Snowy Owls have been popping up all over the lower 48 states this winter, with even one reported in Hawaii for the first time! Here in Montana one of the best places to view these stunning birds is in Polson, an hour north of Missoula.

The snake didn’t move quickly, but rather froze in the hopes that its cryptic olive-green pattern would conceal it. When I touched the snake with a stick, it took on an entirely different strategy – inflating itself to expose the brightly colored skin between its scales. An action that screams WARNING! to those nearby.

Side-striped Chameleon (Chamaeleo bitaeniatus) – Kibale National Park, Uganda – Africa Chameleons are one of my favorite photography subjects for many reasons. Firstly, their overall look is striking with the eyes moving independently and their color changing before your eyes. Secondly, they’re slow moving behavior means photographing them relatively easy compared to some terrestrial lizards [...]

  Butterfly photos from Kibale National Park, Uganda – Africa Uganda holds an astonishing 1200+ species of butterflies. Compare this to North America’s 650 species or United Kingdom’s 50 species, and it is clear how impressive a number this is. Of course that is comparing an equatorial region to a temperate seasonal climate with a [...]

  White Rhino Photos – Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, Uganda On my mother’s first day in Uganda we headed for the Budongo Forest where we’d track chimpanzees among old growth mahogany trees. On rout we passed a sign for the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, which I’d heard of but didn’t know much about. Since there are no [...]

Mabamba Swamp Bird Photos – Entebbe, Uganda On a recent trip to Entebbe to pick my mother up from the airport I stopped at the Mabamba Swamp to try for another shoebill sighting. Mabamba is located across the bay from the Entebbe airport, but to get there is at least an hour from Entebbe on [...]

African Wood Owl Photos – Kibale National Park, Uganda There was a woman here surveying for moths at night. This is done by using a bright light to attract the moths and then cataloging the species. The interesting thing was many animals began keying into this bounty of moths attracted to the lights. The baboons [...]

  Fort Portal High-dynamic-range – Uganda One a recent trip to town I passed an hour by walking around and trying a few High-dynamic-range images on the main roads in town. I’d like to expand on some of these photos and target some of the main features in town. For now, these images give a [...]

  Birds of Semliki Game Reserve, Uganda – Africa The Semliki Game Reserve is located at the south end of Lake Albert in western Uganda. It sits within a large valley walled in by east and west rift escarpments and the northern part of the Ruwenzori Mountains. It is a unique area for birds with [...]

  Tree Pangolin – Kibale National Park, Uganda 10:30pm and there is a not on the door. I get out of bed and I hear David, a PhD student researching golden cats, announcing that he has something to show me. I open the door to find a dinosaur looking creature clawing the concrete at my [...]

  Batwa Pygmies of Ntandi Village – Semliki National Park, Uganda – Africa Uganda is home to a remnant population of pygmies. These are people who’ve traditionally lived as hunter-gatherers along equatorial Africa and Southeast Asia. They are called pygmies because their short stature rarely tops 150cm or just under 5ft. There are various theories [...]

Marabou Stork Photos, Uganda – Africa Marabou storks are iconic in any of Uganda’s human settlements. Nesting in tiny trees between Kampala’s busy streets to a remote safari camp’s trash pit; there will no doubt be one of these giants picking through the human refuse. Of course you’ll get pied crows and other smaller sparrows [...]

African Openbill Photos – Semliki Game Reserve, Uganda – Africa This is an interesting species because, as the name implies, there is a large opening in its bill, which it uses to extract the meat from snails and bivalves.  The bill is evolved to sever the muscle that holds a snail inside its shell, allowing [...]

  Grey-headed Kingfisher With Prey – Semliki Game Reserve, Uganda – Africa I spotted this grey-headed kingfisher flying through the bush carrying a tropical house gecko in its beak and I knew it must be headed for a nest. The campsite where we were staying was right along the shores of Lake Albert in the [...]

  Shoebill Stork (Balaeniceps rex) Photos – Lake Albert, Uganda – Africa What do you get when you combine a pelican with a stork? A shoebill! Sort of… This is a monotypic bird, meaning it belongs to its own family. Recent work has found the shoebill is probably closer to pelicans than any other species. [...]