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Marty’s photo of the day #5154: Yesterday, large flocks of migrating Clark’s nutcrackers and evening grosbeaks passed through the Essen Wildlife Refuge. The birds picked at pinecones for a while. Then, when a larger bird circled above, they vanished into the trees. This is a Clark’s nutcracker.
Marty’s photo of the day #5138: Antlion larvae hide at the bottom of hundreds of sandy ant traps on the Essen Wildlife Refuge. Later, when those larvae become adults, they resemble a damselfly, and their diet changes from ants to pollen and nectar. Yesterday, I watched this adult land on a branch no wider than […]
Marty’s photo of the day #5134: “Here kitty, kitty!” Mountain lion, watching from a tree at the Essen Wildlife Refuge in Montana.
Marty’s photo of the day #5132: In nine days, Nellie gets the final X-ray on her second bionic leg (she had TPLO surgery seven weeks ago) and, if all goes well, she will once again be off-leash and free to race through the forest at warp-nine. For now, she covers every inch of the Essen […]
Marty’s photo of the day #5131: During the 30 years Deb and I have lived at the Essen Wildlife Refuge, we’ve often heard nighthawks, but only after dark, and if we saw them they were just a flash in the forest. This year is different. Two weeks ago, I was walking our dog, Nellie, through […]
I took Nellie out for a walk this afternoon and routed us past where I had seen a nighthawk multiple times. All of a sudden mother nighthawk blasted out from under a pine tree and did her wounded bird act. At the same time, her chick flew off in the opposite direction. I moved away, […]
Marty’s photo of the day #5118: Nellie’s recovery from getting her second bionic rear leg will take at least 8 weeks, so I must restrict her to leash walks to keep her from engaging warp drive too early. Because of that, we are covering every inch of the 25-acre Essen Wildlife Refuge. And since Nellie […]
Marty’s photo of the day #5112: As a photographer, I consider it cheating to photograph a hummingbird sitting at a feeder. So I challenge myself to catch them in flight or on branches. You are looking at a female rufous hummingbird, photographed yesterday at the Essen Wildlife Refuge.
Marty’s photo of the day #5108: It’s been three weeks since my dog, Nellie, got her second bionic rear leg (TPLO surgery with a metal plate and six screws), and she is recovering much faster than the first time. She has to stay on leash for eight weeks, and this morning she practically dragged me […]
Marty’s photo of the day #5107: Many of the flowers at the Essen Wildlife Refuge have gone to seed, but that doesn’t make them unworthy of admiring.
Marty’s photo of the day #5098: Two days ago, I featured an action shot of this nighthawk. Today, I’m featuring a portrait. Nellie (the dog), gets partial credit for this photo, as she pointed the bird out to me. (Photographed at the Essen Wildlife Refuge in Montana.)
Marty’s photo of the day #5097: For the second day in a row, Nellie gets credit for my photo of the day. Until her new bionic leg heals, she is restricted to leash walks, and it was during a leash walk yesterday through the Essen Wildlife Refuge that we spotted this nighthawk. The nighthawk immediately […]
Marty’s photo of the day #5096: My dog, Nellie, has amazing senses. She gets credit for this shot. It was well after sunset when we stepped out onto the front porch. Immediately she knew something was sleeping among the trees a hundred feet straight out from us. I couldn’t tell what it was, so I […]
Marty’s photo of the day #5092: I watched these two pileated woodpeckers pick apart an old, downed tree yesterday. (Photographed at the Essen Wildlife Refuge in Montana.)
This spring I moved my motion-sensing cameras near the fox dens on the Essen Wildlife Refuge, hoping to capture images of baby foxes. No babies yet, but this deer cracked me up.
Marty’s photo of the day #5070: We have some incredibly tall trees on the Essen Wildlife Refuge. These aren’t the tallest ones, but I had good light and a wide-angle lens on my camera. So I tried to capture the feel of their height.
Deb and I own thousands of trees on the Essen Wildlife Refuge. Nevertheless, the trees aren’t always in the right place. A gravel road passes by on the far side of our property, and I’m getting tired of the dust from vehicles passing by. So this year, I’m transplanting trees from one side of the […]
The flowers are blooming on the Essen Wildlife Refuge! The common name for this tiny flower is a nineleaf biscuitroot. It is part of the carrot family, and, apparently, its taproot is edible.
The flowers are blooming on the Essen Wildlife Refuge! I wasn’t able to identify this flower because it is so small—the size of the head of a pin! For the photographers out there, I used a Canon RF 35mm f/1.8 IS macro lens plus a 31mm extension tube to get close enough. And a lot […]
