Fur today.
Most North American wildlife photographers create images of more birds than anything else….and why not.  Birds are interesting, often colorful, and most birds are around in the light of day.  There are many magazines, calendars, books and entire organizations that exist just for birds.  Just the same, many wildlife photographers, myself included have a passion for wild mammals.  Maybe it is because we humans are also mammals.  We see a kinship in their eyes. I have pursued my love of mammal photography wherever I could,  and below are just three examples.

The raccoon is one of North America’s most common mammals.  Still we see the majority of “masked bandits”  either scurrying through the darkness, or dead on the road.  Every so often we photographers get a good clean daytime opportunity at these nocturnal critters.

I spotted this one well up Federal Dike Rd. at Horicon Marsh NWR here in Wisconsin. It was straight ahead of me and seeing as I did not want to shoot through my windshield, I immediately got out with camera and 500mm f4 lens.   I took my pillow/window pod with me.  The angle was awkward so I gave it up and returned to my car.  While I slowly drove towards my friend I changed my 500mm lens to a 75-300mm zoom.  As I began making pictures I realized that my distance was perfect for my 105mm macro.  One of the best lenses I have ever owned, this glass has served me well for macros, landscapes and close-up wildlife. It is always exciting to be privileged to work up close with any animal.

I love photographing small mammals.  I got my first Black-tailed Prairie Dog pictures in the late 1970s when I lived in Colorado.  They were residing in my horse pasture, and my images (on 35mm color print film) with a 200mm lens were dubious at best.  I have made my share of PD shots since that time and below you find a young White-tailed Prairie Dog.  This is also from Colorado in 2007.  I was spending two weeks in Colorado’s mountains and I managed to visit Arapaho NWR on four occasions.  There were some of these “pinto” appearing dogs that became so familiar to me that I could tell one ( Herman I believe) from the other. All of the PD pix made on this visit were from my car.  Not because of my comfort but they were so comfortable with my presence that their behavior was literally unaffected.  With large populations of coyotes, hawks and Golden Eagles in this area, they were always on guard.

This was a very good morning for coyotes.  Ron and I were in Yellowstone N.P. and this is one of three coyotes seen and photographed within a few miles and maybe 60 minutes of time.  This one was hunting and it sort of circled the car making imagery difficult.  I got out of the car (75-300mm) and fired this one at 300.  Before I was done he walked so close to me I was shooting at 75mm.  None of the coyotes made a successful hunt while we were present, but a cooperative animal in pretty light was a nice treat just the same.

To all of you in the U.S., I wish you a fine Independence Day.  Let us always remember what it means.

“I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of taking care of them.”

Thomas Jefferson