Another Bobcat

I decided to go out to Point Reyes National Seashore last Friday to see what was going on there.  My main hope was to get a good photo of a bobcat.    I don’t think I’ve been out there since late June when I was fortunate enough to see and photograph one.  Not long after leaving the house I spotted something out of the corner of my eye.  It was a bobcat sitting in a farm field.

Lucky me.  I wanted to stop, but couldn’t.  The road’s shoulders were steep and narrow and there were cars going in both directions.  I drove about a quarter mile to where I could turn around and drove back. The bobcat was still sitting there.  I drove past it to a spot where I could pull off the road.  Some trees screened me from the bobcat.  I usually don’t assemble my gear until I get to Point Reyes.  My gear was all neatly stowed away and I’d have to pull the big lens out, attach the Tele-converter and camera body to it and then attach my Wimberley head to the tripod and extend its legs and attach the camera/lens to it.  I also noticed I hadn’t put a flash card in the camera.   (Good thing I noticed that then.)  After what seemed like forever I had everything together and walked quietly along the trees to where they ended hoping the bobcat would still be there.  It was.  I shot several frames before the bobcat turned and looked at me.  It let me shoot about 30 more frames and then decided that it didn’t like the fact that I was staring at it and not moving.  It finally decided it had had enough of me and split.

It was a good day regardless of what I’d see at Point Reyes.  As I drove on to Point Reyes I vowed to be ready to photograph when I left home from now on.  That bobcat could have moved on while I was fumbling with my gear.  Next time it could be the holy grail — a mountain lion.  One was spotted near here a year ago.