nature photography – nathanstueve.info

in recent years nature photography gives me tremendous pleasure : ) my best and latest stuff always viewable on instagram @naturalist_feelings

naturalist_feelings

recently overhauled my wildlife photography setup

recently overhauled my wildlife photography setup with some new optics and a camera body upgrade, more than quadrupling the optical precision of my previous gear(!) a major upgrade in ability to capture highly detailed images of the natural world from a distance. visited one of my favorite nature spots on the outskirts of missoula and noticed this sandhill crane nesting in flooded reeds. except the last all images cropped from the first. amazed how the detail holds up even to extreme cropping, will allow me to capture so many photos that simply weren't possible previously, very excited for that! : ).
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sandhill cranes are huge, elegant birds famous for their silly dancing, dazzling migration flocks and thunderous voices. i had never seen one until last week, with any luck may revisit and observe the hatched chicks in the near future. .
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#wildlife #wildlifephotography #nature #naturephotography #birds #birding #birdwatching #birdstagram #ornithology #naturalism #hiking #crane #cranes #sandhillcrane #missoula #montana #MT #sonyA7Rii #FE200600G #2xteleconverter #tresspassing

canada goslings in the cute phase. unlike songbird

canada goslings in the cute phase. unlike songbirds they leave the nest after one or two days and forage for themselves (under the close protection of both parents) from the beginning.
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#wildlife #wildlifephotography #nature #naturephotography #naturalism #birds #birding #birdstagram #sonyA7r #FE70300G #geese #chicks #canadiangeese #montana #MT

cottonwoods full of great blue heron and double-cr

cottonwoods full of great blue heron and double-crested cormorant nests at the ninepipe wildlife refuge. in both species males deliver building materials to females who construct the nest. so many cormorants gutterally croaking and heron's wings flapping. beautiful spot to enjoy the sun and breeze in the majesty of the flathead valley and mission mountains.
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#montana #MT #mountains #rockymountains #birds #birding #birdstagram #wildlife #wildlifephotography #nature #naturephotography #hiking #northamerica #ornithology #sonyA7r #FE70300G #roadtrips #naturalism #greatblueheron #heron #cormorant #doublecrestedcormorant

watched this great horned owl hooting high in a pi

watched this great horned owl hooting high in a pine tree a long time before it swooped down hunting something which got away and perched momentarily on a low branch : )

they eat a varied opportunistic diet including anything from beetles to mice to skunks and canadian geese, known even to successfully hunt hawks! this smallish one seemed intent on some starlings sniping mosquitos in a ponderosa grove. always amazing seeing them.
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council grove state park, montana .
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#owls #greathornedowl #birding #ornithology #naturalism #nature #wildanimals #predators #birdstagram #birdlovers #naturelovers #wildlifephotography #naturephotography #sonyA7r #FE70300G #montana #MT

these cheeky little exhibitionists put on quite a

these cheeky little exhibitionists put on quite a show! pictures taken in sequence, a pair of golden mantled ground squirrels who definitely observed me approaching before things got spicy and kept watching all the while. books say they mate only once a year just after emerging from hibernation, photos taken late summer in a very remote area unfrequented by humans. luckily no hawk swooped down lol independence mountain, north park colorado
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#nature #naturephotography #wildlife #wildlifephotography #naturalism #hiking #squirrels #exhibitionism #kink #dangerousLove #camping #vanlife #mammals #mammology #colorado #CO #sonyA7r #SEL70300G #northpark

my winter thoughts often ramble through summer mem

my winter thoughts often ramble through summer memories, places visited, sometimes pausing for days to feel the timeless, silent atmospheres of dramatic north american landscapes. it would seem very easy to lose all perspective navigating our troubled civilization without these grounding, spiritualizing experiences and memories, out beyond our worst nightmares still the gorgeous paradise earth, an ineffable living dream, mother nature's welcoming arms, the sun, time, freedom, beauty, the mystery of it all.
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#landscapes #landscapephotography #mountains #rockymountains #nature #hiking #camping #ecology #spirituality #colorado #wyoming #montana #CO #WY #MT #sonyA7s #nomad #vanlife #travel #humanity #perspective #silence

