Category Archives: Mammals

My Modern Day Caddyshack

Gray Squirrel, Caddyshack Pose

He’s cute isn’t he?

Gray Squirrel Itch

I was afraid you would say that. I think he is cute as well if not for one thing. He is eating all my bird seed and destroying my bird feeders, even those touted as squirrel proof!

Gray Squirrel Portrait

I must admit he is a very resourceful little fellow. No matter what I try, he figures a way around it. If I could figure a way to get him through HR, I would hire him. 😉 This whole situation has made me mad, as mad as Bill Murray in one of my favorite movies, Caddyshack. Hopefully I don’t resort to using heavy explosives in the yard!

Images captured by D3x, 600 VRII wTC-2.0E III on Lexar UDMA digital film

Hyena

My African safari was full of great memories. One of the best finds by our guide was a Spotted Hyena den chock full of pups of various ages.

Hyena Pups at Den
Hyena Pups at Den

Hyena Pups with Runt

How we happened upon this den was an exciting story. On our first game drive in Botswana, we happened upon a pack of African Wild Dogs. When it became too dark to photograph let alone see, we started our journey back to camp for the night. No sooner had we packed up our gear when we heard the dogs and hyena fighting. We turned on the spotlights on the jeep and headed toward the noise. It seems as the dogs were making their way, they happened upon the hyena den and a territorial spat ensued. While we couldn’t make any clicks with our cameras, we now had a new location to scout over the coming game drives.
The next day we returned to the den to find only pups, no parents! It truly amazed me how these pups took care of themselves while their parents were out gathering food. We worked this area for an hour or so. As the pups became more comfortable they came very close to our vehicle. They are very photogenic animals.
Hyena Pup

On our last game drive at Chitabe, we happened upon one of the adult Hyena picking over the remains of an Elephant. Was this soon to be lunch for the Hyena Pups? We couldn’t tell you as we had a flight to catch!
Hyena at Elephant Carcass

I have been working on a series of posts about what is involved in preparing for an African Safari. I have received a lot of inquiries in this regard and I figured putting together all the emails into a post or two would be useful. Stay tuned!

Impala Antelope

Its amazing how beautiful the Impala is. Botswana’s population seems to be thriving. When we were there, mothers had recently given birth to many calves.

Impala Calf Approaching Male Adult
Impala Calf Approaching Male Adult

Several things make identifying Impala’s easy. The most notable is the “M” shape marking on the hind end. Many people think it looks like a McDonalds sign. Many of my readers know I love movies. To me it looks more like the McDowells sign in “Coming to America”!
Hind End of Impala showing "M" marking

Unfortunately, one of the real purposes the Impala serves in the circle of life is food for many of the predators. We witnessed many kills where the Impala was on the menu as the daily special. The most notable of these kills were the dog kill featured in one of my previous blogs and a leopard kill from my last day at Chitabe.

Leopard Kill of Impala in Tree, Chitabe, Botswana, Africa
Leopard Kill of Impala in Tree, Chitabe, Botswana, Africa

Its hard to imagine that a creature so beautiful as the Impala serves mostly as food for Africa’s wild predator population.

Impala Calf, Chitabe Camp, Botswana, Africa
Impala Calf, Chitabe Camp, Botswana, Africa

Africa Day 2, Morning Game Drive

First of all I would like to thank everyone for the notes I have received since my return. I am feeling better and expect to make a full recovery shortly.

The itinerary for our trip was a fairly simple one. Each day was comprised of an early morning activity (4:45 AM wake up) and an early evening activity. This left the heat of the afternoon (this was the summer in Africa of course) for education, naps, inter-camp travel or individual game reserve exploration.

The exception to this itinerary was our first full day. We had an early morning game drive in Mosi-Oa-Tunya National Park, followed by a trip to Victoria Falls and then another evening boat ride on the Zambezi River.

The main purpose of our stop to Zambia was to have the group acclimate to the time zone and check our gear before we headed to our main photographic destination, Botswana.

The Mosi-Oa-Tunya National Park was full of wildlife. However park management never stocked or reintroduced predators in this park due to its proximity to a large orphanage at the main gate to the park. The prime subjects for us were the White Rhino herd, 5 in total, that were recently reintroduced to the park.

White Rhinoceros Grazing
White Rhinoceros Grazing

It is hard to appreciate the majesty of these animals until you are up close and personal!

Male White Rhino checking out his audience
Male White Rhino checking out his audience

Unfortunately for the group we only located this lone male, the females were nowhere in site.

One of the challenges that the group faced photographing in Zambia and Botswana were the busy backgrounds. Many people associate photographing animals in Africa with the cleaner backgrounds common in Tanzania (Serengeti) and Kenya. Here are two examples of images doomed by background.

Southern Giraffe in Zambia
Southern Giraffe in Zambia
Common Waterbuck
Common Waterbuck

Both of the above pictures are nice “mementos” but not valuable for a portfolio. You might be able to get away with the Giraffe background but definitely not the Waterbuck’s.

