Bobcats Are Special
I enjoy seeing and photographing all wildlife, but some species are more special than others to me. Bobcats are one of those species, along with wolves, bears and eagles. I’ll never get tired of photographing them.
Tag: photo
Burrowing Owl, Point Reyes National Seashore
I went out to Point Reyes recently looking for badgers and anything else worth photographing. I didn’t see any badgers. However, one benefit in looking for badgers is that you sometimes find burrowing owls using the badger holes or burrows. Most of the time when I spot a burrowing owl the only part of it I see is its head and yellow eyes staring at me. This owl was kind enough to do more than peek out the front door.
I sometimes wonder what happens if burrowing owls go into holes that have badgers or weasels in them. I know I won’t stick my hand down one of those holes.
Bobcat Hunting Gophers
This bobcat was hunting gophers. Gophers are plentiful at Point Reyes, at least in the agricultural areas. They are an important food source for coyotes, bobcats, badgers and other predators at the Seashore. If this bobcat could talk he would probably say there is no such thing as too many gophers.
Badger, Point Reyes National Seashore, Marin County, California
I’ve been spending a fair amount of time photographing at Point Reyes the last six months or so and hadn’t seen a badger until the other day when I spotted this one taking a rest on its diggings. For much of that period I wasn’t really focusing on looking for badgers, but after having a fair amount of success with my main interests, coyotes and bobcats, I decided recently to concentrate on looking for badgers. I was pleasantly surprised at how soon I spotted this badger. When I was in areas that had obvious badger activity I made sure I focused my attention on any signs of fresh badger diggings and on nothing else. Having said that, I’m sure luck was still the biggest part of the equation.
Some cows were grazing their way into its path and it decided to head underground to avoid getting stepped on. But for the cows I would probably have only gotten shots of the badger at rest. Unfortunately, it didn’t come up again before it got too dark to photograph. I came by the next morning at sunrise, but it wasn’t visible. It may have moved on, but I think it was underground. There were so many gophers making themselves visible while the badger was taking its rest that I doubt it needed to move on by the morning to find more food.
Two Bull Elk Fight
January 28, 20011. Two bull elk face each other before a post-rut sparring session.
They went at it for quite a while. There was a winner and I think they’ll each remember that. There won’t be much more fighting now because the bulls are dropping their antlers. However, come the next rut these two will probably go at it again.
Ear-Tagged Elk
Here is an ear-tagged cow elk. She is one of almost 500 elk at the Tule Elk Preserve at Tomales Point. There is an identifying number on her right ear tag. The other tag was inserted in the opposite direction. I don’t know for sure why that was done, but I’m assuming it has the same identifying number and was inserted that way so the identifying number would be visible from the rear of the animal. This herd has not increased in size for some time and therefore seems to be self-regulating. The other herd, the Limantour Herd, numbers about 100 animals.
Bobcat, Point Reyes National Seashore, Marin County, California
I spotted this male bobcat hunting when I was out at Point Reyes a few days ago. I saw him miss on two attempts at what I assume were gophers. In addition to this guy, I saw four coyotes, including two that were paired up. As you can see, some areas are very green now.
