Nine Below #4
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
2015

Nothing like an ultra-clear, cold day with deep blue skies for viewing and photographing mountains–in this case Baronette Peak. The lack of haze in the air really brings out the details, even from far away.

Nine Below #3
Yellowstone National Park, Montana
2015

The morning sun shinning through the fir trees had yet warmed things up enough to melt the frost off the branches when I took this photo. But it didn’t take long for that to happen. By the time I’d finished skiing, none was visible.

Nine Below #2
Yellowstone National Park, Montana
2015

This hoar frost on a frozen stream looks like a landscape scene; a line of frosty trees below a sky of frosty stars and the milky way.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that by the time I drove up out of the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone a few miles to go skiing along this creek, the temperature had actually warmed to about 5 above zero, but I thought this little sequence of images of frost should have a common title.

Nine Below
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
2015

The sub-zero morning temps and the right amount of moisture in the air made for a nice looking coat of hoar frost on everything in the Lamar Valley when I drove through the other day.

Get Off My Road
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
2014

To paraphrase the old riddle: where does a 2,000 pound buffalo (bison for you stickers out there) stand? Anywhere he wants to.

Snow-Capped Peaks
Bozeman, Montana
2015

Dualities #10
Grenada, Nicaragua (left)
Seattle, Washington (right)
2013/2014

On the left, palm trees from Nicaragua. On the right, pier pilings in Seattle.

Storm Over Elliot Bay
Seattle, Washington
2015

I took this photo when I was down on the waterfront when the one rain storm we experienced in Seattle came through. It wasn’t your usual Seattle drizzly rain, rather it poured quite hard for 20 or 30 minutes. The sun had been out shortly before the storm hit and you could see the clouds come rolling in. I got pretty wet even though I was wearing a raincoat and took shelter under an outdoor stairway during the worst of it. (I had had enough warning to have ducked inside somewhere, but hey, I know a potential photo-op when I see one.) As rough as the weather was for a little while, it wasn’t the kind of thing that registered much on the big ships in the bay such as this empty freighter (tanker?).

Working Overtime
Bozeman, Montana
2015

Luis, the drywall finisher, working late into the evening in one of the new houses across the street from us.

Tempting Fate
Bozeman, Montana
2015

Magpies and other corvids are often on the dinner menu for Great Horned Owls. Specifically in this case I believe this one is a Northern/Subarctic great horned owl, Bubo virginianus subarcticus. Yet this magpie and a myriad of its kin as well as crows and ravens spent the day yesterday near our house bugging the heck out of this owl, often hopping from branch to branch around it. I guess they figured there is safety in numbers, and of course owls hunt mainly at night. However, Wikipedia reports:  “In one case, though usually passive while being mobbed during the day, a great horned owl was able to capture and kill an American crow that was harassing it.” Like I said, tempting fate.

I mentioned the corvids were bugging this owl all day. I know this because I first noticed it going on about 9:30 in the morning when I heard a great cacophony of noise and saw a big murder of crows all flying towards the same spot when I was out for a walk. I followed them and took some photos and video with the small camera I had with me at the time. Late in the afternoon I returned in my car with my big camera and telephoto lens and found the owl in the same spot I’d left it earlier.

If you’re interested, I’ve posted a video I took earlier in the day on my web site. I’m pretty sure it’s in the running for the worst wildlife video ever, but it does show some of the other birds in the area getting in on the action. Here’s the link. It’s a pretty big file (24mb) so may play with a lot of fits and starts. If you think it’s worth it, you might want to right click on the link and save the file to your computer (click on “save link as” in Windows anyway–don’t know about Apple products). It will take a little while to download but then should be watchable without stalling.