Coyote, Grizzly Bear, Other Bird, Pronghorn

My 10 Favorite Wildlife Photos of 2012

About a year ago I posted a blog with my 10 favorite wildlife photos from 2011.  Here are my 10 favorites for 2012.  Most of this year’s photos are from Yellowstone.

Photo of a female red fox with her kits.
Mom and the Kids

Finding and photographing this red fox vixen and her two kits was the best part of my trip to Yellowstone last spring.

Photo of red fox kits at play.
Fox Kits at Play

Baby animals are usually photogenic and these two certainly were.

Photo of pringhorn doe nursing her fawn.
Feeding Time

While on the subject of baby animals, this doe pronghorn kept her two fawns right around the Roosevelt Arch for a week or more.  They stopped a lot of cars.

Photo of a young grizzly bear.
A Grizzly Daydreams

This grizzly bear spent several days in May on the slopes above Yellowstone’s Soda Butte Creek feeding on grass, roots and whatever other vegetative material grizzlies feed on in the spring.

Photo of a grizzly bear.
Sad Looking Young Grizzly

I spent a fair amount of time photographing this bear.  It often looked sad to me.  I think it was a young bear and perhaps it was its first spring without its mother.

Photo of a mountain bluebird on a sage plant.
Mountain Bluebird on Sage

I always see mountain bluebirds in Yellowstone in the spring, but until this past May I’ve never really had any good opportunities to photograph them.  They seem to be constantly on the move.  This May was different.  They hung around.

Photo of a sandhill crane standing in a patch of sage.
A sandhill crane hunts in the sage.

There are always some sandhill cranes in Yellowstone in the nesting season.  They usually tend to be far off though.  You often hear them calling before you even spot them.  I was lucky here.

Photo of a male yellow-headed blackbird singing for a mate.
Love-sick Yellow-headed Blackbird, Yellowstone National Park

I don’t recall  ever having seen a yellow-headed blackbird in Yellowstone before this spring.  This male was singing to attract a mate I assume.  I spotted him while driving the road to the Slough Creek Campground.

Photo of white-crowned sparrow.
White-crowned Sparrow, Point Reyes National Seashore

There are a lot of white-crowned sparrows in Point Reyes National Seashore in the winter.  This male saved what was otherwise an uneventful day.

Coyote, Point Reyes National Seashore

Photo of a coyote staring at the camera.
Coyote Portrait

The coyotes I see in the ranching areas of Point Reyes are pretty wild.   By that I mean they don’t stick around when they see a human.  This individual was different.  He was comfortable with my photographing him.  He may have previously lived in an area with heavy human recreation use.

Point Reyes is my local Yellowstone.  It has a wide variety of wildlife considering where it is located.  No bison or moose, but it has elk and deer.  No wolves or bears, but it has coyotes, bobcats, badgers and one or more mountain lions.  You’ll see elk as easily as in Yellowstone and deer more easily.   You’ll see coyotes as easily as in Yellowstone and bobcats much more easily.

Well, that’s it.  My 10 favorites for 2012.  If you’d like to see my 10 favorites for 2011 click here.

Tule Elk

What’s Wrong with this Tule Elk at Point Reyes National Seashore?

Photo of an elk showing signs of Johne's Disease.
This elk’s ribs are sticking out and it has diarrhea.

This elk looks like it is starving, yet it has plenty of food in the Tule Elk Reserve at Tomales Point.  I’m not an expert, but the most likely cause of this animal’s condition is Johne’s Disease.

Johne’s (pronounced “Yo-nees”) Disease is a bacterial disease that affects the small intestine of ruminants (cows, sheep, elk, deer etc).  It is caused by Mycobacterium  avium paratuberculosis (“MAP”).  It embeds itself in the wall of the lower part of the small intestine.  As an immune response, the walls of the small intestine become thicker.  This thickening prevents the absorption of nutrients.  As a result, the animal loses weight and dies.   It is believed to have started in Europe and it is now a world-wide problem.  Sixty-eight percent of dairy herds in the United States are infected with MAP.  MAP leaves or exits infected animals in feces and milk.  It can survive outside a host animal for up to a year.  Even if the mother is not infected, her young can acquire it from her teats if they are contaminated with MAP-carrying manure.  Once it is in a herd it is virtually impossible to remove.  The above info was obtained from the following sites:  site1, site2.

NPS is aware that the herd is infected with Johne’s disease.  I don’t know to what extent research has been done on the herd.  Some of the questions I have wondered about are:   How many of the elk that die each year at Point Reyes die from MAP?  The herd at the Tule Elk Preserve does not seem to be growing.  What role does MAP play in that?  The Limantour herd came from the Preserve.  Is the mortality rate the same for both herds?  How many dairy ranches at Point Reyes have MAP-infected herds?  Is MAP increasing at Point Reyes?

Photo of elk with signs of Johne's Disease.
Rear view of the same elk in the first photo.
Other Bird

White-crowned Sparrow, Point Reyes National Seashore

Photo of white-crowned sparrow.
Chimney Rock Sparrow

I was out at Point Reyes yesterday afternoon.  The afternoons go by pretty quickly this time of year. I should be getting there at first light.  I saw a coyote and a bobcat, but neither rewarded me with a very good photo.  The bobcat decided to see how low he could lie in the grass and the coyote chose to walk in an area that didn’t provide a very good background.    I was hopeful of seeing a badger, but had no luck there as usual.

