Bald Eagle, Alaska
Bald Eagle, Alaska
I took this photo on a dark day in the winter of 2009. If you’d like to see more bald eagle photos, click here.
Cows in Creek; Point Reyes National Seashore
I was at Point Reyes National Seashore last Thursday. K Ranch beef cows were in Kehoe Creek again. There is a fence just a bit beyond the top border of the video that fails occasionally. This scene is the result. The fence should be relocated to the top of the large slope above the creek to keep manure out of the creek in wet periods, but that would remove many acres from the ranch’s grazing area. I emailed the Park Service about the cows and they replied that the rancher had been notified.
There is a planning process underway to determine if ranching should continue on these national park lands or whether the lands should be managed to protect and restore them to a natural condition as required in national parks. Perhaps the most controversial issue is whether the 125 elk that roam through the park’s ranching area should be shot because they eat grass and the ranchers feel that as permittees on park lands their cows are entitled to all the grass. The Park Service has never allocated any forage to elk or other wildlife in the permits.
If you look and listen carefully, you’ll see the top cow defecate and fart at the end of the video. Kehoe Creek, which begins and ends within the Seashore, is rated as one of the most polluted streams in California.
Hooded Merganser, San Francisco
A female hooded merganser swims in Lloyd Lake.
This is one of many photos I shot several years ago at a little lake in Golden Gate Park called Lloyd Lake. I’m a little leery of going there nowadays with my camera gear because of the crime rate.
Brown Bear, Lake Clark National Park
Brown Bear, Lake Clark National Park
This is a photo from a few years ago in Lake Clark National Park. This female brown bear was feeding on sedge grass, a very important food source until the salmon spawning runs begin. Her cub was just out of the photo.
California Quail; Northern California
A California quail sits on a fence post.
Some days are slow and you’re happy to see a handsome bird like this male California quail sitting on a fence post. A clean background makes it all the better.
Favorite Blog Photos of 2019
Here are some of my favorite photos that I blogged about in 2019.
A bull tule elk feeds at sunset inside the elk enclosure at Point Reyes National Seashore.
At Point Reyes National Seashore 400-500 elk are kept locked up behind an 8-foot tall woven-wire fence to keep them away from the ranchers who live on and control 28,000 acres of park land and raise 6,000 dairy cows, beef cattle and sheep. NPS bought their ranches decades ago, but never removed them. The 28,000 acres are managed as the ranchers want, not as lands in a national park are supposed to be managed. I know of no other national park where wildlife is locked up like in a zoo for the visitors to see.
A night view of Angel Island, Alcatraz and San Francisco.
Mountains and fog at dawn in Torres del Paine National Park
A mother guanaco and her chulengo appear before sunrise in Torres del Paine National Park.
A red fox mom returns to her den with an arctic hare to feed her kits in Yellowstone National Park.
Three lionesses are on the hunt in Serengeti National Park.
A bald eagle perches on a limb in Alaska.
A male elephant walks near a wetland in Tarangire National Park, Tanzania.
An African lioness surveys her domain in Serengeti National Park.
A coyote stops just before sunset as it travels across a ranch pasture in Point Reyes National Seashore.
The National Park Service purchased the ranches several decades ago, but it has never made the ranchers leave.
One bald eagle bites another at Homer, Alaska.
A coyote walks across a ranch pasture full of non-native European grasses in Point Reyes Seashore.
The National Park Service prioritizes private ranching over wildlife in Point Reyes National Seashore. This is the worst example of privatizing a national park that I am aware of. It involves 28,000 acres of national park land. If anyone knows of a worse example, please let me know.
Bull Tule Elk; Point Reyes National Seashore
A bull tule elk feeds at sunset.
This photo was taken during the last few minutes of daylight in 2019. It was a sunny day with no fog. This bull is one of the over 400 elk that are kept locked up inside a 2,600 acre enclosure. There are no perennial streams in the enclosure. The elk are dependent on old farm ponds that were dug decades ago before the Park Service bought the ranches. Unfortunately, these ponds dry up in drought years. About 250 elk died during the drought several years ago. Perennial streams exist not far outside the enclosure.
You may be wondering why they are kept penned up. It’s so the elk won’t bother the ranchers who live with their 6,000 cattle and sheep on about 25,000 acres of park land and do so at about half the rental rates for ranch lands outside the park.
When the Seashore was asked why the Park Service didn’t do anything to save the elk during the drought, the Park Service said that it was Park Service policy to let nature take its course. But in nature there are no eight-foot tall woven-wire elk-proof fences.
