Stan Tekiela

For whatever reason, people love certain wild animal species. They have a universal appeal, resulting in admiration across the masses. For example, many folks are obsessed with owls. Any kind of owl. Big ones, small ones, it really doesn’t matter.
The same can be said for a group of mammals, the otters. For whatever reason, everyone seems to love otters. This was on full display last week while I was leading a photographic tour of bald eagles and sea otters in Alaska.

I find the variations and diversity in the wild to be the special ingredient underpinning the strength of Mother Nature. This was abundantly clear last week when I was in Florida, watching a specific variation of the Eastern fox squirrel (Sciurus niger).
I’d found the Sherman’s fox squirrel (Sciurus niger shermani) that occurs only in a handful of places in Florida and a couple of other states.

Stone-cold killer predators come in all shapes and sizes in the natural world. We often think of large, menacing critters with long, sharp claws and razor-sharp teeth as predators and don’t give a second thought to small carnivores. Maybe because some of these small predators are borderline cute. Well, that’s what makes them so cool.
I was thinking about this a week or so ago while photographing an adorable tiny owl.

Nature is fluid and adaptive. Once you wrap your head around that simple truth, answering some of nature’s questions becomes easier.
For example, every few years, several bird species such as the common redpoll, pine siskin, evening grosbeak and others move out of their normal winter ranges and into other areas to seek food. This group of birds is usually referred to as the “winter finches,” and this mass movement of a group of birds is called an “irruption.”

Often when we view nature, we assume that everything in a critter’s life is smooth and easy. No major challenges – just a clean, natural way of life devoid of the stress that we humans expect. I think such assumptions miss the mark. I was thinking about this while editing images from a recent tour to New Mexico.

Recently, I was leading two birding groups to northern Minnesota to see winter finches and northern owls. On both trips, we were successful in seeing a number of different winter specialty species, including at least one great gray.
The great gray owl is the tallest owl species, but it is not the heaviest or most powerful of North American owls.