The air started to bite with the drop in temps as the snow started to fall later yesterday afternoon. It’s a gorgeous, quiet time of year in Alaska with the changing of the guard from fall to winter. We’d spent the week in the Chugach Mountains, some days putting in seven miles going up and down the valley in search of our quarry that in previous years was chuck full. Something I’ve been doing for decades, this slam dunk subject has never been a challenge for me to find and photograph. With literally 50k plus images in my files from this one locale, its productivity keeps me coming back over and over again. This year, it’s all different and in the back of my mind, I’m very concerned.

There are some critters I know pretty well, Grizzly Bears, Sandhill Cranes, San Joaquin Kit Fox, and Moose. I’ve put decades of field time with these critters and those who have made it their life mission to understand them. This knowledge has numerous photographic benefits, one of them being in the right place at the right time. This year, it didn’t help out that much. After days of looking in locales where there should be herds of Moose only to find one, literally just one, and hearing from folks how they never gathered this year like in the past, I went to what Sharon calls Plan B. After a little time wandering, I finally found what we call in my family affectionately, my Northern Cousins.

The small band of a dozen Moose was held up in a small corner of Kincaid Park with this bull being the first and rightfully, the last one we spent time with. This is a dozen miles and at sea level from their mountain haunts. I’m saying bull but you’re seeing no giant rack so might be thinking it’s a cow. That’s because this big bull, and I mean big, has already shed its antlers which this time of year, is really abnormal! A sample of one, alone this doesn’t mean much. But we found other bulls missing one or both of their antlers. This along with their total absence in the valley high in the mountains where they should normally be doing that birds and the bees thing just feels really wrong as in, there is something wrong in their world. And when this is combined with the rest of the anecdotal evidence from the past two years going to old haunts to find critters missing or totally gone that for decades have been a treasure trove of photographs truly has me concerned for the natural world I so love. What have we done to our wild heritage? It keeps me awake at night, no bull!

They are simply the cutest thing, Rocky Mtn Bighorn lamps. Though about six months old, this youngster was high up on a ridge above us along with the ewe band it probably grew up with. After a school bus pushed them back up the slope, they came back down to us as we had played “the game” perfectly. They accepted us as just being stupid photographers and came back down to feed. Some crashed right down the slope to the road, others meandered down at their pleasure. What a great afternoon with a piece of our wild heritage!

The deer and elk around the ranch have all shed their velvet and the bucks and bulls are busy cruising for females. With the chill in the air and plants tucked in for winter, big game feels the pressure to procreate and get back to putting on fat while they can. This offers up great photographic opportunities for those getting out where the big game roam.
There are some considerations you must contemplate before you even make a photograph. Most importantly is the welfare of our subjects, they come before the photograph. Calories are precious and we cannot do anything that might cause big game to expel more calories because of our actions. This can is easily accomplished by using a long lens and not pushing the critters with our approach. Ideally, you never approach the critter but rather, let them approach on their own terms. You’ll not only protect their well being doing this, but you’ll also come back with better images.
When it comes to the rut, doing a little research on your target mammal is important. Moose gather up harems and spend time protecting them. Pronghorn do the same thing where Mule & White-tailed Deer don’t. You don’t want to get in the way of these activities yet take advantage of them. Watch the behavior before you make a move, understand the rhythm to protect the process while getting better photographs. You can do it, have a great time and come back with memorable photographs when the chill is in the air.

With fall comes change signaled by many things and celebrated by critters. Their preparation for winter takes many shapes, forms, and actions, and none like migration. Snow Geese nest in the far north and come south in wave after wave spending the winter in our warmer south. They take many paths heading south laying over in many regions through North America. They are more than likely in your own backyard!

There are many ways you can celebrate this, with every lens and time of day the perfect option for your visual storytelling. For this morning one December, I choose predawn color reflected off the pool to celebrate the well-earned rest of the flock. Is there a “trick” here, yes! Get out and experience, that’s it, that’s the trick to be part of as the agless cycle continues.

On the Philmont Scout Ranch, they have preserved an iconic part of our wild heritage, the New Mexico Bison. On 5000 acres a 140 head herd roam as they did for hundreds of years. What is unique, they don’t have to deal with us! That’s to say, you will never experience a “Buffalo Jam” as you might at other parks because this herd cannot be accessed by the public. In fact, they so rarely see people that we weren’t sure how they would react to our being on the plains with them. That fact made the morning so special!
This lone spectacular bull watched as we pulled up in the trucks. As I looked over the hood through the 180-00VR, it appeared to me as if he was trying to hide behind that one thistle blossom. It was a very special morning to spend with Bison, letting them go about their day and approaching us as close as THEY felt and our being able to let that unfold. Our wild heritage, it’s bloody amazing!

We went total hardcore, spending the morning at the city water treatment plant which always garnishes shorebirds just not the best backgrounds. Not this time, not a single shorebird, literally none. So I went to my fallback plan, breakie! Afterward we went back to a location we had checked days before, not for birds but to see if the light was working for this one tree photograph. While we were there, Sharon found our first band of shorebirds, a dozen sandpipers. It was great to see them! We had about an hour with them before the rising tide made their little beach disappear. We’ll be back at it today, hoping to find a bunch more cause a dozen doesn’t mean success.