Bobcat, Point Reyes National Seashore
A Bobcat Daydreams
Here’s a bobcat I saw a few days ago at Point Reyes. The sun was shining in his eyes, so he kept them closed most of the time.
Category: Bobcat
Some of My Favorite Images from 2018
Back in late 2007 a photographer by the name of Jim Goldstein invited other photographers to do blogs showing their 10 best photographs of that year and to send him a link to their blogs which he would then add to a list of the blogs of all who were participating. It was a great service to all who appreciated good photography. It gave me a handy list of photographers (mostly nature photographers) so I could easily look at what they were doing and how my work compared to theirs. I participated a couple of times, but somehow forgot about it. I saw a notice about it recently and decided to participate again.
2018 for me was highlighted by a trip to Tanzania hosted by the African Wildlife Foundation (Craig Sholley) and Nature’s Best Photography (Jeff Vanuga). They hired Thomson Safaris to deliver all the necessary services such as camps, food, drivers etc. All three were superb. I also made my regular trips to Point Reyes National Seashore, which is a short drive from my home.
Jim Goldstein used to ask that you list your 10 “best” photos. The limit of 10 was not strictly followed by most and Jim seems to have de-emphasized it nowadays. Picking what you think are your “best” photos is not easy. So, below is a list of “some” of my “favorite” photos of 2018 in no particular order.
Finally, Jim’s list of links won’t be out until about the second week in January and when it comes out I’ll insert a link here. here it is: https://www.jmg-galleries.com/blog/2019/01/08/photos-2018-jmggalleries-blog-readers/
For now, you can go to his blog touting the 2018 round and linking to all the previous rounds all the way back to 2007 by clicking here. Thanks Jim!
Coyote, Point Reyes National Seashore
Leopard, Serengeti National Park
Bobcat with Damaged Eye, Point Reyes National Seashore
Wildebeest Crossing Mara River, Serengeti National Park
Two Cheetahs Rest, Serengeti National Park
Mother Elephants and Calves, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania
Bobcat, Point Reyes National Seashore
Bobcat, Point Reyes National Seashore
Male African Lion, Serengeti National Park
Coyote, Point Reyes National Seashore
Elephants, Tarangire National Park
Coyote, Point Reyes National Seashore
Male Lion, Serengeti National Park
Coyote, Point Reyes National Seashore
Badger, Point Reyes National Seashore
Bobcat, Point Reyes National Seashore
Bobcat with Eye Injury
This is a much tighter crop than I would normally do, but I wanted to show you what appears to be a serious injury to this bobcat’s left eye. There is a black line that runs at a 45 degree angle in the eyeball. It may be blind in that eye. I’ve also seen two different badgers at Point Reyes with what seemed to have been serious eye injuries. One seemed to have no visible pupil in one eye and the other seemed to have no visible pupil in either eye. I assume the latter was totally blind. It had two cubs with it and it looked to be in good health.
I don’t know how these things happen, but one possibility is that they get poked in the eye by little bits of vegetation like broken branches or twigs.
Bobcat, Point Reyes National Seashore
I was at Point Reyes the other day. My old friend Handsome Bob, the bobcat, was there to greet me. I have known this bobcat for several years now. I call him Handsome Bob because he has very distinct spots makings along his sides where most bobcats have fewer and fainter markings.
My Old Friend, Handsome Bob
Handsome Bobcat, After Eating a Very Large Gopher
I’m not very happy photographing animals against white skies. It happens more with birds than mammals and I often don’t even bother, but Bob left me no choice. He was looking his handsome self and so I cranked up the exposure compensation and fired away. Bob looks good no matter what. To see larger versions of Bob’s photos, click to see my portfolio pages here and here.
Bobcat, Point Reyes National Seashore
A bobcat stops and poses in Point Reyes National Seashore.
This photo of a male bobcat was taken in March when things were still green out at Point Reyes. The landscape is mostly bare now, thanks to the 6,000 to 7,000 cattle living year-round on Park Service lands.
I just learned that people like me who blog, and who have arranged it so their blogs immediately appear on their Facebook Profile when published, will no longer be allowed by Facebook to do that starting tomorrow. One option is to start a Facebook Page. Facebook Pages aren’t subject to this new rule. I hope this change has a good purpose, like making it more difficult for the Russians to interfere with the 2018 election.
UPDATE: Facebook didn’t wait until August 1. I just checked and this post didn’t make it onto my Facebook Profile.
Bobcat, Point Reyes National Seashore
A bobcat crouches as it walks through the grass in Point Reyes National Seashore.
This bobcat photo was taken in Point Reyes National Seashore in early March. The grass was nice and green from the winter rains. It’s a different story now. Thanks to our Mediterranean climate, for the next six months you’re photographing most wildlife in brown grass and scattered green shrubs. In areas where there is no livestock grazing, the tall brown grass can be aesthetic. But where grazing has occurred, it loses that tall, aesthetic look. And where grazing has been heavy, it can get downright ugly. It’s that way in a lot of the ranching area of the Seashore. Needless to say, my favorite time of year to photograph wildlife in the Seashore is during the rainy season, from November or December through April.
Bobcats; Comparing Point Reyes National Seashore and Yellowstone National Park
I go to Point Reyes National Seashore (PRNS) often. It’s rare that I go and not see at least one bobcat. I also spend a month or so almost every year in Yellowstone National Park (YNP). Yet, I’ve never seen a bobcat there in spite of the fact that they do exist. I’ve often wondered why.
According to my most recent copy (2013) of the annual “Yellowstone Resources and Issues Handbook,” bobcat numbers in Yellowstone are “unknown, but generally widespread.” It says their habitat is in rocky areas and conifer forests. It goes on to say that they are rarely seen, with most reported sightings being in rocky areas and near rivers. I’ve seen a few online photos of them along the Madison River in winter. Given the lack of stated population numbers, I assume they haven’t been studied much in Yellowstone, if at all. I’m not aware of any bobcat study in PRNS either. I assume PRNS doesn’t know how many bobcats there are in PRNS, let alone what their habitat preferences are.
In any event, why do I see bobcats regularly in PRNS and never in YNP? I can only speculate. My best guess is that it has to do with where the bobcat finds itself in the predator pecking order in each place. In YNP the bobcat has to worry about grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, coyotes and mountain lions. In PRNS it’s just coyotes and a very, very few mountain lions. This may cause them to stick to the forests and other good cover in YNP without the same pressure to do so in PRNS. If so, this reminds me of what I found last spring photographing pumas (aka mountain lions) in Patagonia’s Torres del Paine National Park (TDPNP) and adjacent private land. There are no bears or wolves in TDPNP. There is a coyote-like predator there called the culpeo, but coyote-sized animals are no threat to a mountain lion. While mountain lions in YNP stay in good cover, in TDPNP they feel no need to hide. I saw 18 pumas in a week in TDPNP and all of them were in open areas – like the bobcats in PRNS.
