Just for laughs

PBase here I come!

I have now decided to also put my images on the very popular photography website PBase.

Shutterpoint

I have recently joined a new for me online stock photography website, Shutterpoint, and I highly recommend that anyone out there who is a photo buyer or photographer look into joining this awesome new website geared at promoting your work.

Stock photos in any category, many thousands to choose from

Sell your photos online

Follow the leader I

It is that time of year when the birds have all migrated south for the winter, and here in Missouri it is time for taking out the long telephoto lenses and heavy duty tripods and going after images of waterfowl. as flocks of hundreds of canada and snow geese filter through the wetlands of the prairie pothole region, it offers some awesome opportunities to get flight shots of groups, pairs and individuals. The conservation and restoration of millions of acres of wetlands in North America is due to the the efforts of groups like Ducks Unlimited. I am particularly fond of the blue phase of snow goose, once thought to be a seperate species, but now known through genetics research to simply be a plumage variant.

Christmas cougar

When I was just getting started in wildlife biology, after I finished my BS at Colorado State University in the mid-90's, I was lucky enough to work for a Utah State University grad student's project in south-central Utah studying the population dynamic's and effects of resident cougar populations on the elk and mule deer populations. The Utah Division of Wildlife was also interested in trying to get a better assessment of the true population size of the cougar in Utah and figure out if their harvest quotas for the secretive Rocky Mountain carnivore was appropriate. I was lucky enough to witness the capture of several adult cougars, as well as a few cubs. This young animal was a male born sometime the previous year. We have all heard about the plight of the cougar, or puma or mountain lion as they are also referred to in the Eastern United States, but what many people don't realize is that they have one of the largest overall geographic ranges of any mammal in the world. The cougar is found all the way from Alaska to South America, and many parts in between. It was a tremendous treat to work on this magnificent animal, definitely a gem in my biological fieldwork career. This young male has just been tranquilized, and is soon to be sound asleep for a while. we worked the animal up, put a radio collar on it to track it's movements and then released it unharmed. I posted this image because I felt it had sort of a Christmas feel to it. Iused the orginal version of the Canon Elan camera with a Tokina 400/5.6 telephoto lens to capture this image on Fujichrome 100 film. The good ole days!

Rockfish 2006!

This past weekend my wife and I were back in Virginia visitng family, and we had the pleasure of going out on my Uncle Billy's boat to fish for Rockfish (Morone saxatilis)(aka striped bass) in the Chesapeake Bay around the Bay Bridge Tunnel. This fish is slowly but surely recovering thanks to conservation efforts and very strict control of commercial and recreational quotas. The weather was perfect, about 50 F, and we had a fantastic time! We caught ~40 fish all total, ranging in size form 16 inches to 29 inches in length. We concluded the day by cooking some of the fresh fish up on Billy's grill. The menu included green beans, batter bread, homemade oatmeal-raisin-walnut cookies (courtesy of my grandmother Lucy), and Boston Cream pie with peppermint ice cream. It was so much fun fishing and cathcing these hard fighting fish, and I can't wait to go after them again! Most of them were caught on either a white colored swimbait or heavy stick plugs jigged about 10 feet below the surface.

An old but timeless friend

This is an old, old photo I took on Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia in the winter as the last wisps of sunlight dipped below the horizons edge. I was using a 400mm telephoto lens on a tripod with a timer release, but what I didn't intend to do but am happy with now is that I left the lens slightly out-of-focus, that in combination with the extremly long exposure time and the atmospheric conditions resulted in this image entitled "Blueridge". In this instance, one can truly see why these are called the Blue Ridge Mountains. These ancient worn down mountains are some of the oldest on earth. I hope you enjoy this image as much as I do even today, several years later. Home will always be Virginia, between the Blue Ridge and the Chesapeake Bay.

Red eft

Eastern newts (Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens) have three stages of life: the aquatic larva or tadpole, the red eft (terrestrial adult stage), and the aquatic adult. The larva possesses gills and does not leave the pond environment where it was hatched. Larvae are brown-green in color, and shed their gills when they transform into the terrestrial red eft. The red eft is bright orange-red in color, with darker red spots outlined in black. An eastern newt can have as many as 21 of these spots. The pattern of these spots differs among the subspecies. After two or three years, the red eft begins to transform into the aquatic adult. The adult's skin is olive green, but retains the eft's characteristic outlined red spots. It has a larger and wider tail and characteristically slimy skin. At home in coniferous and deciduous forests, eastern newts need a moist environment with either a temporary or permanent water source, and thrive best in a muddy environment.

