As I mentioned yesterday, the Blacksmith Wold Championships was held at the Wildlife West Nature Park and Rescued Wildlife Zoo east of Albuquerque. Today’s photos are of some of the rescued animals they have at the park. These animals have been hit by cars, caught in traps or injured in some way that makes it difficult or impossible for the animal to survive in the wild. Of course, in the rescue zoo, they are well fed and cared for, so all the animals are fat and healthy.
In photographing zoo animals, especially birds, there’s the issue of the wire on their enclosures. When I can, I put my lens up against the wire to reduce the wire’s visibility, so I end up with varying degrees of soft focus, streaks or the visible wire. The challenge is making the wires and habitats work in the composition, and as part of the effects of the photos. I don’t remember the names of all the birds, but the animals (in order) are coyote, raven, bobcat, hawk of some type, coyote with humans, great horned owl, mountain lion, golden eagle, raccoon, vulture, Mexican wolf, roadrunner, gray fox, hawk or falcon of some type, and a peregrine falcon.
Off Center & Not Even 
Tim, I cannot believe what you were able to do with the conditions with which you were working. These are wonderful!
My personal favorite has to be the one with my mom,the kids, and the coyote that wanted so badly to be petted. 🙂
Thanks, Susan. You have to make the barriers work in your favor one way or another;-)
And amazingly you made the barriers work for your pictures. The bird photos must have been the hardest because of the closeness of the squares in the wires.
Thanks, Lois!
Great shots! Beautiful!
Thanks, Herman!
Really beautiful pics, Tim! I especially love the Bobcat. He’s lying there so peacefully… 😉
Thanks, Erica. The bobcat was pretty peaceful ad almost looked happy.
The bobcat looks like one of our cats the way he/she was lying there… 😉
Even large, wild cats exhibit cat-like behavior;-)
Yes, they do!
Great post; there is a degree of sadness in the eyes of each of the animals…you captured an emotion and not just an image.
There is sadness in their eyes, and that’s why I said they were “fat and healthy” because they are not necessarily happy. On the other hand, they are not distressed either.
All the photos are just beautiful. I think the birds are especially interesting, since I would never be able to get this close to them. Thanks for sharing these fantastic pictures with us, Tim.
Thanks, Juanita!
Wow! What wonderful photos–you don’t very often get to see these animals so close up (except for the coyotes–we’ve seen them in our driveway). Thanks for sharing them with your “fans.”
Thanks!
Beautiful shots of beautiful animals. Sorry about them being in cages…sometimes I dream of letting all those out and free. Especially birds – what becomes of them when they are not allowed to soar up there? Will not their souls shrink? I can see it in their eyes.
The problem for these animals, is they were injured or were pets and cannot survive in the wild. In the case of all the birds they were hit by cars or shot or caught in traps, etc., and injured so they cannot fly very well, if at all. Some of them do look sad, but they are well cared for.
That’s good to hear. We have such places here too. I didn’t know (or didn’t understand) it was such a place.
I probably explained it in the blog from the day before. I often forget that the blogs stand on their own, especially when people just happen to find one in the middle of a series like this.
Yes, I picked a bit randomly…but I was looking for more on France and Paris too, but couldn’t find it. Wasn’t it in June?
France, — Paris, Provence, and Paris again — runs from May 12 to June 11.
Thank you!