No Matter How Familiar or Common, Wildlife Is Never Ordinary
A nature photographer’s perspective.
“It’s just a Coati.” The disdain dripping from his voice was palpable. To be fair, he was a bird guide, and we were at a preserve renowned for its abundant variety of bird species.
I sheepishly snapped a few shots anyway before returning focus to our guide.
Nick-named hog-nosed raccoons, coatis are indeed members of the raccoon family. They can be found from the southwestern United States all the way to South America. They are quite common in Costa Rica, where we spent our vacation. But I had never seen one before, so it was exotic and extraordinary to me.
Exotic is exciting
A few weeks ago, I chatted with another photographer at a popular park. We exchanged notes about what we had encountered thus far — some gadwalls, northern shovelers, etc.
He then mentioned that he had also seen a pair of wood ducks, but the setting sun was already too low to get good shots of them.
I remarked that I had more than a dozen pairs of wood ducks residing in my…
