Beautiful photos Mike! I honestly find being around people so taxing these days. When I can be off by myself in the outdoors and don’t run into anyone I call it a huge win. Here is to always finding your peace. Loving all your writing btw. Glad to be here in this community.
We lived in Annapolis, MD and the wildlife on our property was so amazing. One year, our neighbor who had a built in pool which was covered in the winter/spring became the playground for a group of kits. They used the pool cover as a trampoline. I loved sitting outside and watching them every morning. They were so beautiful and playful. Nature is truly the xanax we need.
My front yard is a regional park and my backyard abuts a golf course. What I’ve noticed is that the local wildlife know who we are. We are part of the environment after all, and they’ve figured out whether they can ignore us and go about their business. I notice this particularly with the deer.
People are just so selfish & self absorbed. Your photos of them, when living in their undisturbed habitat, are just beautiful. May those days return, for their sake.
We have the same experience with baby seals at the mouth of the Russian River. Same thing happens with wildflowers in the vineyards, people trample all over them.
I understand why some photographers do not post where they took an amazing image.
Enjoying the outdoors and wildlife is a therapy everyone should try. Alas, most people don’t have enough patience. Worse yet people who do venture into these areas do not have the respect for wildlife as you have mentioned. It’s a basic behavior missing in too many people. I think it’s a reason for so many problems we have in our country.
I loathe the fact our society has descended into hordes of pompous, pretentious, inconsiderate, ignorant assholes. I am very concerned things are poised to get way worse too.
Perhaps there are some readers out there who have been unwittingly behaving as asshats, and will do better on future nature viewing/photographing excursions as a result of your excellent writing. I am just resuming venturing out with my camera again this season. I hope I don't run into any of these chucklefucks.
The title of this beautiful essay was enough to warn me that it would end in asshattary. And still I held out hope. Humans don't have to be selfish but that is so often their default.
Baby foxes are some of the most adorable and enchanting of creatures. And in contrast, humans are some the most horrifying when it comes to behavior and ignorance.
I live in WNC outside of the city in what could be called a suburban area. But since this is Appalachia and the area is heavily forested, it's not quite the picture conjured up by the word suburban. A few years ago, after we had a few unsettling and odd occurrences, my husband set up cameras for security. I was not terribly enthusiastic about having a surveillance system in place.
However, that soon changed after I began reviewing footage. 90% of what triggered the cameras were wild visitors just making their daily or weekly rounds. Raccoons, opossums, bears, and yes, foxes too. Apparently, our property provides a pleasant travel route for a myriad of critters conducting their own business. I was shocked by the number of animals passing by. Especially the bear who came bounding out from the underbrush less than a minute after I got in my car and backed out of the driveway. I would have never known but for those cameras I had initially not wanted.
While I am not afraid of bears or any wild animals, I do have a healthy respect for them, particularly bears. (And trust me, you do not want to come nose to nose with a bear first thing in the morning on your way to your car.) I have had several encounters that ended up fine but that were a tad more exciting than I would have liked.
Part of my point in all of this is that were it not for some human assholery, we would have never installed cameras and would have continued to miss the traffic of wild denizens that had been passing beneath our noses for 20 years.
On the other hand, because of where I live, I also get to see firsthand the idiots who travel to here and then do incredibly awful and dumb things when it comes to wild spaces. Every year visitors to the area fall off of waterfalls, get lost in the forest, or sometimes get attacked by a bear. These things happen because of ignorance, arrogance, and the inability to either read signs or heed them. And it costs the city, county, and state tens of thousands of dollars which means I pay higher and higher taxes--never mind the defilement of the area.
So I get it. I see nonsense perpetrated by selfish idiots every day. It makes a person tend to root for the bear, frankly.
JFC, that’s such bullshitery! Why do so many people have to be such selfish assholes?!
Beautiful photos Mike! I honestly find being around people so taxing these days. When I can be off by myself in the outdoors and don’t run into anyone I call it a huge win. Here is to always finding your peace. Loving all your writing btw. Glad to be here in this community.