adult pronghorns have no natural predators thus li

adult pronghorns have no natural predators thus little fear approaching anything unusual in their territory to satisfy their well known curiosity. one evening last summer camped where the sierra madre mountains of southern wyoming tumble into a vast plain glanced up from reading to notice this inquisitive male female pair had silently drawn within 70 feet or so to have a closer look at me. had i done anything to alarm them they can run the distance of a football field in 10 strides under 3.5 seconds. their closest living genetic relatives are actually giraffes.
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#pronghorn #pronghorns #wildanimals #wildlife #wildlifephotography #nature #naturephotography #northamerica #camping #hiking #boondocking #vanlife #wyoming #WY #curiosity #speed #grace

profound appreciation mere twenty minutes walk fro

profound appreciation mere twenty minutes walk from my downtown tenement the discordant cacophony of modern life dissipates into the timeless earth reality, awareness untethered from any human object soaring beyond distant horizons, tangible silence, wild creatures, the sun. without regular access to expansive places like this would surely lose perspective and sanity. huge gratitude for all who established, augment, and defend the protected public lands directly adjacent* the urban core of missoula, MT.
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#presence #landscapes #landscapephotography #hiking #meditation #montana #MT #missoula #publiclands #earth #mountains #rockymountains #wintersun #wildanimals #timelessness *next to ; )

delighted recently encountering hooded mergansers

delighted recently encountering hooded mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus) for the first time, handsome ducks! interestingly the females rampantly lay eggs in each other's nests, raising each other's chicks in broods of highly mixed parentage. also hooded mergansers produce the most perfectly spherical eggs of any waterfowl, with the thickest shells. they tend to nest in abandoned woodpecker excavated tree cavities and readily utilize constructed nest boxes. excellent underwater vision allows foraging primarily on small fish and freshwater invertebrates captured by sight on underwater dives. the striking high contrast plumage of males surely a conspicuous visual pleasure i feel glad to now consider familiar : ) silver's lagoon, missoula, MT.
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#birds #birding #ornithology #birdwatching #birdstagram #nature #naturalism #ecology #wildanimals #wildlife #wildlifephotography #naturephotography #montana #missoula #observation #northamerica #freshwaterecology #earth

if wondering why this account has recently gone so

if wondering why this account has recently gone so quiet :

because i spontaneously moved to missoula, MT, transforming into an urban creature again. will continue posting new nature photos here as i take them ♥️

although not born in a barn i do seem to find myse

although not born in a barn i do seem to find myself living in one for the moment lol. got a bit tired of the hermit in the wilderness life and ended up coming to rest at a self described "nerd commune" a bit outside missoula, montana. this old barn was full of rubbish and bird droppings until i cleaned it up, layed out some carpets, and built a videography studio in it. pretty cool setup (even space for my aerial yoga rig!), although i plan to move into central missoula pretty soon to more fluidly hustle video projects and collaborate this winter. so, shifting gears a bit... but stay tuned...
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#diy #commune #orangeacres #nerds #nomadlife #bohemianlifestyles #_joselobo__

perhaps an eagle in a past life, i usually gravita

perhaps an eagle in a past life, i usually gravitate to spots perched on the edges of ridges and mountains, with sweeping views over the surrounding country. with a good atlas including topographical info they aren't hard to find. rather typically though having spent an entire evening night and morning simply parked alongside a forest service road here not a single other vehicle has driven by. forest fire smoke added depth and color to yesterday's sunset. helena national forest, ogden mountain, western montana. .
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#boondocking #camping #sunsets #sunset #landscape #landscapes #nomad #nomadlife #vanlife #montana #MT #publicland

two summers ago i spent an afternoon foraging road

two summers ago i spent an afternoon foraging roadside edibles in western wyoming's star valley. no shortage of summer wild things to eat and drink in that part of the world : ) including :

