Ah-HA!! Just when you thought I was over myself seeing a Whooping Crane last Friday, more imagery emerges! But this time it’s video. I…RARELY…ever take video. I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s the fact that I never really walk around with a tripod. It’s one thing to shoot a still with a long lens while hand-holding, as you can get sharp individual frames. It’s another to hand-hold a long lens and try to take anything close to stable video. This is watching the Whooping Crane in Buffalo County, South Dakota, while using a fence post as a temporary tripod. Just 26 seconds of video, but shows perhaps a bit more of the behavior of this guy. He was pretty relaxed the whole time I watched him (about 2 hours), and didn’t care about the guy with the camera or all the passing cars on the highway.
One place we always try to stop when in Arizona is Madera Canyon. It’s a beautiful wooded canyon cutting into one of southern Arizona’s “sky islands”, and is a world reknown birding location. Species rarely seen in the United States can often be seen there, with the Santa Rita Lodge and their large feeder complex a major attraction for visiting birders. Winter normally isn’t quite as exciting, but there are still great finds. For me this past week, it was waiting for a recurring Blue-throated Hummingbird to show up. It had been seen there for much of the past month, and it didn’t disappoint, as I got a couple of good looks (but alas no photos) as it buzzed into the nectar feeders a couple of times. Unfortunately it never stayed and fed while I was there, which I at least partially attribute to the group of about 10 people there watching from close range. It doesn’t help when one family with 2 young girls didn’t seem to mind when their children started throwing rocks at the birds! That one put my wife over the top, as she took it upon herself to tell the children to stop (good for her!).
One resident of the Canyon wasn’t going to let a couple of rock-throwing girls stop it though. The highlight of the visit ended up not being the “lifer” Blue-throated Hummingbird, but another lifer. My wife and son aren’t birders, but they are wonderful at indulging me. While i stayed camped out at the feeders waiting for the hummingbird, they went for a hike on the main trail through the Canyon. As I stood and watched near the feeders, there was movement in the brush, and soon it was evident what was causing the commotion…a Coatimundi! The first I’ve ever seen! It was wonderful watching him climb up a tree, stretch out in the sun, and do some grooming, scratching, and light napping.
But the amazing part came when he slide down the tree and started sauntering across the feeder complex…headed STRAIGHT to the location I was standing. He paused and gave me and the few other bystanders a glance, but we weren’t going to stop his mission! He climbed the small rock wall at the edge of the feeder area, climbed to the top of a fence post a mere 6 FEET in front of me, sat there for a moment, and then began his work…his work of downing the entire contents of a large, full hummingbird feeder! He had to stand on his back paws and reach with full extension, but he was able to grab it with his front claws, tip it down, lock his mouth around it, and start guzzling as the sugar-water came running out! He was doing his best to drink it all up, but as he stood there, sugar water was running down his face and entire body!
It only took a few minutes for him to drain the entire thing. When it was gone, he came back down on four legs, and proceeded to sit on the fence post and groom himself for a bit, licking all the sugar water off of his fur. He then returned to the back tree, again sunbathing and intermittently cleaning himself of the sticky mess.
Madera Canyon never disappoints, but this was a real treat for all of us! I was worried my wife and son had missed the spectacle, because by the time they returned from their hike, he was done feeding and was hidden in the brush. However, the Santa Rita Lodge worker came out, refilled the feeder, and…it wasn’t long before he returned! My son in particularly was thrilled to get a look at this new creature (for us), at such an incredibly close range. One of the cutest, most memorable wildlife experiences we have ever had!
I still haven’t had a lot of time to process all the Hawai’i photos and videos, but here are a few videos of some of the lava. I’m not much of a videographer (doesn’t help that I absolutely hate tripods), but you get the feel for what it’s like.
I find it so fascinating how little we know about our own planet. From a scientist’s perspective, it’s awe-inspiring. It’s the realization that after centuries of scientific discovery, there’s still so, so much we have yet to discover. Consider the video below (from the Washington Post):
A video of three whales swimming around…big deal, right? Well, yeah!! One of the largest creatures on the planet, and yet it’s a species that has only been SEEN by a handful of human beings. Never before has video such as this been taken. The True’s Beaked Whale is a mystery, an animal that’s thought to spend over 90% of it’s life submerged beneath the ocean’s surface. Natacha Aguilar de Soto, a marine biologist with the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, has studied beaked whales for many years, spending months at sea but yet rarely ever seeing ANY beaked whale species, much less a True’s Beaked whale.
