Trixie snoozing in Bear’s bed in the spring of last year.
Blog
Who Can It Be Knocking At My Door?
As arctic conditions grip the desert with overnight lows in the 40’s and 50’s, a throwback to a cold New Year’s Day in 2011 when I was watching a bittern work a frozen channel on the auto tour at Ridgefield. Unfortunately for the vole living its best life in the tall grasses, a bittern neither knocks nor cares if you answer. In some ways they remind me of roadrunners here in the desert, both relentless hunters with diverse palettes relying on surprise, the bitterns via stealth, roadrunners via speed.
📷: Canon 7D | Canon 100-400mm
🗓️: January 1, 2011
Symbiosis
Sperm whales often sleep vertically with their heads below the surface but here they poke their heads above the desert floor, providing antelope squirrels protection from their many predators while relying on them as lookouts for orcas or peg-legged hikers with a look of mania about them.
📷: Sony A6700 | Sony 100-400mm | Sony 1.4X
🗓️: November 21, 2023
Surprise Test
Though I see them frequently in the neighborhood I rarely see roadrunners in the local preserve and have never photographed one there. So of course as I took a quick hike to test out a camera so newly arrived I hadn’t yet set it up to my liking, the first animal I see is a roadrunner posing on a boulder. So lovely to see, as their name implies while they can fly they prefer to walk, and can really scoot when they want to.
📷: Sony A6700 | Sony 100-400mm | Sony 1.4X
🗓️: November 21, 2023
Thanksgiving
Our last Christmas in Portland was a white one, a growing fear my job search was going to take us away from Oregon heavy on my mind as I wandered our frozen neighborhood. The dragon sculpture at Irvington School was covered in frost, some of its tiles have positive messages and I focused in on this one. If we were going to have to leave the place I never wanted to leave, I was grateful for our time there no matter where we ended up. Two months later I accepted the job offer that brought us to the desert and six years later I’m still deeply grateful for where we were and where we are.
📷: Sony A6500 | Sony 16-70mm f/4
🗓️: December 26, 2017
Morning Prayers
A Harris’s hawk silhouetted on saguaro blossoms at sunrise, surrounded by bees. A feeding frenzy often follows when the giants bloom though I didn’t get that sense so much this year. To be fair I wasn’t able to get up early very often on the weekends this spring, on this occasion I struggled to sleep and decided to make the best of it. It was a planned short hike, soon it was back home to join my wife and Bear for a hike in a county park.
📷: Sony A6600 | Sony 100-400mm | Sony 1.4X
🗓️: June 10, 2023
The Sonoran Alligator
I’ve seen several new species this year while walking Bear, from a gray fox to a chuckwalla to this, the Sonoran alligator. Like it’s cousin in the marshes and swamps of the American South, our desert variety has eyes and nostrils at the top of its head, allowing it to lay still submerged beneath the desert floor. It was quite relaxed around Bear as the wildlife strangely often are, it smiled for the camera and showed off its fearsome maw but it was more curious than alarmed. Even so when I heard its stomach rumble I made my apologies and we continued down the path.
📷: Nikon Z 7II | Nikon 105mm macro
🗓️: November 9, 2023
The Sonoran Squid
Normally I enjoy seeing new species but this one made me sad as the only reason I saw my first Sonoran squid was because a fire destroyed its habitat. It still has a little green, as does the barrel cactus and saguaro behind it, but they are the walking dead.
📷: Nikon Z 7II | Nikon 105mm macro
🗓️: September 29, 2023
The Joy of Discovery
Bear last summer as he was trying out a new dental treat. Needless to say it was a big hit.
📷: Nikon Z 7II | Nikon 24-70mm f/4
🗓️: August 28, 2022
Where a Desert Once Stood
This summer as I left work far in the distance I saw greenish smoke that usually means the desert is burning. The closer I got to home the closer the fire seemed to home and indeed as I cleared Troon Mountain I could see smoke billowing from the part of the preserve where Bear and I often walk. We prepared to evacuate but didn’t have to as the wind carried the fire away from us. I avoided the trails for a long while since burned areas are pretty sensitive but after seeing they were open, made a visit in the fall to see if I wanted to bring Bear back yet.
At first nothing was amiss but then I hit the burned part and there’s a wide swath of the desert that is completely charred. There are sandy areas with no plant life and exposed holes of the many small animals that once lived here. Some plants like this saguaro still had patches of green but they are the walking dead. We have enough other trails and enough time during my leave of absence that I’ll keep Bear away for now.
📷: Nikon Z 7II | Nikon 105mm macro
🗓️: September 29, 2023
Boolie 