With Shutterfly closing its shared websites like mine, I'm reposting some of my favorite pics by year here. An American alligator climbs on a rock while crossing the causeway at Huntington Beach State Park. When I saw that the gators crossed the causeway with the receding tide, I returned the next day hoping to capture this shot. I lay on the ground to get this unusual eye-to-eye perspective. This was my favorite pic of 2021.
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A trip to North Carolina to look for bears was the highlight of 2022. The Alligator River has the world's biggest black bears. These bruins don't hibernate so they spend the fall and winter gorging on mast crops, corn and soybeans. They get enormous. This beautiful Rubenesque sow pushed 400 pounds. She spent the morning devouring corn on the cob before the beating sun drove her to a creek to cool down.
A soaking wet bear peeks around a bush to see if the coast is clear after crossing a creek. The Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge has a high density of black bears, but they are very skittish compared to bears you find in New Jersey or Tennessee. They allow hunting here.
Bears are about my favorite animal to photograph. I love how intelligent, social and resilient they are. There is so much to learn about bears — and from them! This three-year-old bear ventured out for a night of foraging in the soybean fields.
Black bears in the Alligator River spend the day tucked away in deep, inaccessible forest. But in the evening, they begin to venture out to forage. They are always alert to danger. The biggest threat to bears is other bears.
A beautiful sow plops down in a cornfield to feed on corn on the cob. This is without a doubt the biggest black bear I have ever seen. She would plop down and gather all the cobs she could reach in front of her until the corn was gone and then get up and plop down a few feet away to do it again. It was the laziest feeding frenzy I have ever seen. What a beauty!
A young bear stands up to check out possible threats in the morning mist. The Alligator River only gave me the briefest window to photograph its bears. I found them during the first hour of sunlight in the morning and the last hour of fading daylight. And the rest of the time, I drove endless miles each day without seeing much of anything, which made for a frustrating photo safari.
A cormorant has gemstones for eyes.
Alligators are nocturnal hunters and have irises like a cat's to see better in low light.
A white ibis lands in a tree at Huntington Beach.
Painted buntings use all the crayons in the box!
A river otter takes a dust bath in the dirt road at the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. It was fun to watch the otter groom so fastidiously.
A squirrel tree frog poses for a photo at my campsite. These frogs seemed to like hanging out on my tent, which collected dew in the mornings and offered cozy hiding spots from the sun in their folds during the day.
A water moccasin opens its maw to reveal why it goes by cottonmouth. It was basking on a gravel road in the Alligator River, so I left it alone. The road was not heavily traveled so its resting spot was safe from cars.
A bottlenose dolphin does a backflip off Nags Head, North Carolina.
A North American beaver grooms himself on the banks of his pond at Fernald. Love seeing the thatched tail that I used to draw as a kid.
A lunar eclipse created a blood moon in the wee hours of spring.
In the summer we saw an irruption of 17-year cicadas. These really liked the pear tree in the front yard.
A great blue heron is resplendent in its winter cape. The heron bided its time in a snowy Muscatatuck waiting for the creeks and ponds to thaw.
A great horned owl peeks out of its nest cavity. Seeing an owl posing in a tree just as I used to draw them as a child was a treat. It never really looks this way!
Horned larks stand out in the fresh snow at Voice of America Park.
A ruby-throated hummingbird snatches a tiny spider from its web at Shawnee Lookout.
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