Bison Roundup
Looking ahead on our schedule of photo assignments, this looked interested and I requested it a week in advance. It turned out to be a case of expectations being higher than what would actually turn out to be impossible. I saw “bison roundup at the Tallgrass Prairie” and naively thought that might actually mean getting [...]
Elk-vehicle accidents
STONEY FORK, Ky. — “No one ever warned us to watch out for elk,” reads a Middlesboro Daily News article reporting Melissa Jones’ 2009 elk-vehicle accident. That’s the feeling of residents in Stoney Fork and other small communities along Highway 221 in Eastern Kentucky, just one of several hotspots in the state for elk-vehicle accidents [...]
Waiting game
EMINENCE, Mo. — I’m back working on my photo story on elk relocation to Missouri. The herd of Kentucky elk is scheduled to be moved to Peck Ranch Conservation Area in southern Missouri at the end of April. I went down to the ranch and surrounding towns this week to get a pulse on what [...]
Congress Bridge bats
I’m sure it’s common knowledge for any elementary school kid in the Lone Star State taking Texas History, but I had no idea the largest urban bat colony in America lives under a bridge just south of Austin’s downtown center. In the summer after breeding season, more than a million bats emerge from the cool [...]
Elk extras
Here are just a few more photos that didn’t really fit with my previous posts. This story is not done yet. The herd of elk that will be relocated to Missouri must undergo disease testing and be held for 90 days in Pineville, Ky., before making the journey by trailer to the Show-Me State. We [...]
Tony Johnson, Taxidermist
CAMPTON, Ky. — Today we met with Tony Johnson, an award-winning taxidermist, or as his business card reads, wildlife artist, in his workshop. He was actually finishing up work on a deer he started sculpting last night. Johnson says business is down this year compared to last because of the economy. Thirty sets of antlers [...]
Elk and Coal
PINEVILLE, Ky. — Coal and Elk. Who would have known? As I’ve been told by nearly everyone here, without coal mines, there would be no elk. We all hear so much about the negative effects of strip mining — the complete destruction of ecosystems and terrain from the literal blasting off of mountaintops. No doubt [...]
Elk in Kentucky
HAZARD, Ky. — I’m in heart of Appalachia with Missourian reporter Brian Nordli for a few days to start work on an in-depth story on a huge elk population and its affect on tourism and business in Eastern Kentucky. Way more details to come, these are just some of my first images.
Squaw Creek NWR
I haven’t really done any wildlife/bird photography before, but as I was driving back from Nebraska and stopped for gas along I-29, I saw a sign for the Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge and decided to stop. I had a 400mm lens with me and a camera out, so why not? Not wanting to spend [...]