This is a lovely piece, both words and photos, thank you. And thank you also for sharing Cheryl's photo IG. Her work is very dear.
We lived in Annapolis, MD and the wildlife on our property was so amazing. One year, our neighbor who had a built in pool which was covered in the winter/spring became the playground for a group of kits. They used the pool cover as a trampoline. I loved sitting outside and watching them every morning. They were so beautiful and playful. Nature is truly the xanax we need.
My front yard is a regional park and my backyard abuts a golf course. What I’ve noticed is that the local wildlife know who we are. We are part of the environment after all, and they’ve figured out whether they can ignore us and go about their business. I notice this particularly with the deer.
I learn so much about you every time you write. And I will use clusterfuckery and asshats frequently.
Magnificent writing accompanied by equally stunning photographs.
This subscription brings me such joy.
People are just so selfish & self absorbed. Your photos of them, when living in their undisturbed habitat, are just beautiful. May those days return, for their sake.
Thank you for these magnificent photos. Truly beautiful animals, these foxes.
I agree with you!
What is WRONG with people? They want to preserve nature in photos but have absolutely no respect for actual nature.
We have the same experience with baby seals at the mouth of the Russian River. Same thing happens with wildflowers in the vineyards, people trample all over them.
I understand why some photographers do not post where they took an amazing image.
Enjoying the outdoors and wildlife is a therapy everyone should try. Alas, most people don’t have enough patience. Worse yet people who do venture into these areas do not have the respect for wildlife as you have mentioned. It’s a basic behavior missing in too many people. I think it’s a reason for so many problems we have in our country.
A simple behavior to live by, respect.
I loathe the fact our society has descended into hordes of pompous, pretentious, inconsiderate, ignorant assholes. I am very concerned things are poised to get way worse too.
Perhaps there are some readers out there who have been unwittingly behaving as asshats, and will do better on future nature viewing/photographing excursions as a result of your excellent writing. I am just resuming venturing out with my camera again this season. I hope I don't run into any of these chucklefucks.
The planet Earth would be so much better if God would have stopped after creating all the animals and left people off the list.
The title of this beautiful essay was enough to warn me that it would end in asshattary. And still I held out hope. Humans don't have to be selfish but that is so often their default.
Baby foxes are some of the most adorable and enchanting of creatures. And in contrast, humans are some the most horrifying when it comes to behavior and ignorance.
I live in WNC outside of the city in what could be called a suburban area. But since this is Appalachia and the area is heavily forested, it's not quite the picture conjured up by the word suburban. A few years ago, after we had a few unsettling and odd occurrences, my husband set up cameras for security. I was not terribly enthusiastic about having a surveillance system in place.
However, that soon changed after I began reviewing footage. 90% of what triggered the cameras were wild visitors just making their daily or weekly rounds. Raccoons, opossums, bears, and yes, foxes too. Apparently, our property provides a pleasant travel route for a myriad of critters conducting their own business. I was shocked by the number of animals passing by. Especially the bear who came bounding out from the underbrush less than a minute after I got in my car and backed out of the driveway. I would have never known but for those cameras I had initially not wanted.
While I am not afraid of bears or any wild animals, I do have a healthy respect for them, particularly bears. (And trust me, you do not want to come nose to nose with a bear first thing in the morning on your way to your car.) I have had several encounters that ended up fine but that were a tad more exciting than I would have liked.
Part of my point in all of this is that were it not for some human assholery, we would have never installed cameras and would have continued to miss the traffic of wild denizens that had been passing beneath our noses for 20 years.
On the other hand, because of where I live, I also get to see firsthand the idiots who travel to here and then do incredibly awful and dumb things when it comes to wild spaces. Every year visitors to the area fall off of waterfalls, get lost in the forest, or sometimes get attacked by a bear. These things happen because of ignorance, arrogance, and the inability to either read signs or heed them. And it costs the city, county, and state tens of thousands of dollars which means I pay higher and higher taxes--never mind the defilement of the area.
So I get it. I see nonsense perpetrated by selfish idiots every day. It makes a person tend to root for the bear, frankly.