Exploring Nature by Sheila Newenham
Indigenous people who live alongside coyotes always knew. They call them “the trickster”. Also known as song dogs, coyotes are one of the most adaptable mammals we share space with. Smart. Wily, even! wily /wī′lē/ adjective Full of wiles, tricks, or stratagems; using craft or … Continue readingBeau Geste: Wily Coyotes
Rock Rabbits: The cutest alpine residents I hear them before I see them. The high-pitched chirps and squeaks float out of the rock scree. The sounds can be mistaken for birdsong or chipmunk alarms. Pikas’ mottled gray-tan coats camouflage perfectly with the talus (large, broken … Continue readingHaystacking Pikas
This used to be a crowded tourist destination for observing wild foxes, sparked by Kevin Ebi’s dramatic, viral 2018 photographs. Since then, there’s been a lot of drama around the foxes here. Red foxes, despite being the most widespread nonhuman land mammal in the world, … Continue readingSan Juan Island Foxes
I don’t know what I expected from a sandy spit of coral thirty miles off the coast of Belize, but it wasn’t this! This lush thirteen-and-a-half-acre island is a vibrant, flourishing, diverse patch of nature. What a week! Atoll: A ring-shaped island, including a coral … Continue readingA Week on Glover’s Reef Atoll
With varying degrees of hope, I commonly say that I’m going to find wild cats when I head into the wild with my camera. And so it was that I excitedly shared this cougar alert post from Waterton National Park just a few days before … Continue readingGhost Cat Revealed
If he’s wooing, he could use some pointers.It’s dusky at the end of the day as I’m driving to my home for the night. When the mountains meet the prairie, cattle ranches and fields artfully adorned with round bales of hay become the backdrop. So, … Continue readingWooing or Shooing? A Moose Encounter
This morning, as sunlight begins to stream over the horizon and hazy shadows take form, I’m watching the puma Petaka. She and her two 15-month-old kittens are taking turns feeding on a guanaco kill. When one cat moves off to groom and nap, another moves … Continue readingThe Puma Petaka
First Sighting The warm light of the rising sun casts everything – the grasses, the guanaco, the puma – in the same golden glow. I know there’s a lion on the hillside 50 yards away. A guide with two guests are watching her as I … Continue readingPumas of Patagonia
Chilean Patagonia is made of mountains, glaciers, and sea-level fjords. It has the world’s largest flying bird and odd flightless birds. There are flamingoes and grey zorro foxes that aren’t actually foxes. It’s tectonic plates and salty lakes. It’s guanacos and sheep grazing the grasslands. … Continue readingChilean Patagonia
You Find What You Need Last fall, I went to commune with bears and lose myself in the wilderness. I enjoy the wild locations as much as the wildlife. This trip brought something unexpected but just as valuable. We’re watching bears from a jet boat … Continue readingBear Viewing by Boat