Here are a few of my favorite photos I captured in 2018. One I really like is the one below of an interaction between a Northern Harrier and a Red-tailed Hawk. At the beginning of the walk around Diamond Creek pond in Reno, NV, I saw 2 hawks interacting and my first reaction was to bring up my camera and start shooting.
This fall migration through the Nevada Great Basin this year product some rare birds especially in the Las Vegas area. The Great Basin has desert traps that attract migrants so I decided to spend a couple days on the road traveling from Reno to Las Vegas. I ended near the California border in an town off highway 15 call Primm.
The last couple of days at my Palouse Landscape Workshop with Nick Page a cold front came in resulting in rain showers and better yet clouds. On the last sunset shoot, we were back at Steptoe Butte and as the sun went down we returned to the lone tree.
We took a charter flight from Anadyr, Russia to Nome, Alaska. At the Anadyr airport we were met by very serious officials taking at least 5 minute to review our documents and about 15 for Debbi Shearwater. We made it out of Russian air space and within 2 hours we landed in Nome. As we went through customs, we met the director of the Nome Visitor's Center and he mentioned that there was a rare bird seen at Point Nome, which was about 15 minute south of town.
We landed at Meynypilgyno, which is the research and conservation facility that strive to save the Spoon-billed Sandpiper. We did seen the Sandpipers but it was not anything like my first encounter. It was nice to see some of the wintering North American bird in full breeding plumage. As we traveled along the coast we had a great flyby of a Red-throated Loon.
