The Painted Redstart is a small, energetic warbler whose northern range is the mountains on the border of Arizona and Mexico. This Mexican species comes north some springs to raise their young. Thirty-eight years ago Sharon and I saw our first Painted Redstart in Ramsey Canyon, AZ. We have seen them a handful of times since, but the looks were always fleeting. This year we were blessed with a couple of individuals multiple times a day at Santa Rita Lodge, Madera Canyon, AZ. They are very active and part of their charm is their bow and flaring/dancing of their white band tail. They have a great call that in the morning helps you find them. They were a joy to watch and I was so happy to finally get glass on the Painted Redstart.

This juvenal Rivoli’s Hummingbird will be solid color, if only now! The Rivoli’s is a big hummingbird, the biggest in NA. Your average hummer is the size of half your pinky, the Rivoli’s is bigger than your thumb. Its wing beats are slower and when coming into the feeders (stage left in this photo) they sound literally like a Huey! They are a great hummer and while only a few are here, each visit is special.

This is one amazing mom! Taking the dangerous step of assigning human thoughts to some of her actions though often makes her even more amazing. We first encountered her a couple of years back when she first came down to the flats with her COY (cubs of the year). We have spent literally over a hundred hours with the family since then, much of that time watching them sleep (key to getting fat). The cubs are now three years old, they are getting close to being set loose on the world on their own. Until then, they enjoy mom’s love so after a morning of feasting on spring greens, it’s time for milk. I am always amazed how mom, an 1100lbs beauty can keep up her bulk and feed her kids by just eating grass! Wow!!

No matter where the family is on the flats, when the cubs want to be fed, everyone knows they want to be fed! To say they are obnoxious, loud, and persistent is putting their actions mildly. Mom often says loudly and at times forcefully that she’s not ready for them. That doesn’t even phase them, they keep at it until she relents. As you can see in this instance from last month, they didn’t even let her expose her chest, they were upon her. Only then did she finally lie on her back being mobbed by the big fuzz balls. The whole time, her manors, and facial expressions said to me, done … yet?

The flocks of Evening Grosbeaks hit our gardens typically in early May. This year they were late and their numbers weren’t the same as in past years. The Evening Grosbeak population has seen a severe drop in the past year for no known reason so we were very anxious for their visit. I love photographing this large, loud species as they have lots of character. I only had a few opportunities with the big numbers in our feeder, this photo is from one of those days. I wanted to get shots this day of them deeper in the tree rather than out on the edge. They spend a lot of time in the interior and I didn’t have those shots. The problem is the light, it often doesn’t reach inside to the birds so I use flash. I was short of time so just went for the shots without flash. I kept asking the birds to move left, right, up or down to get in the light. My requests went unanswered until this male heard me. There was a soft drop of light just in front of him so I whispered, please step forward.

Kodiak Brown Bears come out of their winter den with one thing in mind basically, getting back in and sleeping. Between May and Oct though, they do a whole lot of living which in large part is, putting on fat. How do we get fat? We eat and sleep. They are masters of both and as a photographer, getting the shots of their activities of eating grass, catching salmon, and the other goofy things bears do, sleeping is one of my favorite poses. This four hundred pound 4-5 year old is deep asleep after a huge breakfast of grass. It barely tossed and turned, its head slowly sinking down to rem sleep. When I see this, I always wonder, what do bears dream?

There’s a thing, it’s kinda unspoken but naming bears just isn’t done. They are given numbers when they’re being studied, but not names. Those are reserved for just the very special bears. Big Bertha is one of those special bears. Why? Now that’s the interesting question. It starts with, she’s big! I’m talking BIG! For a 7-8 year old female, she’s pushing 800lbs. Next, here it is May and she’s all alone, no cubs. Did she not find a mate last year? Did she lose them already this spring to a male (which is real doubtful)? Her pelt is so dark, that’s kinda of unusual. And to me the biggie is, she’s left alone. The other bears give her a wide berth which translates to lots of respect. She doesn’t do anything fast, she’s not afraid of anything and goes where she pleases. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with her all week, so gentle and purposed. She’s a gorgeous bear and they call her Big Bertha.