Category: readers’ wildlife videos

Readers’ wildlife photos (and video)

August 20, 2026 • 8:16 am

The Jason Arday mess his died down (I hope), there’s not much news save the U.S. national debt is pushing 40 TRILLION dollars, so now is a good time for some restful and beautiful wildlife photos.

Today we present part 2 of the photos that Bruce Lyon of UC Santa Cruz posted; the photos were taken during his field work in Alaska on birds. (Part 1 is here.). There’s one video at the beginning.  Bruce’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Here’s Bruce’s introduction to the last part, and I forgot to put the video in. This time it’s here:

I spent the summer researching songbirds on St Paul Island, one of the Pribilof Islands way out in the Bering Sea in Alaska. On a few different days I took a break from our study of songbirds to enjoy the fabulous seabirds. St. Paul is famous for it seabirds and a lot of naturalists visit the island to see several seabirds that are endemic to the Bering Sea. By my count, 13 species of seabirds breed on St Paul.

Here is a video to give a sense of the seabird cliffs. At some of the best cliffs one can see most of the seabird species at at single location.

Bruce added this:

The video shows Ridge Wall, a favorite with naturalists and photographers because several species are easily observed at eye level from a fairly close distance. The trumpeting noises are murres.

And today’s photos:

Thick-billed murre (Uria lomvia) with its penguin-like plumage. Murres are completely unrelated to penguins but a relative of the murres, the great auk, did give its name to the penguins. Apparently the Welsh called great auks pen gwyn and the name was given to the lookalike penguins by early south polar explorers:

Murre eggs are hypervariable for individual recognition and some individuals have particularly gorgeous eggs. This murre has the prettiest of the colors—bright turquoise:

Common murre (Uria aalge). This species lacks the white line on the beak and is browner than thick-bills. In some lighting they almost look coppery:

Common murre trying to land in a strong upblast:

We even had a dovekie (Alle alle), extremely rare for St Paul Island. These are convergent with least auklets (tiny) but come from the murre lineage in the auks, not the auklets:

Black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla), a small cliff-nesting gull. When I took the kittiwake photos below it was very windy and the kittiwakes were playing in the updrafts. They would sit in one place and spin around like tops and sometimes even flip upside down. I love the bright orange mouth-lining and tongue, both of which are prominently displayed when the birds are screaming (which is most of the time).

Red-legged kittiwake (Rissa brevirostris), another Bering Sea endemic. Note the very short legs; the beak is shorter than in black-legged. 90% of the world’s population of red-legged kittiwakes breeds on nearby St George Island:

Kittiwakes use mud and wet vegetation to build their nests on the cliffs:

And kittiwakes build pretty substantial nests, plastered onto the rock so the nest does not fall off and plunge into the sea. Red-leggeds prefer sites that are tucked under overhangs:

A gathering of both species of kittiwakes on a beam in the harbor:

A glaucous-winged gull (Larus glaucescens) nest, apparently the first successful nest of this species on St Paul Island although they have bred on nearby islands:

Head shot of one of the parents. Close ups of gull heads show that gulls are rather nice birds. Gull species differ in the color of the iris and the fleshy eyering:

The aptly named and permanently embarrassed red-faced cormorant (Urile urile). Endemic to the Bering Sea:

A couple of red-faced cormorants with a nice rock arch and nesting seabirds in the background:

Duck update: videos

August 8, 2026 • 9:15 am

Today we have mostly videos of the ducks (I’m waiting for my photos to transfer to a new computer, and changing computers is always a horror). Photos will be coming. But in many ways the videos (about 1 minute each) give you a better idea of what the ducklings are like.

In short, the four ducklings are peachy, and growing very fast! You’ll see from the videos and two photos below that they have just started growing feathers on their tails, on their little stubby wings, and on their sides. In about ten days they’ll be in their awkward, scruffy teenage stage: half duckling, half adult. But I love them all.  They are fat, happy (I think), and lively, and Miss Duck is taking great care of them. But look for yourself:

The caption of this video tells the tail; it’s the end of their mealtime when they get freeze-dried mealworms as dessert. That is their favorite nosh. Miss Duck looks on, supervising but also eating on her own. When ducklings are around, she always ensures that they eat before she does. She’s a great mom.