One surprisingly interesting subject were the Fireball Lilies that dotted the landscape of all the parks we visited. You don’t normally think of flowers when you think of the Kalahari and other dry locales.

Fireball Lilies in full bloom
Fireball Lilies in full bloom

Stay tuned for Victoria Falls and the second Zambezi River trip! They will be posted soon.

Africa, First Stop, Zambia

Hello All,
I am back from Africa and I have a lot to share with you. I know some of you are asking why I am back so soon. Well, the short answer is I had a bad reaction to the malaria medication I was given and it forced me to end my trip 6 days early. It was a devastating set of circumstances given I had planned this trip for 12 months. However, on the bright side, I am home, safe and under the care of my own doctors. But I will admit that the 28 hours it took me to leave camp and land at JFK were extremely stressful. That all said, I expect to be fully recuperated in time for Thanksgiving dinner!

So our group had their first stop at Toka Leya camp in Zambia. This camp is fairly new, approximately 1 1/2 yrs. old. It sits right along the Zambezi River, a few miles up river from Victoria Falls. Victoria Falls are one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

Our first game drive was a sunset boat ride along the river (I know, if my wife or mother finds out I was in a small boat, in the dark, on a river filled with crocodiles and hippos I might not see Thanksgiving Day).

Speaking of hippos, as soon as we entered the water we saw our first herd.

Yawning Hippopotamus in the Zambezi River, Zambia
Yawning Hippopotamus in the Zambezi River, Zambia

Hippos sometimes yawn to show potential threats how fierce they are. We didn’t need much convincing!

The Zambezi River is shared by Zimbabwe and Zambia as are Victoria Falls. The ecosystem is filled with wildlife, both mammals and birds. We could have stayed in the river for several days and not had a chance to photograph all that we witnessed.

Zambian sunset from the Zambezi River
Zambian sunset from the Zambezi River

The summer months in Africa are considered the rainy season. An advantage of being there during this time are clouds! The rest of the year has just plain blue or grey skies which can get pretty monotonous.

Sunset over Zimbabwe, from the Zambezi River
Sunset over Zimbabwe, from the Zambezi River

Over the next few days/weeks, I will journal for everyone our daily game drives as well as provide information about our experiences during the trip. Many people have asked me about what I brought and how I packed. A separate post would be necessary to do justice to this topic and I will provide this information at the end (most likely after the holidays).

If you have any comments or questions about the trip either drop me a line of leave a comment. I will most definitely be around the next week.

Deer on the Dune?

No I don’t mean my wife, not that kind of dear. I was walking out by the beach yesterday morning and saw a pair of antlers sticking up out of the sea grass. As I moved closer the little fellow (I thought) picked up his head.

White Tailed Deer hiding in the sea grass Quogue, N.Y.
White Tailed Deer hiding in the sea grass Quogue, N.Y.

As I tried to move closer, the big fellow moved to the other end of the dune and thats when I realized just how big he really was.
White Tail Deer standing on dunes in Quogue, N.Y.
White Tail Deer standing on dunes in Quogue, N.Y.

I really thought this guy was much smaller than he turned out to be because of the fact that just his rack was visible from the sea grass. As I got closer, I still couldn’t believe how much antler was coming out from the grass. Just to the left of the picture, maybe 10 feet away, is the ocean. Not a typical place to find a deer.

Photos taken with Nikon D3X, 200-400 VR w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film.

Solo

I had planned to stay at St. Mary Lake for an additional day and a half to practice what we had learned during base camp. Having some free time to decompress and practice what Moose and Jake taught us was actually more beneficial than I thought it would be.

Black Bear along Going to The Sun Rd., St. Mary Lake, Montana
Black Bear along Going to The Sun Rd., St. Mary Lake, Montana

One of the themes Moose was harping on me all week was not to take too many “head shots” and to think about how to present the animals in their environment when communicating with your viewers. I tried to practice this much of the day.

Elk in Glacier National Park
Elk in Glacier National Park

But the highlight of the day for me came right at sundown when out of the corner of my eye I spotted a Coyote targeting a meal. After working the spot I was able to get this shot when he came out of the brush!

Coyote, Glacier National Park
Coyote, Glacier National Park

Over the hump

Another early morning start for the group, one that was not very receptive to finding let alone photographing wildlife. As the morning rolled on clouds rolled in and we had some rain. Just as we were getting ready to leave for breakfast at the local “cafe”, we were treated to a beautiful rainbow.

St. Mary Lake Rainbow
St. Mary Lake Rainbow

The afternoon brought sunshine and skies with cotton ball clouds. We couldn’t wait to take another shot at photographing wildlife. This time (with some help from a white food cooler) we were up to our camera lenses in Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep. It made for a great afternoon!

Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep, Many Glacier, Montana
Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep, Many Glacier, Montana