Adventures with Duck

So I have been at my brothers house for about Three weeks waiting on getting my car fixed, its a much longer story than I am willng to type here today, so I will get on with the Crossbills. Here in Centeral Oregon there is the Red Crossbill. I don't know why they call it the Red Crossbill. The male is more Orange than Red and the female is a yellow green color. You will see why they are called "Crossbills" in the photos to follow. I had been seeing a female coming to the bird bath a few times and getting a drimk from the water bucket thats on the fence line. Then Yesterday I went with my Sister to the Metolius river and took a hike down the trail along the river bank. I caught sight of a small bird perched on a water spicket, when I got it in my camera lens it was another female Crossbill. Then I seen that there were more on the ground and moved to a better spot to shoot from. Sure enough there was a male with them. See, orange not red! cool looking an...

Most of you know that I am moving from Washington back to Oregon after I retired on 4/30/25. But what you may not know is I haven't made it to my new place yet. I made it as far as my Brothers place and my car broke down. It took some work but I have finaly got it in the shop. Thank goodness for extended warrenty. I am just waiting to hear what all is needed to be done. I the mean time I have the privilege of being right next to a forest, and what is in a forest? Thats right TREES... I know, I know, wildlife and I have added now 7 new birds to my life list, bringing my total now to 174. Today Mrs Ali dropped me off at Cold Springs Campground so I could get some photos and do some hiking. I was there to try to get some bird photos, but with all the wind and the Mushroom pickers I wasn't able to get but one bird and heres its picture. But there were Squirrels, Three different types to be exact. I will put them in order but there will be more than one of eac...

So I have finally taken the jump into retirement. My feet have pushed me into doing this, but I am ready. My last day at work was yesterday (at the time of writing this post) Today and the next few days will be sorting and packing. Then I will head for Oregon which will be my new home. I will be stopping by my brothers place for a few days. He has a project he wants some help with. I like working with him we get shit done as it should be. Then he and I will head to the new place to hang my hat. He knows all the cool spots down there to fish, and if its a good place to fish that means its a good place for wildlife.... That ticks the two best boxes of my world. Now I know I haven't posted on here in a long while, but that was by design. I have been out taking pictures like crazy and have tons to share on here, but not knowing when I will have time to get out when I first get moved I wanted to have plenty of backup content. Over the next week I may not post again as I will...

As the title states, the queen of the grizzlies, grizzly 399 has passed. She was struck by a car yesterday and did not survive. She was 28 years young, which is actually quite the advanced age for a Grizzly in the wild. I first photographed her in 2020 on my first ever trip to the greater Yellowstone area. She had 4 Cubs that year and I was lucky enough to catch her and the Cubs while they were still young. Over the years I made at least one trip a year to photograph her. I wasn't always successful, (She obviously didn't get the memo that i was coming over to see her.) My first trip to Yellowstone this year I was able to catch her and her Cub Spirit at the side of the road, which she was famous for doing. That was on my birthday and that day was the best day of wildlife photography ever.Here are the last photos I took of her. Not being able to photograph 399 again is a real let down, but is one I have been preparing for with her advanced age. The last few year...

Day one in Yellowstone wasn't a big bear day. (Not that day two was either) I seen one Black Bear cub and couldn't get a good photo of it as I was stopped on the road with no where to pull over. I snapped a quick shot of it in the shade as it was walking away from me. Not worth posting the photo of so I wont. (see how I am) Day two I seen two count them TWO Black Bears. One was petty far away but the photos turned out okay-iish so I will post one for the first photo of this blog. see if you can find it. The second one was much, much closer and I was able to get some really good shots of it eating Ants, Termites and or Grubs. (I wasn't that close to see what it was eating) It tore into a log at one point and was digging in the ground as well as walking along logs and eating something. Now the Title of this post is me naming something "Shaggy" It was this Bear. One look at it and you'll know why I named it that. I don't know if its a male or female, its y...