Belted Kingfisher, evening light

On summer days like this people will see me in the office at noon and say "Boy, I thought you'd be out in the woods looking for a critter." But photography is always about light and the light in the middle of day in the summer around here usually stinks — high, hot and harsh. Plus, most critters aren't very active in the middle of the day anyway. So I go for morning and evening hikes, or hike all day to get to a spot where the light will be nice. It will wear you out, but hey, that's life.

A couple of weeks ago I spent about a week in the Canadian Flathead, known locally as the North Fork of the Flathead. The North Fork forms the western boundary of Glacier National Park and is afforded protection under state and federal law. But in Canada, it is threatened by coal mines and coal bed methane extraction. The pollution from such mines would flow right to Glacier Park. The debate about mining the Flathead has gone on for decades. This sign, posted near the river in Canada, likely dates back to 1979 — that's when Stephen Rogers was Minister of Environment for British Columbia.

A red chipmunk eats not quite ripe serviceberries on Thursday. The park has three species of chipmunk — the least, yellow and red. The berry crop looks to be doing well. We've had a shot of rain the past of couple of days, which should help. It's good to see berries, because when the crops fail, bears start to get into trouble — namely roaming into town and campgrounds, looking for food.

I like hiking in the big woods of Glacier on cloudy days. An alternative to that horribly crowded Avalanche Lake hike is to hike from the Avalanche Lake trailhead back to Lake McDonald Lodge. the woods is sort of spooky, which is why I don't think many people go there. This shot is film, using a Leica and a tripod, the shutter speed was way slow, maybe 1/15th of a second.

Photos of bald eagles have virtually no commercial value because the birds are so common. But everytime I see one, I can't help but stop and at least try to get a picture. This one is up the North Fork of the Flathead River, taken on Sunday. Glacier has about 13 nesting pairs of bald eagles. When shooting birds, it is imperative that there's a blue sky background. Gray skies with white heads don't cut it — the head of the bird will almost disappear.

Nesting for most birds in Glacier is just about over. Here, a fledgling northern flicker takes a look at the world before it. Photo was captured using a remote camera. This bird will leave the nest shortly. I took this shot while working on the tailgate of my truck. The tailgate latch had broke (come undone) so I took it apart and fixed while waiting for the birds to do something. Just got a glimpse of something poking its head out of the nest (I was about 100 feet away) and cranked the shutter. Sometimes things work out.

Hikers head to the Hidden lake Overlook at Logan Pass on July 6, 2008. Still Plenty of snow in the high country of Glacier.


The blog has now moved "in house" so to speak. Now we're able to do it in house, cheaper and easier. This coming week includes a trip to the Canadian Flathead (The North Fork of the Flathead), to work on a photo spread. The area is threatened by coal mines and coal bed methane gas exploration. Pollutants from mines could easily impact Glacier National Park and even Flathead Lake. Should be an interesting trip.