This site is dedicated to wildlife and landscape photography.
This site is dedicated to wildlife and landscape photography.
I was looking for a photo I took about 10 years ago and stumbled upon this one. I don’t think I ever did anything with it before, but I like it. It was taken with a Canon 7D body on a 500mm lens with a 1.4 teleconverter at 1/40 sec. and ISO 1600. A trip down memory lane.
Coyote in the Ranching Area of Point Reyes National Seashore.
This coyote is standing in a ranch pasture at Point Reyes National Seashore. Between now and July 14, the Park Service is going to decide which of six alternatives to adopt for management of 28,000 acres of land owned by the Park Service/United States at Point Reyes National Seashore and the adjacent Golden Gate NRA and dedicated for decades to private ranching. The preferred alternative is to expand the ranching, especially for 18 of the 24 ranching families who live on park land with their families and employees – at subsidized rents no less. Life is going to get a lot more complicated then for the coyotes, bobcats, and the other mammalian and avian predators that live there.
The preferred alternative will provide, among other things, that each of the 18 occupied cattle ranches can also have up to 50 sheep with their lambs or 70 goats with their kids, plus 500 free-roaming chickens which will be in the pastures during the day and in mobile coops at night. Now, the ranchers can only have beef and dairy cows, which are way too big for any Point Reyes predator to bother. These small domestic animals will be protected by livestock guardian dogs which are capable of killing coyotes and the other predators.
The leases will provide that ranchers can’t kill or harm predators. However, the leases also provide that where predation occurs, the rancher can report it to the Park Service and the Park Service will decide what action to take. If NPS says “no” to killing, what’s a rancher to do? Well, there’s the old “3S’s” maxim – shoot, shovel and shut up.
And you thought national park units were established for the protection and preservation of nature, including wildlife. Guess again. What predominates in the National Park Service thinking is maximizing tourism (especially for concessioners) and emphasizing viewsheds for those tourists. What is living in those viewsheds has never been on the Park Service’s radar. Most former Park Service employees will tell you this or, if you don’t know one, read this book by a retired NPS employee, “Preserving Nature in the National Parks” by Richard Sellars.
Easy-Going Cat
Here’s a bobcat I photographed in the late afternoon. He was very patient with me. My kind of cat.
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.
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 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.
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.
