Gary Baird wildlife program held Feb. 15

On February 15, wildlife photographer Gary Baird presented an entertaining 90-minute travel program at Sunset River Gallery in Calabash about his 13,075-mile trip throughout the U.S. and Canada. The former high school principal and wife Sue left North Carolina in July 2024 and visited 15 different states, exploring 12 national parks in the U.S. and five more in Canada.  “My wife had never seen a moose in the wild,” Gary said, “So that was one of our big goals.”

The couple’s expedition took them through New York and Pennsylvania, the Great Lakes region, Death Valley and the Sierras in California, Utah, the Dakotas, Minnesota for waterfalls, and more. A highlight of the trip – and the presentation – was a side trip to Churchill, Manitoba, Canada on Hudson Bay, where the venturesome couple embarked on a tundra buggy adventure, a helicopter trip, and a Zodiac ride on the bay.  Here they encountered polar bears, sandhill cranes, foxes, bison, beluga whales, tundra swans, and other wildlife – all documented by Gary. It was in Walden, Colorado that the Bairds finally spotted some moose, four bulls and three cows. Mission accomplished.

Gary Baird displays his photographs at Sunset River Gallery.

About Sunset River Gallery

Located in coastal Brunswick County, NC, Sunset River Gallery caters to both area visitors and a growing local community of full-time residents seeking fine art for their homes and businesses. Featuring works by over 100 fine regional artists including Betty Anglin Smith, Debanjana Bhattacharjee, Janet Sessoms, and Richard Staat, among others, the gallery is well known in the area for its selection of oil paintings; watermedia; pastels; photography; hand-blown, stained, and fused glass; pottery and clay sculpture; turned and carved wood; unique home décor items; and artisan jewelry.

There are two onsite kilns and five wheels used by the gallery’s pottery students. The gallery also offers ongoing oil/acrylic and watercolor classes as well as workshops by nationally known instructors.

The gallery’s carefully curated selection of investment-grade 20^th century fine art is one of the largest in the Carolinas. Current inventory can be found in the gallery website’s 20^th Century Artists section. It includes works by Wolf Kahn (1927-2020), Raimonds Staprans (1926), Angel Botello (1913-1986), Vladimir Cora (1951), Fritz Scholder (1937-2005), Ginny Crouch Stanford (1950), and two bronze sculptures by Milton Hebald (1930 – 2010).

Shown: Moose in Walden, Colorado, detail. Photograph by Gary Baird

Sunset River Gallery