Lucky Late in Life

05/25/2026

A mama Baboon with her little. We watched this mama baboon nurse and comfort her baby so tenderly. There is nothing like the bond of mother and child . Taken on Mother’s Day at a Lake Nakuru in Kenya.

10/11/2023

Susan & I just celebrated our 34th anniversary with a short, 4 day weekend in the Grand Tetons. Many memories to come…

06/21/2023

Great morning hiking with Susan, Caden, and Danny!

04/28/2023

We have reached 200 followers! Thank you for your continued support. We could not have done it without each of you. 🙏🤗🎉

02/23/2023

02/23/2023

Beneath the yellow-brown grasses of a fallow field, a world exist that is rarely seen. Meadow voles, voracious in appetite, gnawing tunnels for food and for perceived safety, scamper around on high alert. After all it isn’t easy being dark brown in a world of khaki colored fauna. But it isn’t motion, coloring, or smells that will cause this poor creature to become dinner, it is sounds. The sound of a reed rustling. Perhaps it was a small squeal or a labored breath. Because death drifts above, on silent wings, listening.

The Northern Harrier, or as it is often called, the Marsh Hawk, has a highly specialized body with many traits found in owls. Although the two are not related, these specialized features work nearly the same. Perhaps the most distinctive feature is the ring of feathers almost completely circling their face. This facial disk helps channel sound to their large ears, hidden beneath these feathers. Each ear canal is large, approximately the same diameter as their eyes. The ear canal is slightly “conched” to increase the hearing capacity.

Once the sound is heard, the harrier will spin in an awkwardly acrobatic swoop and drop soundlessly from above onto the helpless vole or shrew. Their long, slender legs slip easily between the grasses and brush and seize their prey. It is mercifully quick.

On the second picture we have arrows pointing to the specialized feathers and to the fleshy part of the beak called the cere. it is hypothesized that the cere has UV qualities seen by birds to indicate their health, willingness to mate and even their s*x. Fascinating creatures.