Spent this morning at Huntley Meadows park.  I was lazy and arrived at the park later then usual, and I figured things would be very quiet.  Boy was I wrong, as the park was very active with plenty of things to see and photograph.  Snakes, turtles, egrets, herons (Great Blue and Green-backed), swallows, ducks, geese, phoebes, Red-winged blackbirds, even a Belted Kingfisher and a White-tailed deer, which I hadn’t seen in the park for several years, all made an appearance.  I’ve taken a lot of shots of Great Egrets and Red-winged blackbirds in the past here but I’ve never been as close to these two species as I was today. It was due to patience.  Simply waiting for the wildlife to approach you is the best method of getting close.

This is the time of year for fawns and I hoped to get some photos of the new arrivals in Shenandoah National Park today. The early morning drive up did not look promising, weather-wise. The dark grey clouds appeared to be building up and the radio called for heavy rain. When I arrived at the park, the first drops of rain started.  When I reached Big Meadows, the rain held off for about 15 mins., long enough to capture this young buck but the clap of thunder and the start of the heavy rain was more than enough to chase both the buck and me out of the meadows in search for cover. Still, the weather provided a nice landscape…

The North American Nature Photography Association designated today as Nature Photography Day, encouraging people everywhere to use a camera to explore the natural world in a backyard, local park or other nearby place.  Since we are close to Father’s Day, I photographed this male House Sparrow who was helping out Mom with the feeding chores of their youngsters inside this bird house on the side of my home.

Also today I had the honor of having one of my photographs from my recent trip to Montana posted on Moose Peterson’s blog. It’s a photo of Moose going the extra mile to capture an image.  You can see Moose’s image and mine by clicking here.

On the last day of Boot Camp, we once again drove into the east entrance of Glacier, looking for both moose and bear. We had seen a moose and calf a couple of days ago but it was too dark in the early morning for photography.  We also had reports of bear activity in the area.  Our class got split up on the road and while my group drove aimlessly around, the other group of folks spotted the moose and calf and later on also spotted a Black Bear.  It was frustrating for my group to have missed out on this wildlife but there is always something to photograph at Glacier.

Even if they aren’t as big as a moose or bear, the park’s chipmunks are good subjects for photography.

The days are long in Montana at this time of year, with sunrise around 5:20AM and sunset around 9:20PM. The long daylight allows photographers to shoot a lot images in a day.  Even after sunset, the photographs continue.  It was a great workshop with Moose Peterson, his wife Sharon and son Jake.  The Wildlife Photographer Base Camp is a highly recommended experience.

Today, we drove into the East Glacier entrance of the park under overcast skies.  Along the roadside was a small group of White-tailed Deer which tolerated our physical presence for a short while.

As we continued to search for wildlife along one side of the road, I turned around to find a rainbow directly behind us. The weather and the landscape at Glacier continually change, providing the photographer a never ending supply of subjects.

Returning in the evening to Many Glacier, we scanned the slopes for Mountain Goats, the iconic mascot of Glacier National Park.  We found many on the high ridge but too far away to photograph, so we concentrated on the Bighorn Sheep which seemed to be only too happy to oblige us.

This morning, we drove to the Many Glacier hotel area overlooking Swiftcurrent Lake.  Again, we were blessed with still water and magnificent weather. This view is right on the hotel grounds.

While we shot images from the lake, Moose’s son, Jake, spotted a female Grizzly with a cub crossing the mountain side to the right of the lake.  This is a cropped image of the bears for magnification.  Momma hustled across the slope, stopping once to dig for ground squirrels.  This Grizzly is the reason that most of the trails in the area were closed.

The Columbian Ground Squirrel feeds mostly on wildflowers in alpine meadows. Unfortunately, just about everything else feeds on Columbian Ground Squirrels. They’re cute but always must be on guard.

We left at 4:00AM for a drive to Two Medicine Lake to catch the sunrise.  A full moon and perfectly calm water greeted us which enabled  some outstanding reflections. The photo above was taken a little after sunrise.

In the early evening, the clouds were rolling in and we took a drive north to follow the gathering storm.  We stopped about a mile from the Canadian border and photographed the surrounding landscape.  There’s a reason why they call Montana, Big Sky Country…