After a meal the family often repairs to what I call the Sacred Rocks, a place where they can nap and preen in the shade. Miss Duck is always watching over the brood, usually from above:

Sometimes they repair to another rock: a flat one at the north end of Botany Pond. This is quite close to a pair of benches where people sit to watch them (as well as the turtles, who occupy the rocks when the ducks are absent).

The caption:

Look at this fat little duckling, crop distended with food! (I feed them well.) His/her little black foot is sticking out, like duckling yoga. In the past two or three days, their feet have changed color from black to the adult orange. Botany Pond, the University of Chicago, August 6, 2026

Here’s the caption I gave this video. Be sure to listen for Miss Duck’s soft quacks meaning “Go away, turtle.”

Miss Duck does not like turtles, though they are harmless to her and her brood. My guess is that she has an instinct to avoid them, as in the wild some turtles, like snappers, can hurt or kill ducklings. You can hear her quack from time to time as a response to the red-eared slider sharing this rock. (The brood pays turtles no mind.) Botany Pond, The University of Chicago, August 6, 2026.

The caption:

The ducklings love to dabble (root around) in the dirt, especially in the plant pots whose contents have died. (The ducks do not eat the plants.) Here you can see their feathers developing, mostly on their stubby little wings, as patches of brown. Their tails are getting feathers, too, and resemble little paintbrushes. Botany Pond, the University of Chicago, August 7, 2026.

Here’s one shot showing the incipient feathers. It’s so exciting: they’re not even three weeks old. I think they’re past the vulnerable stage now, which makes me happy. Can you see the tiny brown feathers on their wings and on their sides? Notice also the orange feet.

Finally, I noticed that when I was feeding the brood from the bridge, a sparrow was picking up little duck food pellets and broken mealworms, feeding them to her importuning baby. Life is burgeoning at the pond.

Readers’ wildlife photos and videos

July 17, 2026 • 8:15 am

Today we have photos and videos of the California intertidal taken by math professor Abby Thompson of UC Davis. Her captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Just a few more great low tides for the summer. By August the kelp is so lush, it becomes harder to find interesting creatures, so I’m enjoying June and July.  These photos were taken during the full moon at the end of June.

Amblyosyllis anae (marine worm- it seems to be a summer of worms). This genus is relatively rare (or at least hard to find) here.   I had picked up a piece of sponge to look at under a microscope, and this guy crawled out, so I was lucky.  It was about ¼” long, and lively, as you can see in the video which follows.

Amblyosyllis anae video:

Megalorchestia corniculata (beach flea)- part of the beach clean-up crew.

Dirona picta (nudibranch):

Genus Eudendrium (hydroid):

Class Hydrozoa; this is the medusa (baby jellyfish) form of a hydroid, possibly of the Eudendrium in the previous picture (they were in the same dish). I don’t know what the yellow blob it’s attached to is; in the video following you can see it trying to detach itself:

Hydrozoa video:

Family Phoronidae– yet another type of marine worm, a “horseshoe worm”:

Genus Haliclona (sponge) – it takes an expert and/or a microscope to determine species for sponges. This type is very widespread, and a great color:

Ancula pacifica (tiny nudibranch):

Dendraster excentricus (Sand dollar) This is the “test” (internal skeleton) of a kind of flattened sea urchin. The live urchins stay below the low tide line, and they live in big clusters, sometimes propped up perpendicular to the sand.      Sort-of like the drawing of the oysters in Lewis Carroll’s “The Walrus and the Carpenter”, but underwater, and without the little shoes.

Mussel tracks- not tracks, of course, but for some reason mussels release droplets (presumably seawater?) when they’re exposed at low tide:

Anthopleura artemisia (moonglow anemone):

Moonset over Tomales Point. Moonset on June 30 was just before sunrise, making for some cool lighting:

Readers’ wildlife videos

July 7, 2026 • 8:15 am

UC Davis math prof Abby Thompson usually contributes photos of the California intertidal, but today she sends us five mammal videos from her house. Abby’s captions are indented.