The more common wildlife like elk, deer and birds often save the day.  So it was yesterday.  There were a lot of white-crowned sparrows near the Chimney Rock parking lot.  This guy, and some of his kin, took turns posing for me for a while.

Coyote

Coyote, Point Reyes National Seashore

Photo of a coyote.
On the Hunt

In my last post I mentioned that I saw a coyote on the H Ranch.  It was hunting for rodents.  It didn’t catch any rodents while I was there, but it did eat something that looked like it came from a cow dropping.

Coyotes cover a lot of territory each day.  You never know where you’ll see one at Point Reyes, but when you drive by the H Ranch (before Abbott’s Lagoon) look carefully.  You have a good chance of seeing one there.

Tule Elk

What’s Wrong With This Bull Elk?

Photo of bull tule elk.
Bull Elk Exhibiting Hair Loss

I was at Point Reyes yesterday afternoon.  It was my first time out there in quite a while.  There’s been enough rain that most ground cover has turned a nice, rich green.  I saw a coyote on the H Ranch which is a fairly common place to spot a coyote, and Handsome Bob, the bobcat I so named because he has such a striking coat of spots, was in his accustomed place just outside the tule elk reserve.  (For a post about Handsome Bob click here.)  There were a number of elk on the D Ranch (by Drake’s Bay).  The bulls were in one group before the ranch complex and the cows and calves were in another group past the ranch complex.  At the elk reserve on the Tomales Peninsula some bulls were with the cows and they were acting like the rut is still on there.

This big bull (7×8 points) was in his accustomed place for late afternoons which is just past the Kehoe Ranch complex in the swale on the right side of the road.  He’s one of about 5 bull elk that somehow got out of the reserve some time in the past several years.  He seems to be alone every time I see him.  The other four seem to stay together.

Yesterday was the first time I noticed that there is something wrong with his coat.  My guess is that he has mange/scabies, but I’m no expert.  I did a quick google search and found that elk do get mange.  For a study done regarding mange at the National Elk Refuge (NER) at Jackson Hole, click here.  Mange is caused by a mite that burrows very deep into the skin.  It can cause death due to hair loss and hypothermia.  The NER report states that bulls die of it at a much higher rate than cows and it was thought that the higher mortality rate was due to the debilitated state bulls are in at the start of winter due to the fall rut.  The report also states that if hair loss extends from the neck to more than one quarter the length of the back the case is considered severe.

Mange is spread by contact. I have no idea to what extent the elk herd at Point Reyes has a mange problem, but since this bull is outside the reserve and doesn’t even seem to spend time with the other four bulls, his case wouldn’t seem to be cause for concern for the rest of the herd.  I also have no idea what his prognosis is or how he got the mange (if that’s what it is)  given his solitary habits.  At least he doesn’t have to deal with cold winters like the elk at the National Elk Refuge.

Uncategorized

Featured Artist at Riverfront Art Gallery

Photo depicting a portion of my show at the Riverfront Art Glallery.
Part of My Show, Riverfront Art Gallery

I usually post something at least every seven days, but I’ve fallen a little behind this time.  The reason is I’ve been putting together an exhibit at the Riverfront Art Gallery in Petaluma.  About a quarter of my show is depicted in the above photo.

The show is titled “Wildlife as Art” and is comprised of about two dozen of my favorite images from Alaska, Yellowstone and nearby Point Reyes National Seashore.  Most of the prints are on canvas with gallery wrap-style framing.

There will be a reception tomorrow, November 10, from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.   I hope you can make it, but, if not, stop by later.    The show runs through January 6th.

A word about the Riverfront Art Gallery.  It’s located at 132 Petaluma Boulevard North in Petaluma, CA.   The gallery is the creation of two local photographers, Lance Kuehne and Jerrie Jerne Morago, who wanted to open a high-end art gallery in Petaluma that would feature some of the best artists in the North San Francisco Bay Area.  The gallery has been open for a little over five years and has  been voted best art gallery in Sonoma County for the past five years.

The gallery operates as a co-op with about 20 members of which I am one.  For more info on the gallery click here.

Landscape

Another View of the Sierras from Bishop

This photo is a view of the Sierras with rabbit brush in the foreground. This photo was taken from Bishop, California.
The Sierras with a Foreground of Rabbit Brush

Here is another photo of the Sierras from Bishop.  It was taken at the same spot, but a short time after the image in the previous post.  The light has changed a bit and I’ve gone from a wide angle perspective (32mm) to a short telephoto perspective (70mm).  I tried other focal lengths, such as 85mm and 105mm, and they placed more emphasis on the size of the mountains.  I also didn’t like the fact that the trees were emphasized too much at those higher focal lengths.   The previous photo gave greater emphasis to the rabbit brush foreground.  I was a bit taken by the rabbit brush when I was shooting, but I think I like this image the most.   The foreground, midground and background seem more balanced.