1 - wild rose - petals edible in summer, rose hips appear later and remain on the stem through winter, sweetness and texture vary greatly depending on local soil and moisture conditions

2 - red elderberry blossom - makes a pleasant tea (flower only, leaves and stems not edible)

3 - indian paintbrush - adds a shocking dash of color to salads or cooked dishes, many different colors and shades. tastes unlike anything in the standard palette, don’t eat too much because it accumulates selenium in some soils

4 - stinging nettle - tasty like spinach in soups or cooked dishes, has to be cooked to remove stinging property!

5 - wild onion - has a deliciously robust onion flavor

6 - brook saxifrage - extremely abundant in some locations around mountain streams, juicy with a nice firm texture. not much flavor but a lot like lettuce in that respect, perfect for salads

7 - dandelion - great in salads or cooked dishes, smaller leaves have the best flavor

8 - yellow sweet clover - an all time favorites tea. grassy vanilla flavor undiminished by sun drying

9 - osha - strong celery-like flavor, good for soups and cooked dishes

10 - giant hyssop - a kind of mint

11 - rock parsley - like parsley

12 - cow parsnip - the hollow stems can be peeled and eaten like celery, or used as a straw, not much flavor

13 - sweet cicely - a definite favorite, sweet anise, licorice, fennel type flavor in the leaves, stems and flowers but especially concentrated in the green seeds. the chocolate licorice smell of sweet cicely seeds drying in the sun for sure one of the most pleasant aromas i’ve ever experienced, but it loses a lot of flavor through drying

#foraging #wildedibles #ethnobotany #prepping #naturalism #wildfood #primitiveskills #survivalism
#outdoorliving #WY #wyoming (although few posts in recent weeks indeed still alive : ) some interesting developments may soon see me shifting into a more settled mode focused on collaborative experimental movie making in montana, so stay tuned...

the gorgeous plumage of northern flickers (Colapte

the gorgeous plumage of northern flickers (Colaptes auratus) always reminds me of ermine robed arthurian royalty and kabuki, stunning birds! one of north america's larger woodpeckers, 'red-shafted' lineages west of the great plains sport rose colored underwings and red faces whereas 'yellow-shafted' eastern populations have yellow wings and black faces, all the same species with a zone on the plains where only hybrids live(!) though common and audibly present many places i've long sought without luck to capture any photo adequately conveying their beauty, so these images for me a small personal victory : ) BLM near bighorn national forest, bighorn range foothills northern wyoming.
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#birds #birding #birdwatching #birdlovers #woodpecker #woodpeckers #wildlife #wildlifephotography #wildlifelovers #nature #naturephotography #naturelovers #naturalism #ecology #A7r #FE70300G #wyoming #WY #publiclands #northamerica #flicker #northernflicker #hiking #camping #outwest

recently experiencing a run of (thankfully minor a

recently experiencing a run of (thankfully minor and fortunately timed, but unexpected) maintainence issues with the van, which tied me up somewhat in the wind river and bighorn basins of north central WY for a while. shade is a rare and precious thing out here, if you can find some even the heat of mid-afternoon feels pleasant, otherwise a vast furnace with nowhere to hide, special gratitude for trees
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#landscape #landscapephotography #shade #sun #trees #wyoming #WY #A7s #summer #safari #remoteplaces #publiclands #boondocking #hiking #camping

six views of dishpan butte from on and around beav

six views of dishpan butte from on and around beaver divide, central wyoming.
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#landscape #landscapes #landscapephotography #hiking #outdoors #view #A7s #A7r #wyoming #WY #lichen #publiclands #travel #northamerica #earth #naturallight #goldenhour #vanlife #nomadlife #nature #wilderness #remoteplaces #remote #boondocking

