On Mother’s Day of 2026, I was finally able to replace a camera that was not working properly. The camera had not been working well since the summer of 2024 after getting back from our South Carolina trip, and I had been getting increasingly frustrated with it as the issues continued to get worse over the years. Since buying a new camera, I have been getting out a lot more than I had been in the weeks leading up to buying it.
Lately, I have seen blue herons, green herons, bluebirds, cardinals, chipmunks, foxes, hawks, among several other things. I am always impressed by what you observe when you are watching wildlife.
With the foxes, there seems to be a family of them. There are three foxes and one of the times I saw them, two were playing. I was unfortunately not able to get the playing on camera.
While watching a chipmunk bring food back to a hole, I saw two of them fight. Unfortunately, I did not get the fight on camera. There are at least three chipmunks around here.
There used to be two pairs of barred owls that lived in this part of the neighborhood. For some time, they seemed to have disappeared. It seems that only one pair has come back and they are not visiting the spots that I used to see them. Could it be one of the pairs decided to come back even if they aren’t visiting their old spots or is it a new pair of owls?
Each season brings its challenges with photography. At this time of year, all the plants have their leaves which makes it even harder to get a clear view of wildlife and of course, the bugs and humidity are not easy to deal with. Every time I go out, I am swarmed by bugs and am covered in bites. Dealing with all of this stuff is just part of the “job” when doing wildlife photography.
A few days ago, as I sat on the deck watching the fireflies, I saw a skunk go through the yard. After I briefly went inside, I could smell that it had sprayed. The following day, I found out that it sprayed a dog that lives four houses away.