A male Snowy Owl taking in the scenery on a sunny, late winter day.

A Short-eared Owl gathers some speed toward the evening sun after diving for a vole.

As the largest native waterfowl in North America, and with a wingspan of up to 7 to 8 feet, these elegant swans need a lot of room to take off . . . on water that is: Trumpeters cannot take off on land, only on water. . . .

Watching short-eared owls on the hunt is one of life's little joys along the journey . . .

Instead of a golden hour, it was more like a few golden minutes. Tom Skilling said the clouds might break toward the end of the day, but they held tight until the very end when the sun finally emerged from the main cloud layer only to sink into another layer of clouds before it disappeared into the horizon . . .

The beautiful and agile short-eared owl, giving the look before it floats and swoops above the prairie. Don't worry, I'm not hunting for voles, they're all yours . . .

Back in September the bumblebees had become quite active around the flowers, and I was watching this one in particular as it collected some pollen from this finch-plucked flower, and then it crawled out onto these two petals and it stopped moving . . . for about 8 to 10 minutes. Then it started its wing machine . . .

Did not have many male ruby-throateds visit this year, but was able to capture one during his brief visit. As those who photograph these little beauties know, the right angle determines . . .

A female Whooping Crane (aka #14-15) takes off in the early morning after roosting overnight with her migrating companions, a flock of sandhill cranes. With the sun below the horizon and the skies beginning to brighten with yellows and oranges, different groups of cranes would begin to chatter and then take off . . .

This Great Blue Heron was pretty proud of his catch a couple of months ago as it was snagged in the middle of the pond and then walked all of the way back to the shoreline where it gave it a couple of thumps with its bill before enjoying the tasty treat.