However in 2013, a friend sent de Soto a video from the Azores that had been taken by science students on an excursion. The 46-second video above shows 3 adult or sub-adult beaked whales, casually swimming near the surface before slowly swimming out of the frame. De Soto was stunned to see the video of a creature she’d only hoped to see some day. Using the video evidence, information from dead stranded whales that have been found, and other rare sightings, de Soto published a paper in the journal PeerJ that provides new insights on True’s Beaked Whales. A True’s beaked whale has never before been tagged, but other beaked whale species have been documented diving to over 9,800 feet below the ocean’s surface, the deepest and longest dives of any mammal on the planet. At this stage, so little is known about True’s Beaked Whales that overall population size and trends are unknown. The article above however points out the dangers to similar beaked whales. A Culver’s Beaked Whale, a close relative, was recently found dead with over 30 plastic bags in it’s digestive tract, and military sonar has also been implicated in the strandings of similar whales. The video was invaluable for the research, as beaked whales in general are so rare, that even general appearance and distinguishing between species is difficult. The research also hints at the possibility of True’s Beaked Whales actually being two different species, one in the northern Atlantic and one in the southern Atlantic. As deSoto states:
“We don’t know how large the populations of True’s beaked whale or any other species are,” said Aguilar de Soto. “The populations could decline and we would never know.”
I’m still trying to find to time to process photos and video from Yellowstone. I only had half a day to walk around the Upper Geyser Basin at Yellowstone, but it was really magical. I started walking the basin a bit before dawn, and it was 2 hours before I finally ran into another human being. The only sounds that you heard were the gurgling of the Firehole River, and the hissing, bubbling, roaring sounds of the many geothermal features in the area. A wonderful morning, and a morning I thought I’d try something different (for me, at least).
I’m still a neophyte with regard to video. Even with a DSLR that shoots wonderful video, I very rarely actually try it. I did use my Canon 70d for some video in Yellowstone last week, but most of the time when I wanted video instead of still photographs, I found myself using my iPhone 7. I frankly don’t use my iPhone for much of anything, really, and haven’t ever really used it for photography or video. Last week though I quickly found just how wonderful video quality can be using an iPhone. I’ll still always love shooting with my DSLR, particularly given my focus on birds and need for a long lens, but it’s nice knowing that I’ll have good video capabilities as well, just by carrying my phone.
Here are several videos of geothermal features in the Upper Geyser Basin and in the Fountain Paint Pots area of Yellowstone. So beautiful in winter, and the geothermal features have such a different look in the extreme cold.
This one is “Red Spouter”, a unique little hot spring/fumarole from the Fountain Paint Pots region. It’s a very new feature geologically. It didn’t exist until the massive Hebgen Lake earthquake of 1959, an event that changed a lot of the geothermal features in the park.
Fountain Paint Pots is adjacent to Red Spouter. I’ve seen the area in summer, when there’s more water available and it’s more like boiling water than boiling “mud”. It was rather cool to see the thick bubbling mud on a cold winter’s day.
The highlight of the trip was just after I arrived at the Snow Lodge near Old Faithful. The only way into the area in winter is by snow mobile or snow coach. I took a snow coach, and arrived at the Snow Lodge just as the sun was setting. We were told Old Faithful was likely to erupt in about 30 minutes, so I checked in, grabbed my camera, and headed for the geyser. The sun had already set, with just a bit of light still in the western horizon. I was rather shocked to find that I was all alone, rather stunning for someone who has been in Yellowstone many times during the summer months, and was used to throngs of people in the Old Faithful area. The eruption started, and I still was literally the only person watching. My only company? A pair of coyotes that loped in and started hunting around the boardwalks. A magical, solitary moment I’ll never forget.
Castle Geyser is a feature we’ve seen several times before in summer during our Yellowstone visits. It’s always interesting, with a large cone structure and some beautifully colored bacterial mats growing in the hot water runoff. However, we’ve never seen it erupt. Seeing it actually erupt on a morning where the temperatures were about 10-below zero was truly wonderful. The noise, the incredibly tall plume of steam, and again, having it all to myself…a great treat.
Morning Glory Pool in the Upper Geyser Basin is such an iconic feature, and I had to see it in winter. It’s only about a mile walk down from Old Faithful, and while the boardwalks and paths weren’t maintained, enough snowshoe and cross-country skiing traffic had occurred that it was “walkable”, even without snowshoes. Morning Glory is always beautiful, but alas, even in the 20 or so years since we’ve been going to Yellowstone, you can see a difference in the colors. It’s not as vibrant any more, due to visitors throwing debris in the pool that interferes with hot water movement into the pool. Still a beautiful feature though, particularly against a backdrop of snow and ice.
It’s not just the big iconic geothermal features that are an attraction in the Upper Geyser Basin. There are SO many little hot springs, geysers, and fumaroles that at times it’s hard to know where to look. This little feature is called “Scissors Spring”. Certainly a high-temperature feature, as it was vigorously boiling the entire time I watched.
One of the first erupting geysers I encountered on this cold January morning was tiny “Little Squirt” geyser. What it was lacking in size, it made up for in “spunk”! A fun little geyser to watch.
One of the bigger eruptions that occurred while I was there, Grotto Geyser put on a nice early morning show when temperatures were still very cold. It was fun watching the hot water shoot up into the 10-below air, and come falling back down as a puffy, steamy cloud. A fun eruption to watch, and one that continued for quite some time.
