Best of 2015

With Shutterfly disbanding its shared sites, I'm revisiting my best-of-the-year pics here. In the late summer of 2015, I visited the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where I hoped to see my first polar bear. And boy howdy, did Barter Island not disappoint. In two days of photography, I must have seen 10 bears, including this sleepy mom and her cub. The falling snow won't melt on the cub's insulating fur, but she can still get cold. This was my favorite photo of 2015.

🐻🐻🐻 

Just reaching the Arctic Ocean is an adventure. I took a night flight from Anchorage to Fairbanks where I marveled at the northern lights at 30,000 feet. Amazing. The next morning, I climbed aboard a twin-prop RAVN plane that took me over the formidable Brooks Range to Barter Island, home of the Inupiaq village of Kaktovik.

Kaktovik is home to about 300 people in a tight-knit coastal community. Many residents here supplement their diet with wild fish and game, including bowhead whales they hunt each year. I visited an oceanfront cemetery at the edge of town.

The highlight of my visit was getting to hold and play with my guide's puppies. When he's not taking tourists out to look for polar bears by boat, Ketil Reitan is a veteran musher in the Iditarod. These playful pups were sired by members of four-time Iditarod winner Jeff King's team. Which one do you want?

A polar bear looks for scraps of whale on the bone pile at the end of the runway in Kaktovik. Villagers for generations butchered whales on the sea ice. But because of climate change, there is no sea ice, so villagers tow their catch back to Kaktovik where the whales are butchered and shared among the village families. The meager pickings can attract hungry bears from miles away when other food is scarce.

A polar bear follows its nose to an enticing smell on snow-covered beaches. I was lucky to see the first snowfall of the Arctic winter during my visit. The bear is still dirty from sleeping on the silty beach, but will regain her glossy white coat after rolling around in the fresh snow.

A polar bear looks rather sad in her little snowdrift. There isn't much fun to be had alone in a couple inches of snow.

New Jersey's wildlife seasons are endlessly varied. May and June bring the hatching of the diamondback terrapin babies. The size of a quarter, the little babies scurry from their nesting sites to the relative safety of the Delaware Bay. But getting there involves dangerous crossings of busy residential roads. I love the little Sanskrit patterns on their shells!

The fall colors in Alaska are jaw-dropping. A rainbow accentuates the yellow aspens.

I have seen a lot of moose but none before this big. Moosasaurus rex! He is truly the warden of the north.

A bull moose follows a cow through a spruce forest in front of snow-draped mountains. 

One of my favorite hikes is on the park road downhill in either direction from atop Sable Pass. 

The snow followed me to Denali, where it closed the park for two days. When bus service finally resumed, I found a winter wonderland atop Polychrome Pass. Wowza.

The sun kissed these snow-covered mountains near the Savage River. I camped at lower elevation where it was mostly rainy.

No visit to Denali would be complete without stopping by the kennels to pet the sled dogs. Here the National Park Service demonstrates mushing. The dogs just wanted to get going. Sled dogs are smaller than I imagined.

A bull moose crosses the autumn scrub in the falling snow. 

A bull moose hurries across the Savage River in the snow. Wolves use the rivers like highways, so the moose don't spend much time in these braided streams.

Not even golden eagles can fly in a whiteout. This was the snowiest winter of my life, starting with Alaska snow in September and blizzards and snowstorms in New Jersey that lasted until April.

This fat bear was busy digging up roots along a hillside. Look at that Disney butt! Almost ready for hibernation. The bears sometimes venture close to the park buses.

A bear nibbles tasty roots in the falling snow. Grizzlies are named for their wet fur.

Snowflakes collect in the curved horns of a Dall's sheep atop Polychrome Pass. This is my favorite snow pic.

Local wildlife in New Jersey kept me busy throughout the year. I was lucky to find a fox den while exploring the Maurice River Bluffs. Despite several visits throughout the spring and summer, the baby foxes only gave me glimpses.

I made my annual pilgrimage to photograph wild horses at Assateague, Maryland, which is an easy day trip from Cape May across the Delaware Bay. I call this mare Kurt Comane. 

The mosquitoes feasted on my bare legs for 20 minutes while I waited for this little fellow to look up from his digging for this pic. Worth it! Cape May County's skunks have a lot of variation in their fur. I rarely get a chance to photograph skunks because they are so nocturnal.