Time to look back at a few of my favorite images from 2019.  These may not always be my “best” images from the year but they are special to me for various reasons that I will comment on below.  In no special order:

1.  Jaguar

Five of my favorite images for the year were captured during our November trip to the Pantanal in Brazil.  Here we have a lovely female jaguar.  You had me with that look, but with the crossed paws?  I’m done….

2.  Giant River Otter

Another shot from the Pantanal. With this shot I finally managed to get an image of a giant river otter doing what they do best — eat fish.  Great eye contact from both the otter and the fish and I love how you can see how beautiful the armored catfish is.  And this is one the few images where there was no obstruction — I have hundreds of images of otters with grass, sticks, leaves, etc. blocking the view.  I shot this image on the LAST outing on the LAST day of the trip!  You just never know…

3. Green Kingfisher

Continuing with images from the Pantanal.  On this trip I managed to get two very nice images of kingfishers.  Here is the first of a green kingfisher.  I love the colors and that clean background.  Such a gorgeous bird.

4.  American Pygmy Kingfisher

I love the “other worldly” look of this image of the American Pygmy kingfisher — the 2nd really nice kingfisher shot that I got from the Pantanal this year.  You might not imagine it, but photographing a tiny bird, on a moving boat is exhausting.  Hundreds of images later, finally one that worked.

5.  Toco Tucan

This is the last image on the list from the Pantanal trip.  I just love the colors of this bird – amazing!  Toucans are more common in southern Pantanal — we were in the north so getting an image of this incredible bird was totally unexpected.  We only had two, very brief sightings during the entire trip and I was only able to fire off a few shots before the birds vanished each time.  These birds never stopped moving, jumping from branch to branch, while trying to approach and shoot from a small moving boat – yikes!  It was hard to even find the find the birds in the view finder let alone compose a good shot.  Sometimes you get lucky…

6.  Red Fox

The rest of the images are from the good ol’ USA.  In 2019 I got my first worthwhile images of red foxes.  Here we see a female bringing back a rabbit for her kits at the den.  Yes this is a red fox – they have several color morphs that include black, brown, silver, etc.

7.  Barn Owl

My first image of a barn owl!!  This image was captured before sunrise.  See more here.

8.  Short-eared Owl

This image is bittersweet.  Each winter I could count on seeing short-eared owls in this amazing habitat north of Seattle.  But no longer – the fields were flooded over in 2019 to create a salmon habitat.  (Was the same place I saw the barn owl).

9.  Savannah Sparrow

In 2019 I managed to add a few images to my Sparrow/Tulip series.  Savannah Sparrow in Yellow.  You can see a red version here (4th image from the top).

10.  Moose

In 2019 I made my first trip to Grand Teton NP and captured this lovely fall image of a moose.  I plan to go back to the Grand Tetons this winter so hopefully we will see more images from this park on the 2020 list…

11. Ponytail Falls

I made a quick weekend trip to the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon in 2019 and came away with two nice shots.  The first was this lovely autumn scene:

12.  Wreck of the Peter Iredale

The other nice shot from that weekend was captured along the Oregon coast.  In 1906 a steel ship called the Peter Iredale ran aground here.  By sheer luck I was there on a day when the tide was low at sunset allowing me to shoot next to the wreck.

Have a favorite?  Which one(s) do you like best?

 

I can’t wait to see what Mother Nature will share with me in 2020!

 

Happy New Year!