Another little feature, called “Ear Spring” — It’s not just the geothermal features themselves that are cool when you’re walking through the geyser basins. The beautifully colored bacterial mats that grow in the hot water can be truly spectacular. A beautiful little area of these were found right around Ear Spring.
This is one of the first videos I shot this morning, a panorama of the entire Upper Geyser basin, right as the sun was coming up. This one gives a great idea of the isolation, and the beauty, of winter in the area.
Finally, a video of the aptly named Firehole River that winds through the Upper Geyser Basin. There are numerous geothermal features right along the shores of the Firehole, with warm water keeping the river clear of ice all year round. The warm water in the river was certainly an attractant to wildlife, with Canada Geese, Common and Barrow’s Goldeneye, Common Merganser, and Mallard all birds I saw while walking through the Upper Geyser Basin.
It was just after Christmas Day when I took the day off and drove 3 1/2 hours to the central part of the state to look for raptors. While there’s always a nice variety of raptors in the area, Rough-legged hawks are by far the most common. Just about all my Rough-legged hawk photos are from the Fort Pierre National Grasslands, or near the I-90 corridor by Presho and Kennebec. Around Sioux Falls and Brandon where I live, you do see them on occasion, but they’re not common by any means.
This weekend I went out for a bit, just around home. It was just a hop, skip, and a jump from our house when I ran into this gorgeous Rough-legged Hawk, just chillin’ in a cedar tree. My success with photographing Rough-legged Hawks in the central part of the state has just as much to do with sheer numbers of birds as it does with how cooperative they typically are for photos. Most flush when you approach. This guy not only stayed still for photos, but given how relaxed he was, I thought I’d do something I rarely do, and take some video as well.
It’s easy to take the common birds for granted, and I’ve certainly seen more than my share of Rough-legged Hawks over the years. They truly are gorgeous birds though, and it was wonderful to see such a beautiful bird right near our house. I’m glad this one gave me the opportunity to watch (and film) it for a good long time.
When I first started blogging, on a blog where I’ve now removed all content, much of the focus was on politics. It got to be too much. It’s absolutely disgusting what happens on blogs online, with the insults, intimidation, and pure HATRED that becomes apparent. Because of that, I stopped talking about politics, and rebooted my blog to focus on science, birds, and photography.
I’m going to break with my “no politics” pledge for one post, and one post only. This is just too much to ignore, especially given my last post about Americans and their turn against science…against FACT. That same attitude is pervasive in this election. It all started back in the 1990s. You had a zealous Congressional contingent at the same time that right-wing talk radio started spewing hate. Started spewing conspiracies. Started spewing lies. Suddenly the sole purpose of the “opposition” Congress was to investigate and oppose, rather than legislate.
We’ve had 20 years of the same mentality. The next election now is the ONLY thing that matters, and every political decision is made solely on that basis. Legislative accomplishment? Virtually absent, save for the few, short periods when one party controlled both the White House and Congress.
This mentality, based on hate, based on conspiracy, has COMPLETELY warped what is important in an election. Those conspiracy theories? A completely IGNORANT American public now treats them as fact, rather than pure, politically motivated pipe dreams. The Clintons murdered Vince Foster! Obama is a Muslim, born in Kenya!! Hillary was personally responsible for Benghazi (and evidently every other negative thing that’s ever occurred on the planet). Never mind that none of these have any evidence! Never mind that millions in taxpayer dollars have been wasted on pointless investigations, witch-hunts that have turned up exactly…nothing.
Yet an ignorant American public still believes THESE are the issues that matter the most. They still believe these are REAL events, REAL controversies, rather than politically manufactured bullshit. Just as my previous post on the anti-science movement in the U.S., politics has become a fact-free zone.
The result? You’ve got a true pig of a human being in Trump, a racist, a misogynist, an ignorant, lying, self-serving blowhard who has one quality that has gotten him where he’s at…he’s been smart enough to tap into the ignorance and hatred of those who have been spoon-fed bullshit for 20 years. Incredibly vulgar tapes where Trump sounds like a 19-year frat boy, rather than the potential President of the United States? No worries to these folks! In the world of hate in which they live, fact-free conspiracy theories are more important that the character and ability of “their” candidate to actually lead.
The fact that a man like Trump was actually nominated as a candidate of a major party, the fact that he’s a month away from potentially winning the presidency, DESPITE proving himself to truly be one of the most DEPLORABLE men on the planet, is just a natural outcome from 20-years of hate, 20-years of conspiracy-theory, 20-years of ignorance.
I’m flabbergasted. The fact that half of America evidently thinks this kind of man is fit to be President makes me frankly ashamed of my fellow Americans. We’ve devolved into a country where hatred, bigotry, and misogyny are evidently accepted, and it makes me sick.
Like I said…a one-time political post. Back to birds, science, and photography.
