The photo that captivated my attention was of a peregrine falcon chasing a bald eagle on the beach, his wings sweeping toward the eagle’s outstretched black feathers. It was such a close-up that you could see into their eyes – those wild, ferocious eyes – at the very moment of attack.

Another photo in the display during the Stormy Weather Arts Festival was of several baby birds, all with their mouths open waiting in anticipation for the worm to be dropped into their gullets by Mom or Dad.

Neal Maine and his grandson, Michael Wing, stand in streams or oceans or behind bushes for many hours, waiting for the perfect shot. Whether the photos are of elk in the fog, an otter on a riverbank or salmon swimming upstream, those pictures convey the magic we all wish we could experience ourselves.

An excerpt from an article in the North Coast Land Conservancy’s fall newsletter, CoastView, captures the richness we may often overlook in our busy lives:

“On a recent photographic stake-out of an otter den along the Necanicum estuary, NCLC founder Neal Maine got distracted by a green heron having an argument with a killdeer.

Then another bird began shrieking at the heron while, off to one side, some nutria were playing on the riverbank. Suddenly an osprey dove into the water and came up with a fish in its talons. As Maine watched, the osprey rise into the sky, another big bird caught his eye: a bald eagle clutching a crab, winging south toward its nest in a Sitka spruce high above Circle Creek.”

Who of us hasn’t encountered an elk herd on a walk in our watershed or even on the beach? How many warnings do we hear about keeping our cats inside when coyotes roam in our woods?

Just ask those at the Wildlife Center of the North Coast how many animals live here – they have filled their building with injured creatures, including owls, common murres, bobcats, beavers and other furry and feathered friends.

The thing is, as Maine pointed out to me while I pawed through his prints and gawked at the photos on the display at the Stormy Weather Arts Festival, these animals are all in our backyard; they’re part of our community. Yet, most of us seem to take our “wild life” for granted, or maybe we just don’t pay attention.

As we drive by Neawanna Point between Seaside and Gearhart, do we search out a blue heron perched on a submerged log, waiting to sample a fish?

Do we really appreciate the fact that deer roam through the forests that border us, or do these graceful, gentle animals strike terror in our hearts when we see them on the edge of the highway we are traveling?

How many of us take the time to follow the “whale spoken here” signs leading to Ecola State Park and actually try to see the whales on their migration past our coast?

When a raccoon meanders down the path in my backyard, I freeze in fear. Instead of learning to live with them, I do everything I can to avoid even seeing them.

OK, maybe a raccoon isn’t as wondrous as a soaring hawk, but they both have found the North Coast as appealing a place to live as we have.

We celebrate our majestic woods, our ocean, the rivers running through our towns, the rolling Clatsop Plains. We tend to be smug about the absolute beauty of our North Coast niche.

But we have to learn to share – not only with the visitors who might even appreciate more than we do the wildlife in our backyard – but with the animals themselves.

There are ways to both enjoy and enhance our natural landscape.

First, there’s the “Return of the Salmon,” which honors the salmon returning to our streams. The potluck ceremony will begin at 6 p.m. Saturday in the Cannon Beach Chamber of Commerce community room.

Then there are volunteer activities sponsored by the North Coast Land Conservancy, which Maine directed for 10 years before retiring. The conservancy has worked to conserve more than 2,000 coastal acres for the past 25 years.

Stewardship days offer time for volunteers to help out. On Nov. 19, for example, hundreds of willows will be planted to provide food and shelter for beavers at Stanley Marsh in Seaside, near the junction of Lewis & Clark and Wahanna roads. Participants can tour some of the beaver dam complexes that have been established along Thompson Creek and the marsh.

Such stewardship days are planned nearly every month; see the conservancy website for information at http://nclctrust.org

Those who may not want to work in the rain but still want to soak up knowledge about the land around us can attend the conservancy’s “Listening to the Land” lecture series on the third Wednesday of the month through April at the Seaside Public Library or the “World of Haystack Rock” series on the first Thursday of every month through April. Both lecture series are free. For the Haystack Rock lecture calendar, see http://friendsofhaystackrock.org

We will always admire photos of elk grazing in a meadow, a songbird in silhouette or an otter posing for his close-up. But there’s nothing like going out into our own backyard to experience the magic.

Nancy McCarthy is the South County reporter for The Daily Astorian. Her columns appear every other week in The Daily Astorian.