I drove into town to check the mail yesterday, a twenty-five mile round-trip, and the March 2015 Shutterbug magazine had arrived.  My hands shook as I opened to Web Profiles, page 26, and started reading Joe Farace's column about my website and all my hard work.  Ten long years ago when I decided to go digital, it was never imagined that there would be two 1st place wins and two 2nd place wins, in three years, at the Cody Art Show; and now HogbatsPhotography.com is featured in Shutterbug no less!  I stood in that ancient post office and shed tears; there's so much more for me to accomplish, I hope there is the time.  

     "I want people to fall in love with Mother Nature, not wonder what happened to her."  I know I can help, but how to proceed from here?  You'll never know where a path will lead, but you'll go nowhere if you don't at least put in lots of hard work doing something you love.  I already have shot more than a quarter of a million frames!  And I would shoot a gazillion more if I knew I could help those that have no voice.  Our beloved wildlife are loosing their habitat at an alarming rate around the world, if I can help I will, that much I can promise.

     Just this morning I was chasing shots of a Blue Heron in the fog, and Canadian Geese that love to sit high on the cliffs overlooking the Wind River.  Yesterday I was running around after my Bald Eagles, which I've known since they were two big-ugly brown raptors, and they've had ugly young ones of their own.  But where can they go?  All the best lakes have boats, and cabins larger than my first school.  

     We are all part of a much larger system than we may ever know.  Can we afford to loose the Golden Eagle?  Their breeding range is projected to shrink 58% by the year 2050 and over three quarters of its nesting range by 2080.  The Osprey is one of our favorite birds, yet their nesting range will shrink by an estimated 68% by 2050.  Southeastern American forests are being clear-cut to fuel European energy facilities; 4.7 million tons of wood pellets in 2013 were shipped to Europe, and it's a booming business, except for the wild animals that already live there.  How much damage have we already done, and how much is yet to come?  And why is the Netherlands burning American-made wood pellets in huge power plants anyway?

     But I'm a little geek that lives in a beautiful Wyoming canyon in the middle-of-nowhere, what can I do for those that have no voice?  Just maybe, a child will see one of my hummingbird photos, or read a particular blog of mine, and grow up to help my Bighorn Sheep or my beloved Calliopes, then maybe I have made a difference after all.  

     Mr. Farace mentioned a particular hummingbird picture in his lovely review of my website, a black and white that is also a favorite of my little sister.  It's a hummingbird species that nested in the Wind River Canyon for the first time last summer.  Here it is as large as I can make it for this blog stuff----  Broad-tailed Hummingbird, female, Wind River Canyon, WYBroad-tailed Hummingbird "Coming in for a Landing" in the Wind River Canyon, Wyoming.

facts and figures are from The Audubon Report - Audubon.org 

writing and photography by Michael John Balog

I want to take this opportunity to thank every one of the readers of this blog - Thank You.