I watched him for a while. It was behavior I had not seen in a Mobile July. The squirrel was stripping bark off the cedar’s trunk, gathering a bundle in his mouth, and disappearing into the top of the tree. It was energetic nest-building at its squirrelish finest. He made over a dozen trips to my delight and the tree groomer’s dismay.

It was early November on the planes west of Denver in the Rocky Mountain Arsenal preserve. Like their fathers before them, the herd foraged peacefully as I watched a modern version of very old history.

The menacing look follows a seagull who buzzed this American Bald Eagle on his hunting perch in the Mobile Bay estuary. I was in the right place at the right time that evening.

The elegant Great White Egret is a beautiful subject for a southern camera. This one was hunting about thirty feet from my hide. I saw it pause and peer into the water. As it moved, I triggered a shutter burst that captured this prize. The interesting part was watching it get the fish off its beak.

Coden, Alabama, is as far south as possible without getting wet. It was an early spring sunset, and the Spanish moss in the live oaks was on fire—true south.

This delicate foxglove plant begged the camera with a pose on a quiet spring afternoon in the Mobile Botanic Garden. The plant yields a clinically effective compound that positively treats cardiac issues, but that day, it simply added beauty to a reflective moment.

This is the Duluth ship channel light on the western end of Lake Superior in late fall. The combination of weather, light, and wear makes for a dramatic image. It remains the marker for hundreds of lake freighters looking for a port in the storm.

It is as iconic as it gets…a Green Line streetcar on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans on a wet winter morning. What memories of a fascinating city!

The Port of Mobile on a peaceful spring night. The tender boat was returning to station after assisting a container ship into her loading berth. The ship repair yards were still and quiet. It was a nice, calm wrap to the day.

Ospreys, sometimes called “fish eagles,” are common in the Gulf Coast region. These magnificent raptors are awesome to watch as they dive into the water and emerge, pulling themselves and their catch into the air with massive wings. This male was returning to the nest on Mobile Bay with a meal for his mate and their fledgling.

Arlington Park in Mobile on an October dawn is always a magical place…light, water, shoreline…and an early departure container ship making its way out of port to the open sea and parts unknown.

A December full moon over Mobile. I took the shot from my driveway with a 400 mm lens on a tripod. The possibility of capturing such an image still amazes me.