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WHAT A CHRISTMAS GIFT!
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WHAT A CHRISTMAS GIFT!

CHRISTMAS EVE, 2012 - Today there was a lovely Christmas present, not UNDER our Christmas tree but IN our Serviceberry tree in the back garden: a rare visitor to this continent, a Brambling, which is resident across northern Europe, Siberia and Asia. We make regular reports to the Cornell Institute of Ornithology on their FeederWatch Program so when we saw the Brambling we realized it was a rare bird and we e-mailed a photo to Cornell for confirmation. Upon confirmation and posting the sighting our little 'kitchen computer' lit up and we had many, many happy birdwatchers here who were able to add the Brambling to their lists. It only stayed through Dec. 26 but what a fun time it was, and what a bunch of lovely folks (who braved the freezing cold and rain on our deck for hours) we met. Our rather small garden is in constant view from windows on three sides of the house and we have, over the years, planted a large number of different berry plants and trees and installed a small pond, all of which help to draw birds and many other 'critters' in. The garden is a Certified Backyard Habitat now and is a contant source of enjoyment and brings us many subjects for our photography. (See some of the results in our "In Our Garden" Gallery.)

BRAMBLINGVISITOR

  • WISE OLD OWL - THE PATRIARCH OF THE PRAIRIES? This old gentleman of a Burrowing Owl seems to us to deserve his very own slot in this gallery; the stance and attitude are so impressive. We try hard not to anthropomorphize animals, but in this case we think you can understand and forgive us! There were numerous Burrowing Owl burrows in and about the prairie dog towns, along ditches, and on the edges of fields in the area in and surrounding the Grasslands National Park where these industrious birds went about their business of catching grasshoppers, moths, butterflies, and small rodents, all while keeping an eye on us - but no other one as intimidating as this fellow.
  • WAS DINNER LURKING IN THE WOODS IN THE BACKGROUND?
  • THE DAY THE WOLVES SANG FOR US
  • SERINDIPITY IN SASKATCHEWAN
  • GRIZZLY IN A QUIET MOMENT BY A GLACIAL LAGOON
  • RARE MOMENT WITH A RARE SIGHTING
  • HIGH FIVE! CUB WITH CATCH OF THE DAY
  • A GRIZZLY, A BALD EAGLE AND DEBRIS FROM THE JOKULHLAUPS
  • Here in the Misty Fiords on the border of Alaska and BC, along the Salmon River, summer mornings start with mitten-clapping, boot-stamping cold and don’t warm until the sun finally appears at the top of the 3,000-foot-high wall of the fiord at about 10 a.m. Soon it will either be drizzling rain or, if you’re lucky, very warm – warm enough to shed layers of clothing down to a single t-shirt. Although the day is actually 16 to 17 hours long, the sun only lights up the bottom of the fiord sufficiently for photography for about six hours each day. (Obviously, pre-digital years!)<br /> <br /> When it is especially warm, the bears that come down their ancient trails from the snow-clad mountains to feed on spawning salmon occasionally take a break from feeding for a leisurely swim in the glacier-blue lagoon adjacent to the spawning pools. It is magical to watch and thrilling to photograph! This young grizzly was cleaning off the sediment on his paws after a dive into the water but he certainly appears to be praying (Well, it WAS a Sunday morning!). This image is hanging in the vestibule of a small church in the little town near the spawning pools.
  • EFFORT REWARDED
  • WELL, WE FELT SURE IT WAS A GREAT SIGHTING . . .
  • HECK OF A GOOD TIME IN WALES
  • A TRUE TEST
  • WHAT A CHRISTMAS GIFT!
  • A CHEEKY LITTLE GOAT
  • OUR MILLENNIUM NEW YEAR'S IN BRUGGE
  • MILLENNIUM NEW YEAR'S EVE IN BRUGGE
  • A CHARMING, CREEPY INN SOMEWHERE IN GERMANY<br /> Nov.2nd./99 – We drove the autobahn from north of Berlin to the Char Mountains (400 KM), a big jump for us, but it has been rain and drizzle and is a good time to change locations. The town of Goslar, where we were originally headed turned out to be old, beautiful, with many timbered houses, narrow winding streets, huge walled gates, but too big for us and we finally despaired of finding a place in all this traffic and headed into the mountains south of the city. Two places we tried were closed for “Holiday” so when we arrived at the Hotel Konigsreich (Romkerhall) we settled in. Have never been in any inn like this place. It’s a very long, ornate 2-story building on a winding road. Across the street is a 200 foot high tiered waterfall and a rocky, narrow canyon alongside the property has a creek running through it and under a portion of the hotel. Now, to the interior: Very gaudy, over-done, creaky, mysterious, dowdy, musty, weird, all of these and more. There is a dining room, quite large and dark – there is a drink hall with what almost appears to be a throne at the end of the room. In a small room off the hall a kid was playing a game on a computer. A lone, large doorman was sipping a drink. From a room off the dining room appeared two gypsy-dressed women who said they do have a room (mit douche und doppel zimmer) for the night. One led me through the front hall, up some very creaky stairs and the length of a hall about 50 feet long, almost every inch we have covered since she said, “come see the room” has been decorated in gold railing, There are hundreds of pictures in 'gold' frames, “gold” plaques and “gold” trim on almost every inch of every wall, door and passageway! The bedroom itself has a nice enough