Finding Refuge While Photographing Wildlife
Restoring balance and spiritual renewal
I am a little over 2 months post-back surgery, and my wife and I decided to do a short road trip to Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge in northwest Missouri. I was drawn to the location after seeing a news video about the large numbers of eagles at this refuge. While we did not see a lot of eagles, I found something else: a few days of spiritual renewal. As well as the wildlife, the area became my refuge as well.
I have dealt with surgeries before. At this point we pretty much have a routine established for the recuperation period. If anything I find the waiting for the surgery to take place is the hardest part. I am vulnerable to fears during that stretch. Once the surgery has been completed and we get the initial “all went well” , then it’s a matter of getting through recuperation. That requires daily attention to even mundane tasks.
This go around was no different. We had to adapt our home to accommodate my temporary limitations. I got extraordinary support from my wife on a daily basis to get through it all. Photographers always have to decide where to focus. My focus was on self-care to get through the healing process.
The physical part of that is well underway. Every day I see progress, and am really glad we went through with the procedure. I am 71, and if I have an opportunity to better enjoy this season of life I will do it.
What was difficult was being away from what I love to do. Being creative is the most fulfilling thing I have ever been able to do. I truly enjoy the process of producing photos and videos. When I am finished with one project I am eager to get into the next. But all of that goes on hold while I deal with the primary need to get through the surgery to the other aide.
It’s also complicated by the fact that It has been a tough time already in 2026. Every day the news highlights yet another major calamity. It is important to stay informed. But I think there is a difference between being informed and being subsumed. One helps you formulate a position and speak your mind. The other can eventually be demobilizing, if not demoralizing.
I have learned that finding balance has been the best way for me to move forward. I think the best example is when I became attracted to bird photography during COVID. We had to isolate a lot from one another, so opportunities to photograph people dropped significantly. So since birds were totally out of that travail, it was a great way to continue practicing what I love to do. With birds what I found was this incredible universe of detail and information I had never been aware of. It was like a whole new universe to start exploring.
To be clear,. I am not a birder, I am just a photographer who likes to take photos of birds. But I have learned some things along the way. I am relentlessly curious about the migratory process. This season I learned that the Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge is right in the Central flyway, the North-South migratory path which follows the Great Plains east of the Rocky Mountains from the the Canadian Arctic to South America. Up to 400 species travel through the flyway during winter and spring. We were visiting right at late winter-early spring. It was a logical place to visit to continue this journey.
I began to connect emotionally as we drove onto the refuge. It’s exciting, not knowing what you will see. My wife and I paid attention to every movement, and every moment was filled with wonder. In terms of species we did find 2 Eagles, a few ducks, Trumpeter Swans, and even a Blue Heron, but by far we were most captivated by seeing thousands of snow geese gathered on the waterway.. It was just extraordinary. Noisy as all get out too, but big gatherings tend to be that way, regardless of species.
While getting involved like that all thoughts of recovery from surgery, or political discord, simply receded. It was replaced by a level of comfort, of involvement in the moment. We were observing an event that, according to Scientific American, has been going on for “at least hundreds of thousands to millions of years, largely driven by climate change and resource availability”. That sense of being a part of something that has been going on forever connects us to life itself.
On the way home from the Refuge we spent the night in Kearney, Nebraska, itself a site of the extraordinary Sandhill Crane migration. I have been there before and it was a thrill to be there again. Seeing and hearing the cranes brought me to a moment where I was filled with appreciation for the opportunity to be with them again. Those are special moments. That is food for the soul.
