This is the look of a Kodiak Brown Bear deep in concentration. What’s he doing under the water with its paws, you ask? Mom taught him that this little bend in the river up against the rocks is where the salmon like to pool up and rest before rushing further up the river. The salmon are tired here and by simply waiting, they will swim right up into your paws. You simply extend your five-inch claws and you have a meal. Bears have just two things on their mind, getting fat and going back to sleep is at the top of the list. The more calories you take in with little effort, puts fat on. This big old male appears to have learned the lesson well, coming up to eight hundred pounds in five years. He’s real good at lounging in the water and pulling up sushi, it’s just his style.

Kodiak Brown Bear to the right, Bear across the river and another down to the left and Hiram says, ” Cross Fox”. My lens swiveled around to see this gorgeous fox staring at us. It wanted to come up to the river where we were standing to partake in some of the spent salmon. He would ease up, stop, ease up, stop, slowly closing the distance. Why take the lens of Kodiak Brown Bears? Well, we have bears all the time, that’s why I’m here. We have Red Fox quite commonly, but this is the first Cross Fox we’ve had here. I had to photograph him, especially with those big eyes asking, “Can I come now?”

Spring fawns are a great source of entertainment around The Ranch. When they are first dropped, we search and search to find them. Figuring out which doe dropped a single and which dropped twins, a game of seeing whose predictions were right or wrong. Then once the wobbly little guys start to move around, getting to know them and they, getting to know us. And then there is the Maggie factor. Which fawns will take to Maggie and which will move off? This year, one fawn has taken to Maggie. Now, fall is just a click or two off and the fawns are starting to lose their spots. The times we see them with their moms are fewer and fewer. The fawns are on their own and getting into mischief, eating garden plants that are not for them. Just yesterday, they were watched to see the frolicking, now for the damage they cause. They grow so fast.

When the kid landed on the vertical perch, it was hard to stay silent in the hide! The parents came to the suet feeders all spring and even though they didn’t nest on our property, we at least were able to enjoy them. Then the first kid arrived and that brings new hope for next spring nesting. I’m I love watching the kids learning how to use the suet feeders, they are not sure at first. Though mom is showing them where they are, where to perch and to ignore the guy in the hide, the kids act so confused. When they come to the feeders on their own, they look around, dance up and down the perch, deciding where to stand, total characters. Our little community of Pileateds grew as the kids are making themselves at home.

August, hard summer light and sweet fawns, what a photographic conundrum! How to make it work photographically can at times, drive me nuts! Have the good fortune to have it unfold literally in my backyard though has finally, after all these decades, come up with a basic boiler plate solution. The key for me is the spotty filtered light in the shadows. I tried unsuccessfully to have the subject in the light and the shadow behind them but that was a huge failure. Then by accident, I captured a fawn in spotty light and the light clicked in my head. Now, I look for that spotty light and with all my mental telepathy, direct the fawn to it. Yeah, not the most productive way to make a shot but on a rare occasion like this, it seemed to work. It’s one way I have of making hard light your friend.

Water, we can’t live without it! That goes for critters as well. And his time of year when the heat is turned up too high, they need it even more. Want to do a quick experiment, put a small saucer of water out in the middle of a field, a small rock in the middle of the saucer, and watch how fast birds come to it. You’ll wonder as I often do, how to they find it that fast. That just shows us how important it is to them. The bird bath you see the Acorn Woodpecker in above was dry, had been dry for quite some time (it’s at Mader Canyon). We put water in it and instantly, instantly it was in use. It was so important that the birds would permit me to stand within shooting range, right out in the open and photograph them, without any hesitation. You can buy those $2 pot trays, throw it out with some water and instantly have subjects to photograph, it’s amazing. That’s be cause we can’t live without it!