Hawk, Peregrine Falcon

Peregrine Falcon, Point Reyes National Seashore

Peregrine Falcon, Point Reyes National Seashore

Female Peregrine takes wing with its prey.

As I was leaving Point Reyes a few days ago I noticed this female peregrine perched on a fence post with her recent kill. I pulled over and photographed her as she alternatively plucked feathers and fed. After several minutes she decided it was time to go. She flew right over me, but I had too long a lens to photograph her once she left the post. Point Reyes is a good place for seeing not only elk and other mammals, but also various birds, including birds of prey.

Eagle

Bald Eagle, Alaska

Bald Eagle, Alaska

Bald Eagle; Kachemak Bay, Alaska

I’m leaving a web host that I’ve been with for 10 years and creating a new site elsewhere for displaying my photos.  It’s slow work because the size and resolution for all the photos is different from the old site.  It’s been good in one way though.  After ten years, I have come to the realization that some of the images don’t deserve to be on the new site.  Others do, but need to be processed not just from a master file, but from scratch because I don’t think I did a very good job processing them previously.

I’ve made the first go-round for Birds and Mammals (I’ve barely begun the Landscapes Portfolio) and I’m now digging a little deeper in my photo catalogs.  Here’s a bald eagle photo that I didn’t put up in the first round, but I think I will.  (Good day to post a bald eagle image.)  If you’d like to take a look at what bald eagle images I have up so far you can click here.

Great Gray Owl

Great Gray Owl, Grand Teton National Park

A great gray owl roosts in Grand Teton National Park.

This great gray owl was a frequent visitor to the Moose-Wilson Road area when I was there in the spring of 2015.  It was very popular with photographers.  It was popular with scientists too.  That resulted in multiple leg bands and a radio with antenna.  Most of the time the bands and antenna were not noticeable, however, unlike the collars on wolves and grizzlies in Yellowstone.

Kestrel

Kestrel, Point Reyes National Seashore

Male Kestrel Point Reyes National Seashore

A male kestrel perches on a metal fence post.

I love to photograph kestrels, especially the males because of that additional gray/blue color.  I would have preferred a wooden fence post here, or better yet, a nice tree branch.  The post reminds me of a photo contest rule that the camera clubs in the SF Bay Area followed when I was a member of one of the clubs.  I think it was referred to as the Hand-of-Man Rule.  As I recall, if you entered a photo in the nature/wildlife category, there couldn’t be anything in the photo that was man-made.   Obviously, this photo wouldn’t qualify, and rightly so.   I might be more sympathetic if the metal post were a wooden one, especially if the post were very old and weathered, but rules are rules and it’s not easy to make exceptions.  They did have an exception though, which I thought made the whole rule kind of stupid.  As I recall, the exception allowed for photos of wildlife that were collared or tagged in some way.   I could never figure out the justification for that one.  My only thought was that when they wrote the rule there was someone involved in the rule-writing who had a photo of a tagged or collared animal that he/she really wanted to enter in a contest in the wildlife category.  As I write this I wonder if some photos I took recently of a coyote in a field planted with silage for later mowing and feeding to livestock would be prohibited by the hand-of-man rule.  Writing clear rules (or laws) is not easy.

Rocky Mountain Elk

Elk Calf, Yellowstone National Park

Elk Calf Yellowstone National Park

An elk calf looks at the camera.

My favorite time of year to be in Yellowstone is now.  To be more specific, I like to be there from mid May to mid June.  The main reason, of course, is all the baby animals.  But that’s not all.  The colors are fantastic then also.  Yes, the crowds can be frustrating.  I remember going there in the early 1970’s to photograph wildlife and I never saw another serious photographer.  Really.

I didn’t go this year and I really miss it.

Bobcat

Bobcat, Point Reyes National Seashore

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.

Mountain Goat

Mountain Goats, Yellowstone

Photo Mountain Goats Yellowstone

A nanny goat and her kid rest in the Hoodoos Area of Yellowstone.

It’s not easy to see mountain goats in Yellowstone.  There is a viewing location in the northeast part of the park on the road to Cooke City.  Look for the sign that says Barronette Peak.  But the goats are quite a distance away for viewing, even if you have a spotting scope.   Occasionally they show up in the Golden Gate Area which is the Gardner River Canyon you drive through before topping out at Swan Lake Flat.  The area is also called the Hoodoo Area.  Both names refer to the color of the rocks.  I saw these mountain goats in the canyon early one morning.  I posted an earlier article about a billy goat in the same area.

The Park Service says mountain goats are not native to Yellowstone, but the result of the introduction of mountain goats for hunting by the State of Montana in the 1940s and 1950s.  Apparently, they were released not that far from the northern portion of Yellowstone and they became established in the northern portions of the park in the 1990s.  The Park Service also says they may be having a negative effect on bighorn sheep by competing for food.  The Park Service is doing research now with other agencies on mountain goat ecology and to determine the effect of the goats on bighorn sheep.  Here’s a video about the harm caused by Yellowstone mountain goats.

The Park Service uses the time period of when European man arrived in North America as a goal, time-wise, for protecting, preserving and restoring our national parks.  The Park Service is saying the goats weren’t there then.  I don’t have any problem with the Park Service’s idea of striving for conditions like those that existed when European man arrived in this country.  In fact, I totally support that policy.  But the goats are native to parts of the western United States.  What if the goats were in the Yellowstone area 10,000 or 100,000 years ago?  Would the policy still say they aren’t native?  I don’t know, but I would support treating the goats as native in that case.