas will grow a new tail without any long-lasting damage. Green iguanas have two nostrils that are used to expel a saline solution that helps regulate their body’s salt level. Green iguanas usually live close to water and are wonderful swimmers. If a green iguana is threatened while in the canopy, it will jump from the trees and escape into the water below. They can stay under water for up to 30 minutes. Incredibly, they are also sturdy enough to jump from 40 feet (12 m) onto the ground and survive.
“Green iguanas are arboreal and terrestrial. They live in trees near rivers, lakes, and mangrove swamps. They are diurnal and feed during the day. In the wild, green iguanas can live up to 20 years. They are a social species; groups of iguanas may be found basking in the sun or searching for food.”
Source: Green Iguana, Anywhere.com.
Northern Harrier at Maxwell Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico
Peaceful neighbor at a B&B near Hadrian's Wall in northern England
Horses, Wild and Domestic
In our travels, we tend to seek out horses wherever possible. We enjoy their company, their smell, their nosey approach, their calm. Some of these pictures were taken at farm-stays, some on the moors, and some in the desert. Some of the horses were happy to talk to us, some more cautious, All, however, were delightful!
Wild ponies on the moors near Carreg Cennen Castle in Wales (photo by Kristin Vanderbilt)
Curious horse at a farm-stay in northern Wales.
Wild ponies on the moors near Carreg Cennen Castle in Wales
Wild Welsh pony in the ferns
Wild ponies on the moors near Carreg Cennen Castle in Wales. I love the heart-shape created by their shadows.
A beautiful country lane in the Brecon Beacons, Wales
Desert horses near Chaco Canyon, New Mexico
“BLM New Mexico manages two wild horse and burro herd management areas on nearly 29 thousand acres. The combined appropriate management level for all HMAs in the state is 83 animals.
“Since 1971, the BLM has removed approximately 700 animals from public rangelands in New Mexico as part of its efforts to maintain healthy horses and burros on healthy public rangelands. Animals removed from public rangelands are offered to the public for adoption; unadopted animals are cared for on open pastures for the rest of their lives.”
Source: BLM New Mexico Gathers and Removals.
Dude! S'up?
Longears Safehouse Donkey Rescue
New Mexico
A very comfortable brown bear near Sitka, Alaska
Backyard Visitors
New Mexico specializes in little brown birds, but occasionally we attract colorful visitors to our birdfeeders. Here are a few pics from some of our most interesting guests. I will not hazard to name the species, since I will likely get it wrong anyway.
Ravens at Boyscout Beach near Juneau, Alaska
... and a few zoo pics
Prairie dog at Valles Caldera, New Mexico