During the eft stage, they may travel far from their original location. Red efts may often be seen in a forest after a rainstorm. Wild eastern newts eat a variety of foods such as insects, small mollusks and crustaceans, young amphibians and frog eggs. I took this image in spring 2006 on my Dad's farm in south-central Virginia on the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I used a Nikon D200 and Sigma 150mm HSM EX macro lens, handheld with a little fill-flash from my Nikon SB800.

Moose on the loose in Maine!

I am finally getting around to looking at some of the 3,000+ images from a trip I took this Fall to Maine. Of course we saw the obligatory moose (Alces alces), so I figured I would post a cute one of this mother cow with her calf from this year. They spent at least 40 minutes feeding at the edge of Sandy Stream Pond in Baxter State Park, within 6 feet of myself and several other lucky folks! Quite a treat for this southern photographer! My Dad almost had one come right up to him.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Here's hoping you all have a great turkey day, and give thanks for the family, friends, and life that we have all been given. and if you ever feel there is nothing to be thankful for, just take a deep breath and think again, there is always something no matter how small! This is a common skimmer (Libellula luctosa) dragonfly. Skimmers are the most common and colorful of the dragonfly family. They have two pairs of large, usually patterned, gossamer wings. The hind pair of wings is slightly larger than the forewings. The wings are held flat and extend outward from the body when at rest. The abdomen is long and variously colored. Commons skimmers are the most common and most colorful of the dragonflies. Male and female adults are different in appearance (dimorphic). They also change color with age. They have large compound eyes and short antennae and are equipped with chewing mouth parts. They vary in length from 1 inch to over 3 inches. Their wing span can reach about 4 inches. They undergo simple metamorphosis (egg, nymph, adult). Immature stages are aquatic and do not resemble adults. Adults emerge in the spring, summer or fall and live for a few weeks to a few months. Adults mate in flight, the male clasping the female behind the head. After fertilization, the female deposits her eggs in emergent plants, floating vegetation or directly into the water. Nymphs develop in the water and take months or even years to develop to maturity. Once mature they climb from the water onto plants or rocks where they molt into adults. Most species of dragonflies have one generation per year. Nymphs can be found in vegetation and hiding around underwater structures. Adults feed on insects such as mosquitoes, midges, flies and winged ants. Skimmers fly mostly during the day. They are called skimmers because they tend to fly low over the water. They often follow the same path and return to a familiar perch. Skimmers are beneficial insects, adults feed on mosquitoes, flies and other flying insects. Nymphs feed on aquatic insects, even small fish.

Save the Tiger, Save the World!

As I was creating a holiday card for family and friends this morning, it struck me how easy it would be for me to post it here. Especially since it has an underlying message of conservation that is near and dear to my heart as a wildlife biologist! This is a glimpse at a brief moment of intimacy between a mother Sumatran tiger and her cub, a scene which has played out thousands of times in the wild, but one which is now more commonly found in captivity than in the wild. This particular mother-cub pair are living at the National Zoo in Washington, DC. I find it a sad badge of conservation that it is estimated that there are 4 times as many tigers in captivity as in the wilds of Asia and Russia. Save the tiger, save the world.

Simple pleasures

Sometimes when you least expect it, like when you are standing on a wooden bridge that crosses a pristine creek in Baxter State Park, Maine, after a wonderful day watching and photographing moose, a simple yet purely joyous scene presents itself and begs to be photographed. This is such a photo.

Missouri in Flight at Amazon.Com

Missouri in Flight now available for pre-ordering at Amazon.com for 34% off the retail cover price!

This is an American kestrel (Falco sparverius). I created this photo and the majority of the photographs in my book with either a Sigma 500/4.5 EX HSM or Nikon 500/4 AF-S super telephoto lens.

Life is short

"Life is short, eat dessert first!" ~ Anonymous

This is a grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) in the St. Louis Zoo.

I love MUTTS!

Amen!

New Book in 2007!

I have a new book coming out in Spring 2007 entitled Missouri in Flight: The Bird Photography of Mundy Hackett. It is published by University of Missouri Press. Go to the link and check out advance praise for the book, available at online bookstores for pre-order now including Amazon.com.

Mundy Hackett is Live!

Well, I finally couldn't hold out any longer, so I too have entered the world of the Blogosphere! I have no idea how often I will post to this blog, my fairly simple goal is to use it as a portal to post updates on my photographic work, random and hopefully humorous musings on all critters great and small, and pretty much anything else I feel like sharing with the world! Upon your first visit to this arena, please continue on to my website at www.mundyhackett.com when you are done here! Cheers!