bed, closet, bathroom, chairs, etc. and only has a few (on every wall) 6 feet high, gold "Plaques"” with paintings of Napoleon, Nymphets, Ladies, landscapes and there is a fakey looking crown over the bed. There are stuffed OWLS, HAWKS, KITES, EAGLES and DEER RACKS lining the walls and Benny Goodman is playing in the background! The light bulb in the bedroom lamp is KAPUT (one of our very short list of German words!) as Robert informed the waitress when he brought it down at dinnertime to be replaced. This place is used for local weddings as many wall pictures appear in the main doorway, of the happy couples. The table linens are bright pink and remind us of the Madonna Inn in California only scarier. We will see what dinner brings. Robert had chicken which the lady said was "chicken, only bigger" (maybe the winner?!!) cooked, well – it looked like – well, cooked for three days over an open fire. My WILD PIG was very, very good (Robert sure enjoyed the bite I gave him). Off to an amazingly good sleep considering the fire trap we chose for tonight!<br /> Nov.3rd./99 – Breakfast was in the dining room with a group of German gentlemen who had eaten all the jam, WITH beer, before we got there. Several more spooky trips through the building to get some photos of it (Robert found a nice watch to purchase, as a memento of this place), and we were off through the countryside, green expanses divided by picturesque small villages, larger towns and several cities, all still with beautiful color on the trees.<br /> <br /> (Incidentally, Robert's "gypsy watch" (as we always called it) was still running ten years later . . . )
  • We encountered these two male Western Diamondback Rattlesnakes on a back road in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas as they first approached each other. For approximately half an hour, we were able to photograph them as they engaged in a ritual that we learned later that it is called a Combat Dance and that it has rarely been seen in the wild.<br /> Each of the snakes was at least six feet in length with a massive body. Again and again, each raised the front third of his body and, with heads held high and tongues flicking, they entwined necks. Then, each pushed and strained, as if in an arm-wrestling match, trying to topple the other. This was repeated over and over, both on the road and in the adjacent desert brush and grasses, and the only sounds were of scuffling and a loud whomp! as one or the other was thrown to the ground. <br /> Eventually, one of the rattlesnakes slithered off into the brush. The other, the winner we presumed, only then took notice of us and began to advance and we, obviously, quickly headed back to our car, breathless and thrilled by what we had seen and photographed. <br /> This image received an award in the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition and subsequently was published in National Geographic Magazine (USA) and on the cover of ten foreign issues of National Geographic in Europe, South America and the Middle East in the language prevailing in the area, this one published in Portuguese in Brazil.
  • This photo has the strangest history of any of our photographs. It was over two years before we realized we even had it. It all started when we were driving Laguna Atascosa NWR in Texas and were invited to witness the release of one of their ocelots which had been trapped for a routine health check. Although we had often checked their traps over the past couple of weeks while we were photographing in the backcountry we had not seen any captured animals. (Incidentally, those traps were each fitted with a chicken which had been TRAINED not to panic if approached by an ocelot!) At the arranged time, we met up with a small group headed by Linda Laack, the biologist in charge, and proceeded to the release site. Linda requested we stand on either side of a trail formerly used by the cat in the hope it would proceed directly into the photo setup of the refuge’s staff photographer, Tim Cooper. Well, so much for that plan! IN THE SAME INSTANT THAT THE TRAP DOOR WAS RAISED, THE OCELOT FLASHED PAST ALL OF US IN A BLINDING BLUR. Virginia pushed the shutter button by reflex alone while Robert could only point his camera in the general direction of the fleeing ocelot! Although we did see the flash go off, that was ALL we saw! The assistant for Tim Cooper yelled “There it goes!” causing Tim to pick up his camera just as the ocelot sprang over the very bush Tim was focused on. Disappointed, Tim returned to the release site exclaiming in frustration that it might have been better to sing out “Here it comes, Tim” rather than “There it goes!” It seemed that no photos were taken that day. <br /> <br /> Two years later, we were once again doing some photographic work at Laguna Atascosa NWR when we decided to send a batch of film in for processing. A roll of 100/1000 ISO film pushed to 800, which had been pulled from Robert's camera, had been floating around our motor coach for two years but because we so very rarely use that type pf film, it never got used up. What the heck! We sent it in for processing. That batch of film came back from the processor with a major surprise. We had nailed the ocelot “dead on” from the tip of its tail to the point of its nose with all four paws off the ground! We gave Linda Laack a copy of the photograph in appreciation of our once-in-a-lifetime experience. We later received a request from Linda to allow usage of the photo in both the Smithsonian publication and on the web page for the Defenders of Wildlife.com
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