In a brief departure from tidepools, I bring the results of our recent trailcam experiment.     A few posts ago I mentioned that something had excavated a major tunnel system under our front yard in Northern California, with multiple large entrances.     We installed a trailcam to try to discover what it was and spent about six weeks collecting endless short videos of grasses waving in the wind, plus various deer body parts.     We decided that probably the tunnels had been abandoned and were losing hope.  But in the last few weeks (the grass got mowed, and the settings got adjusted), things picked up on the trailcam.

On 6/17 we captured a striped skunk, Mephitis mephitis, which, though charming,  was our least-favorite choice for tunnel builder :

 

Next on 6/20 a raccoon, Procyon lotor, turned up:

and then on 6/21 a black-tailed jackrabbit, Lepus californicus:

 

Really exciting, on 6/25 a bobcat, Lynx rufus strolled by:

 

And you’d have thought that was more than we could’ve hoped for, but on 6/28, we saw this:

Taxidea taxus, the American badger!  Although I still feel like I’ve never seen a wild badger in person, this was pretty close.     I don’t know if the badger really was responsible for the tunnels, but I’m happy he visited.

The camera: Fargarloo solar powered Trail Camera.

Readers’ wildlife photos and videos

June 27, 2026 • 8:30 am

Today’s photos and videos come from reader/physicist/origami master Robert Lang in California. Robert’s captions are indented, and you can enlarge the two DUCK photographs by clicking on them.

The creek named Arroyo Seco runs from Red Box Saddle in the San Gabriel mountains down past the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), through western Altadena and Pasadena, and then on to Los Angeles, joining the Los Angeles river near downtown L.A.; the historic Pasadena Freeway (now State Highway 110) follows its channel much of the way. True to its name, it’s dry much of the year, but above JPL, it runs year-round, providing lush, verdant and shady hiking any time of year. Since the Eaton Fire resulted in the closure of much of the front range of the San Gabriels, the still open Arroyo Seco and its Gabrielino Trail have been my go-to spot for a quick, regular getaway.

It’s also been a regular source of wildlife sightings, some of which have made it to RWP (for example, here,  here, and here), but today I have an offering particularly near and dear to our host: ducklings and their momma!

This was at Brown Mountain Dam falls, which is about 3.5 miles up the trail from JPL. The dam was built in the 1940s, and quickly filled up its basin with sediment (there is now a forest of full-grown trees at the level of the top of the dam), but it provides a 40’ waterfall with a deep pool at the base and is a popular destination for bikers, hikers, and runners, especially on a hot day. Today, it had some unusual visitors: a momma mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) and her seven ducklings, who followed her up the creekbed to the pool where they then proceeded to feed, play, and shower under the falls.

Brown Mountain Dam Falls:

Momma and ducklings, crossing the pool:

And two videos:

The family crossing the falls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOYWkssr7y4

 

Momma and the babies showering under the falls. (The babies seem less enthusiastic about the shower than momma.)

Readers’ wildlife videos

June 22, 2026 • 8:15 am

Today we have two videos from Tara Tanaka, who has been absent a while due to a drought Florida that dried up much of the wetlands on the family property, creating an absence of wading birds that she used to feature. Fortunately, as she writes below, the drought may be over.  In the meantime, we have a kayaking video and a video featuring a BOBCAT.

Tara also has a Vimeo site and a  Flickr site.  Her narration below is indetned:

In 2024 when we had a swamp full of water, we got a sit-on-top kayak that I could use to shoot from and that my husband could use to get out into the swamp to manage exotic plants.  I chose this one because it’s incredibly stable, and I wanted an open deck to be able to paddle without having the camera in front of me.   This kayak has a seat that swivels 360 degrees, allowing me to mount my tripod with a 500mm lens in the stern, and then just pivot around between paddling and videoing.  This was the maiden voyage in our Nucanoe kayak. 

