RW Safaris

29/08/2024

A group of little penguins making their way in from a full day at sea searching for food. These little penguins found in Australia and New Zealand are nocturnal coming in only after dark to their nesting areas.

29/08/2024

A male kangaroo carefully eyes me down as I photograph the females in his mob.

26/08/2024

The birds in Tasmania and Australia are absolutely stunning and loud! This yellow tailed black cockatoo was flying back and forth with a flock of 5-10 birds at any given time. As they flew back and forth through the forest they screamed and shrilled so loudly it was hard to not know where they were.

25/08/2024

Fun fact about wombats… other than they are so adorable…. Their p**p is shaped like squares !!

24/08/2024

Another lucky sighting was this adorable Tasmanian Devil. These animals were once thought to be vicious because of the sounds they make … however they are actually not predators at all in fact they are scavengers looking for sick and already dead animals. Think of a hyena.

24/08/2024

Traveled to the land down under and even further south to the island of Tasmania to find some new creatures that were on my wildlife bucket list. The first is the very elusive duck billed platypus. An animal I’ve been dreaming about seeing in the wild since I was probably 5 years old. We got very lucky on our first location we found 3 in one pond. We were able to watch them for about 20-25 mins before they disappeared. Hoping to find at least one more as we continue our adventure through the mainland over the next 10 days.

11/06/2024

Want a way to lower your stress and anxiety?

Find somewhere quiet maybe the woods or in front of a lake or alone in your house…

And just scream… I mean seriously let it rip!

They say screaming can function as a form of catharsis, a healthy release of pent-up emotions and stress. By vocalising intense feelings, we can experience a sense of relief and gain better control over our emotions. It’s like hitting a reset button for our emotional state.

11/06/2024

What I love about photographing birds is how much character they have of you just sit and watch them.

Two kittiwakes sitting on an iceberg.

10/06/2024

Walking into the week with good vibes after an exciting trip to Svalbard …. Now the long haul back to the US.

09/06/2024

When birds attack… two guillemots took to the water after one tried to take the other’s perch on the cliff wall. While they continued to fight other guillemots took their space on the cliff.

08/06/2024

On an Arctic Adventure together… a little Arctic tern and a polar bear journey off into the wilderness together.

07/06/2024

Anyone else feel like they need a good cuddle with this guy?

07/06/2024

When you want to show what pure chaos is as 1000+ birds are floating in the water in their nesting area… you slow down the shutter speed.

The nesting area of the guillemots is quite impressive over 60,000 mating pairs fight for tiny rock edges on the sides on these stunning cliffs.

01/06/2024

Heading north with ! Hoping to capture a few amazing photos of walrus on the ice !! Fingers crossed!!🤞

14/05/2024

Doing some research for school videos and came across this fun fact: Of course Plastic Bags are the worst for the environment. They are not recyclable and most people don't reuse them.

So then, we think well paper bags are a much better option right? They compost so nicely in my garden... Well no, because in the US alone for paper bags we cut down 14 MILLION Trees.

So the best and only option you should consider for all shopping is : Reusable Bags.

I always challenge people to pick one thing a year that you can do better for the planet. This is an easy one.

I always hear the excuse but I left my bags in the car... well, you can easily do any shopping Costco style and just put your groceries back into your car without a bag. They will survive I promise you.

My biggest pet peeve is when I see people walk out of a store with one small handle held item in a plastic bag. It's so unnecessary. We can't rely on anyone else to help the planet. We individually each need to play our own roll.

24/01/2024

Blue beauty...

This photo is actually from Antarctica in 2016.

18/01/2024

Take a trip with me to one of the stops on our trip to Antarctica in Fortuna Bay- South Georgia :

King Penguins in the thousands greet us as we venture in to Fortuna Bay in South Georgia - Photography by Kathleen Ricker

13/01/2024

My first winter in about 8 years that I won't be going to East Africa... Taking a hiatus for 2 years from traveling to Africa in order to build up my client base Wildlife Tours starting back Jan 2026.

30/12/2023

And they say penguins can't fly... Truth is they fly through the water... breaching frequently so that they can breathe while speeding through the water.

This is a gentoo penguin.

14/12/2023

Ordering a set of beautiful penguin holiday cards for this year. If you would like a one of a kind holiday card from Antarctica- DM me your mailing address.

11/12/2023

Another amazing trip to Antarctica… after 30 days on a boat I am looking forward to traveling home to solid land 🙂

19/04/2023

Trying to figure out how to get out of Thanksgiving with your family next year? We are now Booking a Wildlife Tour during Thanksgiving 2023.
We have an amazing adventure planned including meeting the last 2 Northern White Rhinos, a chance to see the elusive Black Leopard, and of course Lions, Cheetahs, Elephants, Giraffes, and so much more! We will be staying at all my favorite Lodging along the way!
We only have 10 Spots available - The cost is $6550 and includes everything except your flight to Kenya,Kenya Visa, personal purchases, and drinks at meals.
www.RickersWildlifeSafaris.com

25/03/2023

Trek 6/6 was with the Mukiza family in the Ruhija sector of the park. This was the first time I trekked this section. While it was probably the most difficult literally climbing through the jungle...holding on to vines on the side of a mountain... it was also the most beautiful sector of the park. Trekking through here really felt like you were in the movies.

