Fall migration of Arctic nesters is underway, a great opportunity to photograph them in their spring best, at least what’s left of it like this Marbled Godwit. They are fueling up to continue their flight south providing us a little time with them. Knowing this, the key is to find those fueling stations cause where you find their food, you will find them. One of the best locales is where fresh water like a river or creek joins the ocean. Then look at the direction of light at that locale, preferably you have front or side light when you hit the sand. While you’re doing all this field research practice your handholding and long lens technique. Perhaps look at getting yourself a panning plate and being down with the birds. With all that, it’s time and you’re ready cause its beachcombing time!

Big game by nature is very shy and, elusive especially as they get older and bigger. White-tailed Deer are pretty darn common but grand photographs of big bucks in fall, they are not common. One reason is, that they are hunted in the fall pushing them back deeper into their world. The shot I have in my mind requires a lot of field time, something I regret I don’t have for this subject. So I went in another direction, I brought the females to The Ranch.

The males go where the females are and my plan is slowly working after five years. Getting the does and their fawns use to us, they stick around bringing the boys in. We have two nice bucks that come through pretty regularly now. They’ve gotten used to me standing out with the big glass as they go about their business. Their racks are still covered in velvet but growth is coming to an end. In about forty-five days I hope to have a couple of nice bucks to work and then next year, they will still be here just bigger. We love spending time with the boys of summer.

Each May, they slowly emerge from their dens and make their way down to the flats. Their they start their journey back to their dens, fattening up so they can go back to sleep in September. There is a week when the grasses are short enough we can safely be amongst them and catch a glimpse of their life. Join me and KelbyOne on an adventure to The Land of the Giants!

There are so many salmon I have no adjective to describe the scene! No, you can’t cross the river on their backs and never get wet. But as you walk through you are kicking them left and right. This is the dinner bell for the Kodiak Brown Bears that inhale them as fast as they catch them. And there lies the catch, gotta catch them! Each bear has its own style of snaring a meal, the most common is the chase. After observing them for years and knowing the basic rule of calories in, calories out, I think they chase them because it’s just fun. I’m standing in the water, tripod is in the water and there are about a dozen bears all around me doing their thing. That might be feeding, might be eating, and most definitely, it’s sleeping. It’s a time of plenty the bears reveal in it. The fish are running!

For the past two weeks, whenever the fawns appear around the house, I’m out with them. This is even when the light sucks. It seems to have helped, the fawns are now bouncing around without my care about me or Maggie. It is interesting to see the fawn of the Alpha female we call “The Witch” is trying to be dominate over the other fawn. They are permitting me to walk around to get the shots I want when I see them. This is from last night just before the sun slipped behind the mountains. It’s so much fun to be amongst them now we’re friends.

My time flies, they are already a month old! We had five fawns drop at The Ranch this spring and we know this as our good neighbor has seen them all at the same time. When it comes to seeing the fawns from our windows, it’s been a real challenge. One, the grass is really tall this spring keeping these little guys well hidden. Two, we’ve had predators about from a Mountain Lion to Coyotes so the does have been very protective. While the does come into the Back 9, come up to me looking for their apples, it wasn’t until a little over a week ago that “The Wtich” brought her fawn into the open. We call the doe The Witch because she is the Alpha and she lets everyone know it! In the last few days, the doe has permitted its fawn to come in closer and closer to where yesterday it was bigger than the viewfinder. It’s progress but we’re still at the peekaboo phase.