dazzled by the sheer elegance of western grebes (A

dazzled by the sheer elegance of western grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis = "spear carrying western"). their particularly elaborate paired courtship rituals have invited study and inspired behavioral and evolutionary theories regarding the role and development of highly ritualized animal behaviors (not witnessed on this occasion since they'd already paired for the season). they eat fish almost exclusively, spearing them near the surface with their sharp bills or diving under underwater to chase them. a pleasure some days ago watching them on the walden reservoir in north park colorado where they nest and do summer things until migrating nocturnally to winter in central mexico.
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#birds #birding #birdstagram #ornithology #birdwatchers #birdwatching #birdlovers #waterfowl #nature #naturephotography #wildlife #wildlifephotography #naturalism #ecology #naturalhistory #A7r #FE70300G #hiking #getoutside #colorado #CO #photosafari #northamerica #grace #elegance #grebe #westerngrebe

off-grid detached 2 room suite with sweeping views

off-grid detached 2 room suite with sweeping views, solar electric + oven, wood heat + stove, water catchment, 4G, no rent or plumbing. all essential systems including vehicle initial cost < 5k. recurring expenses for food, gas, data, ice, vehicle insurance + preventative maintenance plus occassional restaurants or whatever realistically around five or six hundred / month if i stay parked in suitable places days at a time. amazing the cyberpunk conveniences only a little labor affords nowadays. vaporwave sunset on beaver divide, BLM, central WY.
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#vanlife #vandwelling #offgrid #boondocking #nomadlife #camping #glamping #DIY #selfsufficiency #prepping #sunset #sunsets #naturallight #naturalpalette #warm #warmth #goldenhour #A7r #FE70300G #wyoming #WY #BLM #publiclands #cyberpunk #vaporwave #vaporwaveaesthetics #outdoorliving #travel #travelphotography

wild blue flax (Linum lewisii) looking lovely on t

wild blue flax (Linum lewisii) looking lovely on the crest of beaver divide. closely related to european & eurasian flax species among the oldest cultivated plants in human history, the source of fibers for making linen cloth and rope, linseed oil for paint and linoleum, edible roasted seeds high in essential fatty acids. native tribes used it variously as a medicinal poultice for bruises, abrasions and eye problems, a source of fiber for cordage, a flavor enhancing food, and a beautifying wash for the hair and skin of young women and children.
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#wildflowers #wildflower #flax #flowers #nativeplants #ethnobotany #nativetechnology #botany #nature #naturephotography #foraging #survivalism #primitivetechnology #naturalmedicine #wildfood #wyoming #WY #A7r #FE70300G #hiking #camping #DIY #outdoors #getoutside #publiclands

the nighthawk egg which HATCHED! . while hiking ar

the nighthawk egg which HATCHED!
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while hiking around beaver divide in central wyoming a nighthawk (Chordeiles minor) suddenly flew up from the ground nearby pretending injury, telling me it must have a nest there. sure enough i found two speckled eggs (nighthawks don't build structured nests, they simply lay and incubate eggs on bare ground). two days later i returned to attempt photographing the bird on the nest, but it's camouflage proved so effective i couldn't see it until it flew off again. at that point i felt totally astonished discovering one of the eggs had hatched, a little fledgling now there breathing rhythmically! told the mother observing not far off to expect no more of me and left amazed at the miracle transformation.
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many have seen nighthawks flying around streetlights or over well lit parking lots at night reaping the insect bonanza drawn there. they hunt by swooping mouths agape to capture insects on the wing, special whisker-like feathers around their mouths helping funnel them in. distinctive white wing bars and vocalizations make them easy to recognize in flight, cryptic coloration similar to closely related owls blends them invisibly into their environment at rest. come winter they fly all the way to south america, returning north each summer.
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#nighthawk #birding #birds #birdstagram #ornithology #eggs #birth #birdwatchers #birdwatching #birdlovers #nature #naturephotography #wildlife #wildlifephotography #closeup #naturalism #ecology #naturalhistory #A7r #FE70300G #miracles #amazing #surprise #wyoming #WY #hiking #getoutside #audubonsociety

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December 24, 2019