Here are my favorite mammal photos taken in 2019. It was a pretty good year for locating and photographing the “four-leggeds.”

I call this the “Group Back Rub.” This is from October when Ryan and I were enroute to Yellowstone. I took this while we were waiting for a Burrowing Owl to poke its head out of a prairie dog hole. Let’s just say that Ryan doesn’t appreciate prairie dogs or their high level of cuteness. If its his turn to drive, I really have to plead for him to stop for a prairie dog colony. I love photographing them and their antics.

Due to the deep snows and cold temps of the winter of 2018-19, many critters had a tough time finding food. At least 9 Bobcats were seen in the Sax-Zim Bog including a mom with 2 young. This was likely one of the young who camped out at a road-killed deer (note ribs in background). Bobcats are gorgeous and cute at the same time. A flash helped make this image Uber-sharp on a heavy overcast day.

This is the start of the snowstorm that closed Yellowstone down for 36 hours at the start of our time in the park. These three ruled the road between Madison and West Yellowstone.

While guiding a group from Outward Bound along the Warren Woessner Bog Boardwalk at the Warren Nelson Memorial Bog, this little guy popped out of a snow burrow and immediately emerged from a nearby hole. They are unbelievably fast critters! They hunt voles in their subnivean tunnels (their long thin body shape helps in this pursuit) but also feed on carcasses.

Ermine is the name for Least Weasel, Long-tailed Weasel and Short-tailed Weasel when in their winter white coat (this is a Short-tailed Weasel).

He stayed still for approximately 1.5 seconds but I was able to snap off a couple shots. It will be in the MN Conservation Volunteer magazine next month.

Something a bit different…an image from a zoo of a mama Baboon gently grooming her baby. Just darn cute!

This is a real “mammal in the landscape” photo. But I think it works because of the Red Fox looks sharp with the red of the willows, both of which contrast with the white of the symmetrical aspens.

Arriving in Teddy Roosevelt National Park we were greeted with this young Mule Deer buck browsing on some roadside shrubs. An early October snowstorm provided the backdrop.

Not a great photo…so why is it included here? Because it was the first Canada Lynx I’ve seen in the daylight…and I got some images! I lucked into this mellow cat up in the Superior National Forest in late March and got to spend a few minutes with it as it sauntered through the forest, then sat for a while before moving on in its never-ending search for Snowshoe Hares.

Read more and see the video HERE

Sometimes trying to predict where a wild animal might intersect with our own path pays off. We saw this Grizzly making its way across the North Fork of the Shoshone River just outside Yellowstone. She went into the woods so we moved up the road to a pullout and waited. And, believe it or not, she came out of the woods and headed in our direction. But it was not us she wanted to investigate, but rather a stand of Wild Rose whose hips were in full ripeness. It was a joy to watch her delicately plucking the fruits from the bush a couple at a time. Not once did she look in our direction, and when she was filled, she moved off.

Read more of this story HERE

On may way to photograph Loons one early summer morning I stumbled across a trio of romping Red Fox pups. I stayed with them for nearly an hour and enjoyed their antics. The loons could wait.

It seemed that only two would wrestle at a time, never all three. I took many photos and quite a bit of video.

This mellow Red Fox tolerated my presence for about 10 minutes as it hunted for voles along a minimum maintenance road and a farm field in the Sax-Zim Bog. Occasionally it would hear the sound of a vole under the crusty snow; its ears would rotate forward towards the sound, it would then rock back on its haunches, then launch high into the air to get enough force to break through the crusty snow to get a the vole.

Pine Martens LOOOVE peanut butter! And suet. And carcasses. So they are occasionally attracted to bird feeding stations in the Sax-Zim Bog. They use this food to supplement their normal diet of Ruffed Grouse, voles and squirrels. There were at least two, and possibly three coming to this feeder. They ignored the nearby birders and photographers for the most part. It is ALWAYS a treat to see these guys.

As a wildlife photographer, I am sometimes as excited when my friends get amazing or difficult shots as when I do. Oh sure, there is the twinge of jealousy, but if we put enough time and effort into the job, we all get our turn. So today I’d like to show you some fantastic shots two of my friends got this week.

Lloyd Davis is one of the few out-of-state birders who has a.) found their own Boreal Owl (!) and b.) seen and photographed a wild Canada Lynx. Lloyd’s a biologist from Gainesville, Florida but he grew up in Maine. Last year I guided Lloyd and his buddies on a birding trip and we found a very cooperative Great Gray Owl. This year he brought his two daughters and a grand daughter…all from Maine…to see and experience Northern Minnesota’s birds, scenery and wildlife.

And obviously they had very good luck! While driving up in northern Lake County Minnesota, along Hwy 15/11 one morning (last Monday) they spotted two Timber Wolves along the road. Then, not 45 minutes later, they spotted a Canada Lynx sauntering out from the woods to the road edge. They stopped, kept the car running and watched. The first thing the cat did was sit down…”to check out the situation, like many cats do…almost as if its hind end is too heavy and the Lynx needed a break,” Lloyd observed. And that’s when he was able to fire off a dozen or more photos with his Canon.

Look at those paws! Now those are “snowshoes!” No wonder they can float over deep snow in pursuit of the other snowshoe-bearer…the Snowshoe Hare. Their head looks relatively small in comparison. Long legs, huge paws, long ear tufts and overall size help distinguish this cat from the much smaller Bobcat.

This area of Lake County is the core of the Lynx population in Minnesota, but very few folks ever see them. I’ve only seen one in my life and that was late at night in the headlights while doing owl surveys with Dave Benson up in Cook County.

Lloyd’s photos are some of the best ever taken of a wild Canada Lynx in Minnesota. They rank right up there with Jason Mandich’s which were taken near here and published in the Minnesota Conservation Volunteer last year. Nice job Lloyd! (p.s. I won’t tell you that this was taken with a point-and-shoot! It just goes to show that the best camera is the one you have when the decisive moment is upon you)

After a recent image of a Gray Fox (at night) that I surprisingly captured with a trail camera up in the Sax-Zim Bog, my friend Karl Bardon emailed me that he’d seen a Gray Fox regularly coming to a friends feeder on the North Shore of Lake Superior. These smaller cousins of the Red Fox are becoming more common in northeastern Minnesota. So I stopped over to see if this dainty canine would make it five nights in a row that it showed up at dusk. Nope. I jinxed it. Oh well, Karl got some very nice shots of this gorgeous critter.

Note the shorter snout, dainty face and feet (their tracks are tiny…almost house cat size), beautiful grizzled/mottled fur and the black tip on the tail (can’t see in this photo) (Red Fox always have a white tip…even if in the “Cross Fox” or “Silver Fox” morphs). Karl and I were both surprised by how colorful and “non-gray” these canines are.

Congrats to both Lloyd and Karl on capturing some elusive North Woods critters! I know it motivates me to get out more often and try my luck.