I wanted to trek with this family because it currently had 5 newborns (Babies under the age of 2) although 5 days after I left they added another newborn to their family! The family is quite big and since when we found them they were eating it was harder to see them through the thick bush. At the very end a mother and her newborn came out to sit in the perfect spot for some last second photos.

Mukiza group formerly called Kyaguliro B is found in Ruhija tourism sector of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and is led by the dominant Silverback Mukiza. The group was formed in May 2016 after the split of the main Kyaguliro group. Mukiza group is also dedicated for gorilla research by Manx Planc Institute (MPI) for Evolutionary Anthropology. MPI researches mainly on the group’s behavioural ecology and conducts daily monitoring visits to the group. Just like Rukara group, Mukiza group is known for spending almost all its time in the inner forest and very rarely gets close to the forest’s peripherals. Following the birth of two new babies in 2021, the group is currently composed of 15 individuals including 1 Silverback, 7 Adult females, 1 Sub-adult, 1 Juvenile and 5 Infants.

25/03/2023

More Gorilla Trekking Adventures. This was trek 3/6 in Mgahinga National Park. Mgahinga is part of the Volcanos or Virunga Mountain system which is shared with Congo and Rwanda. Often times there are gorilla families which will migrate between the three countries. On the Uganda side Mgahinga has one family that you can trek with and I have been fortunate to trek with them twice!

The Nyakagezi gorilla family is the only fully habituated gorilla group in Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. The Nyakagezi family is composed of 9 members; 4 silver backs, 2 infants, 2Adults females 1 juvenile. The dominant silverback is Mark who took over leadership from his father Bugingo. The other members include Mathew and Mafia (silverbacks), Nyiramwiza and Nshuti (adult females), Nkanda (juvenile), Mutagamba and Rukundo (Infant). Bugingo the oldest silverback is believed to be more than 54 years. A rare but an interesting fact about the Nyakagezi group is that Bugingo still lives in the family yet in most cases, once the dormant silverback is overthrown, he is banished and dies in isolation or seeks refuge from other gorilla groups.

This is one of my favorite families to visit and when you book tours with us it's the first trekking permits we look for.

19/03/2023

My 5th trek was also in the Buhoma sector of Bwindi National Park. This trek was with a family who had been recently habituated named Binyido. Binyido's silverback's name is flat nose because... well he has a flat nose.

This group had been habituated within the last 4 years which means they still aren't as comfortable with humans as some of the groups who have been habituated for over 10 years.

This group was a little harder to photograph because they were in the darker parts of the forest which meant my iso was at 6400 the whole time. They are still a smaller family so they only had 2 young ones but those young ones were still very active.

The trek in wasn't too bad. We followed a gentle rolling trail for about 30 minutes and then the family was not too far off the trail into the forest. Because the family is still new to having visitors and because they are smaller they tended to stay closer together vs some larger families that spread out. There was a gorilla who came and joined the group half way through our hour and it startled the whole family.

19/03/2023

People often ask me where is my favorite place that I've traveled to. I've been all over the world and the place that always calls me back is Uganda. I truly love the people, landscapes, what they can do with a banana... but mostly I love Gorillas.

I have been trekking with gorillas 18 times. 16 times with Mountain Gorillas and twice with Eastern Lowlands. I'm working my way to my 20th trek this summer but this past winter I decided that I wanted to try trekking 6 times in a row.

Every single trek was so incredibly different. I met 6 families in 4 different sectors of the park. Two of which I had met before.

I am editing through photos of my treks in a random order. This trek in the Buhoma sector of Bwindi national Park was probably my favorite of the trip. We had the most active family most likely because we caught them as they were climbing down from where they were sleeping. This family was named Rushegura.

The Rushegura gorilla family was brought together in 2002, after one of the silverbacks from the Habinyanja group decided to break away. They started with 12 individuals including 5 females. Rushegura group is also known for foraging closer to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park’s headquarters (Buhoma) and for visiting local community gardens around its home range areas. Following several births, the group grew from 12 to now 19 individuals including 2 Silverback, 3 Blackbacks, 6 Adult females, 1 Sub-adult, 3 Juveniles and 4 Infant.

Here are some of my favorite photos from trekking with the Rushegura family!

If you or someone you know wants to go gorilla trekking DM me. I book private and group photography tours to Uganda and Rwanda to trek with the amazing mountain gorillas! Stay tuned to meet more of the families I trekked with each day this week!

03/03/2023

Meet Craig one of the last Tuskers in the world. A Tusker is an elephant (male or female) with extra large tusks. These elephants use to be found all over the place but because of poaching for their tusks Elephants have learned to adapt. Many elephants not just in Kenya but all over Africa can now be found with short little tusks. Just enough for them to use but not to attract people .

Craig is 51 years old. Sadly, many of his friends have died over the past two years because of the severe drought in Kenya. Craig was also showing signs of weight loss. You can see in this image he has dimples in above his head. These pockets are normally even throughout his entire head.

It was so wonderful to be in Craig’s presence tonight!

27/02/2023

Just a lion and his Mohawk…

27/02/2023

Sometimes you just need to push harder…

26/02/2023

Honeymooning lions… I mean do I really need to say much more ?