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.

Alaska is known for its Bald Eagles. Get out to Kodiak where I am and you find them EVERYWHERE! Seriously, on our little stretch of coast, there are nearly a dozen nests. They love to fly and on the bluff of our camp, they fly by really close. I mean, really close. I am not trying to trivialize this by any means, they are gorgeous birds on the wing and I love photographing them. But literally, all I had to do was walk a few feet, not fall off the bluff, and point the lens and pan. They do the rest and there are so many, in no time you have shots like this and so much more. When back in camp after photographing bears, the eagles are such fun to watch and photograph. I have glass on all the birds when back in camp though that’s not a bear.

The first Yellow-headed Blackbirds returned to Lee Metcalf NWR about 10 days ago. Each day there is one or two more to now there are about a dozen on my favorite stretch of marsh. They go through all sorts of contortions when they call. While they do that they call what sounds like the old commercial theme … cha, cha, cha, Chia. They work themselves all up into a real frenzy to the point where they need to take an afternoon bath. The photo above is the male displaying his heart out. Below is after all his displaying and taking a bath. He kept moving his wings back and forth like what you see and all I could think of while taking the photographs was … neeeeeeeyyyyyooorrrwwwww!

By day four, you can see the nest platform was taking shape. It was funny to watch the male bring in a stick and the female throw it out and down into the water. At first I thought it was because she didn’t approve of the stick. But after a while she launched from the platform and grabbed the stick from the water. She did this a couple of times so I’m thinking she let them soak so the stick would be plyable.

Our last time to the nest we planned to have the setting sun providing some nice light for the Osprey’s romance. Everything was going as planned until the wind direction changed. You want the sun and the wind on your back photography birds in flight. With the wind in your face, you get this, the business end of the bird. It was a great time at the platform, learned a lot and shot even more. I loved it all, it’s all fun & games!