I was able to make quite a few trips out during the 2024 nesting season, and after a relatively dry winter and then one good rain, made a few trips out in 2025.  I stopped going out not because there wasn’t enough water to float the kayak, but because it was getting so shallow and our alligators that patrol the rookery for raccoons and snakes are so big that I didn’t feel comfortable paddling right over one with just a couple of feet between us.  It wasn’t long after that that a couple in a canoe in Lake Kissimmee paddled over an 11’ gator in 2’ of water causing the gator to thrash and overturn the canoe, with a tragic ending. 

The swamp has been dry for at least 9 months, with only a few pools of water, and now that it’s really starting to rain I’m hoping that the water level will return to normal and the birds will return to nest next spring. 

A 5-minute YouTube video, narrated by Tara, showing the maiden voyage of the canoe (sound up.)  You can see there are still birds around. Can you identify them?

And here’s a Vimeo video with an animal encounter. Enlarge this as you can see a lot more detail on full screen.

We had seen one or two coyotes around 9:30 the last two mornings. Hoping they would return for a third day. I got my camera ready in the living room to try to record them. About 9:00 my husband said he saw one, so I made some final adjustments for the lighting and began to search for something moving in the distance. When I finally centered the subject in the viewfinder, I said “I think I’m looking at a bobcat.” Almost immediately the cat stood up and as I panned with it I was shocked when two coyotes ran into the frame, one on each side of the cat. Enjoy the interactions between the two species and between the very bonded pair of coyotes. I believe the female is pregnant.

After I finished filming I just sat in disbelief that I had had the opportunity to record something so unique – and from my living room! I feel like I could have gone to Yellowstone and spent a month in the field and not witnessed an encounter like this. Because of the dramatic temperature difference between the thawing ground and the sun heating the brown grass, the waves of heat shimmer intensified as the sun got higher and you can see them rippling across the screen. Despite the extreme conditions, I was thrilled that I was able to record the interaction so clearly from 1000’ away, and through a double-paned window.

We should have a pond full of water with waders arriving to nest right now, however due to a severe drought that started over a year ago the entire swamp is dry. Without water to allow our large alligators to patrol under the nests and protect them from predators, I’m afraid that our hundreds of waders that nest here every year will not feel safe and will likely nest elsewhere.

Filmed with a Panasonic GH6 + Nikon 500mm f2.8 lens. Since I filmed it from inside the house, I used the audio from a video I shot from the yard last year.

Readers’ wildlife photos

June 9, 2026 • 8:15 am

I forgot to post part 2 of Abby Thompson‘s latest batch of California intertidal photos, so here they are (the first batch is here). Abby’s captions and IDs are indented, and, as always, you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

The stars of this set, improbably enough, are two flatworms.   The first two pictures are of the elegant Eurylepta californica, which I think of as the “art-deco flatworm”.  It’s rare up here; I’ve found it once before.  The next flatworm (Family Euryleptidae) is an undescribed species.   It’s been recorded several times, almost all in the Monterey Bay area.    This is its third sighting (as recorded on inaturalist) this far north.  There isn’t agreement on the genus. It’s a beauty, and it’s unusual to have such a striking animal remain undescribed.   Both worms are about ¾” long.

Eurylepta californica (striped polyclad flatworm) Art deco flatworm:

Eurylepta californica:

Family Euryleptidae (Yellow frilly flatworm):

The starfish plague of several years ago was devastating along the coast, and several species (like the incredible sunflower stars) have not recovered, but the ochre stars are back with a vengeance.     I see many more of them than of the bat stars, but the next picture is one of each buddying up on a rock above the low tide line.

Patiria miniate and Pisaster ochraceus (bat star (red) and ochre star (yes, purple)):

The next three pictures are a slightly deceptive series.    I’m not sure that the first two pictures really are otter tracks, but the alternative is probably raccoon tracks, and otter is a better match.   They did not, in fact, end on the beach right next to the where I saw the otter in the third picture.   But at least the third picture below is definitely an otter.   This almost surely is a river otter, not a sea otter, as are most seen around here.

Otter tracks:

Close-up of otter tracks:

Lontra canadensis (North American river otter):

Finally, the roof of a cave, with sea anemones (green and pink– Anthopleura xanthogrammica and Anthopleura elegantissima) and sponges (the bright red-orange, not possible to ID from a photo):