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Continue reading →: Raptor RaptureOver two different days last week, between downpours of rain, I had the good fortune to observe twelve different species of raptor (birds of prey) in Humboldt and get photos of ten of them. A Bald Eagle and a Cooper’s Hawk made appearances near my house when my camera was…
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Continue reading →: Bottoms UpYou may have heard the term “bottoms” used locally around Humboldt, referring to lowland areas along California’s north coast where a body of water generally moving slowly downhill toward the ocean in serpentine curls through a broad low-lying expanse of land may at high tide reverse its course, forcing the…
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Continue reading →: Eagle Nest Update: December 6, 2024Last Friday I hiked up to the nearby Bald Eagle nest to see if there was any activity by the local couple who have been successful at fledging at least one juvenile eagle in 10 of the last 13 seasons. I don’t know how long the nest was active before…
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Continue reading →: Three Thrush Thanksgiving ThursdayOn Thanksgiving day I walked up a nearby state park service road to the spot where my partner and I were lucky enough to discover an active Bald Eagle nest back in 2011. I have watched the nest every year since then and have marveled at the process of the…
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Continue reading →: Life in the Flood PlainHaving lived by the river for the better part of 52 years I have come to know its ups and downs pretty well. The technology we had for communicating dangerous river levels when I was a teenager was a battery-powered radio reception, usually during power outages, to hear a static-obscured…
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Continue reading →: Red-legged GiantAll raptors have a hold on me, whether a tiny kestrel that looks more like a delicate watercolor study than a predator, or big bulky Red-tailed Hawks that are common enough that I probably don’t pay careful enough attention to every one I see. But the one that floors me…
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Continue reading →: Salmon SeasonThe first good rain we had a couple weeks ago brought the river up a bit and the season’s first run of salmon was on. The anadromous fish whose poignant journey upstream to spawn tugs at human heartstrings in a way that buoys our sense of life affirmation. At the…
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Continue reading →: Octoberfest, Part 2Autumn was no longer fooling around in the second half of October. The subtle blush of oaks, the not so subtle turning of willow leaves to gold punctuated days so crisp and clear that the extreme heat of just a couple weeks ago felt like ancient history. The Tsuchinshan comet…
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Continue reading →: Octoberfest, Part 1Shorter days, chilly mornings, and the beginnings of fall color claim early October as their habitat in time. Spring gets all the headlines for its exciting expectations of new life replacing dormancy, the arrival of colorful neo-tropical migrant birds, and a thaw that warms and loosens old joints, drawing us…
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Continue reading →: Tiny HuntersNorth America’s smallest falcons, the American Kestrel and the Merlin have made recent visits to my neighborhood. Kestrels are year round residents while Merlins only spend the winter here or migrate through. All of our falcons share jet black eyes, long, tapered wings, and a taste for small birds, although…
Welcome to Free Range Photography, a photo-journal of encounters with birds and wildlife, mostly in Humboldt County, California.
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