#AdventWord #Equity

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There’s something profound about coming eye-to-eye with a non-human creature, especially a wild one. It shrinks the distance between you and them, the species difference, the size difference, the physical differences, and more. Of course I don’t know exactly how the other creature experiences our encounter. I know I spooked a white-tail deer by locking eyes with her. Up went her flag and off she went. But she had good reason to be afraid. I was holding a compound bow with an arrow nocked. This barred owl, on the other hand, sat quietly and stared back at me and my…

#AdventWord #Heed

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One October day in 2019, I turned north on Hwy 39, a.k.a. The Creole Nature Trail, headed home from the Gulf Coast of southwest Louisiana. The Pintail Wildlife Drive of Cameron Parish was on the right a few miles up the road, and I planned to visit before heading on home. But well before I reached the Drive, I spotted this Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) perched on top of a power pole clutching a large silver fish in its talons. As I am inclined to do upon such sightings, I hit the brakes and pulled to the side of the road….

#AdventWord #Gratify

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Frustrating and gratifying! That’s bird photography for me. This family of Hooded Mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus) cruised past me in my kayak in the salt marsh on Mobile Sound one winter day a few years ago. The light was golden, the water calmly reflective, and their formation perfect. But then, of course, the moment I click, the two females in the middle turn their heads away. One more addition to a huge collection of “near perfect” shots! Aww, well. Beautiful anyway, and gratifying, especially because Nature Serve’s conservation rating of this species is “Vulnerable” in Alabama. Nothing motivates my photography more…

Yes, the swamp is beautiful!

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That was not immediately clear to me when I first moved to Louisiana. In fact, I was pretty leery of the swamp. It seemed oppressive, with strange smells and spikey plants and strangling vines and danger underfoot–such a contrast to the cathedral-like forests of the Pennsylvania ridges I left behind to move here. But I have never been one to cower indoors for too long, so gradually I ventured out and began to explore, and gradually I came to appreciate the beauties of the swamp. It thus makes me very happy that some of my images of the swamp have…

September: Tensas River NWR

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You never know what you’re going to see. But in or near the Tensas River NWR, your chances of seeing a Louisiana Black Bear (Ursus americanus luteolus) are better than anywhere else in the state! I have now encountered a bear on three occasions, the last one being in September 2024. After completing a Sunday morning assignment in St. Joseph, La., I entered the refuge from the south and drove slowly north, looking for wildlife and stopping often to photograph birds, butterflies, dragonflies, wildflowers and the ubiquitous raccoons. Tensas rarely disappoints the avid wildlife watcher and photographer. By the time…