A pair of white pelicans riding out the beginning of a Midwestern deluge.

 Baltimore Oriole doing what they do best.

This young Northern Pintail was adamant about making his presence known to the nearby drake closer to shore.

Indigo Bluff

         This beautiful landscape unfolded before us as we approached the halfway mark on The Chute trail.

Behold, our new favorite square acre within one hundred miles of our home. We secretly refer to it as Indigo Bluff.

                                                       Cinnamon rolls over an open fire.

                                    Breakfast for dinner.                         Dinner for Breakfast.

                

 The view from under our vestibule was refreshing after an evening of difficult-by-our-standards hiking. The small cluster of grey somethings just to the right of the forested hill above is downtown Omaha.

                                   The darling wife enjoying a mid morning cup-o-happy.

                                                                      Indigo Bunting.

                                                           Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

Reluctantly trekking back to "civilization".

Nebraskan Birds of Prey

We spent most of today in the overcast and lightly soaked hills of southeast Nebraska trekking through woods and lakesides. Despite the poor weather conditions we considered it a successful day.

Sandhill Crane Migration

I recently had the wonderful privilege of documenting the Sandhill Crane migration in Gibbon, Nebraska with my good friend and talented conservation photographer, Joe Sulik. It was by far one of the most spectacular natural events I've yet to witness. Below are a few shots from the trip. I'll delve deeper into the actual organization that has secured the world's Sandhill Crane population and more about how the experience affected me later. But for now, enjoy the photographs.

Sandhill Cranes 'en masse

Henry Doorly, Part II

Included today is the test footage shot during our recent visit to Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo. I wanted to test the new (to me) Canon t2i's low-light filming capabilities and straight out of the camera quality without any post-production. You can see parts in the tunnel where the grain starts to get out of hand (1600 ISO), but for the most part I was very pleased with what it was able to handle. So, enjoy! More to come...

Henry Doorly from Andrew Willoughby on Vimeo.

Henry Doorly, Part I

The Mrs. and I were able to sneak away to one of our favorite corners of Omaha earlier this week, the Henry Doorly Zoo. Although shooting captive animals is never as fulfilling as getting out there and doing your homework for days and weeks on end for that one rewarding shot, it's hard to pass up the instant gratification of an establishment such as this. I'll soon be starting the next book on my list, Linnaeus: The Compleat Naturalist, a biography revisiting the life and times of the man who gave us the binomial nomenclature system. Thus, I've included the scientific names of two of the three subjects presented below. Also, a short "test film" that was shot during this visit will be posted tomorrow afternoon.

Burhinus capensis

Panthera padrus

Adorable

Fontenelle

We are finally proud members of the Fontenelle Nature Association. 

Junco Hyemalis

With the diestrous cycle in canines right around the corner, juvenile coyotes are now traveling even greater distances in search of mates and small rodents handicapped by new fallen snow.