Tag: point reyes national seashore

Tule Elk

Tule Elk Calf, Point Reyes National Seashore

Photo of tule elk calf.
One of Many Tule Elk Calves, Pierce Point Ranch

At the end of my most recent day out at Point Reyes I did what I usually do, which is to drive out the Tomales Peninsula to the Pierce Point Ranch area to photograph the elk that move to the east side of the road in the last light before sunset.  It’s great that they do that because you can use your car as a blind and be fairly close to them.   That they cross the road then is crucial so you don’t have to shoot into the sun.

Luckily, the cow elk do this most of the time about an hour before sunset.  They were right on schedule that day.   There were about 50 cows and yearlings and another 20 to 30 calves.  I don’t recall nearly as many calves there last year.   If you want to photograph elk calves this is a good time to do it there.

Osprey

Baling Twine, Point Reyes National Seashore

Photo of some discarded baling twine which is dangerous to wildlife.
Dangerous to Wildlife

A few days ago I wrote about the dangers of baling twine to ospreys.  This is what it looks like up close.  I found it on the edge of the road on the way to the turnoff for Chimney Rock.  I picked it up to properly dispose of it, but I took some photos first.  It’s made of plastic and seems light as a feather.  Given that it is used and has been coiled up, someone probably picked it up from a field and intended to dispose of it properly, but lost if from the back of a truck.  It looks like there are about three or four separate pieces of twine.

It was interesting that I found it yesterday morning because I planned to go out Limantour Road to check on something and on the way I intended to check on some osprey nests in a canyon that runs up to the road.   The two nests I had in mind were there and there was an osprey in each nest when I arrived.  I spotted a nest farther out that also had an osprey in it.  The osprey in the closest nest took off shortly after I parked my car in the little pull out.

Photo of an osprey nest in Point Reyes National Seashore
No Baling Twine

This is the closest nest.  It’s about 75 to 100 yards from where I parked.  The other nests are even farther away.   There didn’t seem to be any young in the nests.  I didn’t see any baling twine in them either, which was good.  The nests are not very close to the ranching areas of Point Reyes which lessens the chance that twine would get into them.  Plus,  I assume the Park Service has made an effort to educate the ranchers to the potential dangers of leaving twine in the fields if they didn’t know of the dangers already.

Update:  after I drafted this post I went out to my car and pulled the stuff apart.  There were five equal lengths.  Each was roughly 20 feet long.  It cuts easily using  a scissors.  It was very hard to cut with a box cutter.  I gathered each piece so it was four strands wide and then cut it across five times so I ended up with roughly foot-long strands.  It didn’t take long.  I then put all the pieces into a medium size plastic bag which I tied at the top.  The bag could have held several times more twine.  If the bag winds up on the top of a landfill it shouldn’t pose a potential risk.  I think if I were a rancher and had lots to get rid of I’d maybe skip the cutting and put it in large bags that were sealed closed.  There may be ways to re-cycle it as well.

If you come across any of this stuff please pick it up and dispose of it properly.

Landscape

Views from Inverness, California

I went out to Point Reyes yesterday, something I haven’t been doing too much of this year compared to last year.  The forecast said there would be fog, but thankfully it was a no-show.  Moreover, the light was fantastic thanks to lots of clouds varying from almost pure white to very dark.  The sun shined through in spots on occasion.   I didn’t see much in the way of wildlife; just the usual ho-hum critters (quail, songbirds, hawks, elk and deer) plus one coyote just before sunset.  I had lunch with a friend who said he saw four bobcats before our lunch.  Another friend told me he saw two badgers there yesterday.  I’m beginning to wonder if I’m losing my touch in spotting wildlife because I haven’t been spending much time looking for them this year.

I was feeling uneasy all day because I only brought my wildlife gear and I sensed there would be some good landscape opportunities at sunset given the good light and the clouds.  Shooting landscape photos with telephoto lenses is, needless to say, limiting.  One thing I’ve been meaning to photograph is Black Mountain, which is a large coastal hill/mountain completely covered in grass.  It is very green this time of year.  I’ve also heard it referred to as Elephant Mountain.  I made a mental note to stop in Inverness on my way home to see how it looked.  I knew it was one landscape scene I could photograph using a telephoto lens.  This is how it looked when I arrived in Inverness.  The green grass of Black Mountain  has been turned to gold by the setting sun.  The water in the foreground is Tomales Bay.  The green hills in the midground are not part of Black Mountain.  I don’t know why it’s called Black Mountain.

Photo of Black Mountain from Inverness.
Black Mountain at Sunset

As I stood there in Inverness, I looked at the rest of the east horizon and saw a nice looking ridge well north of Black Mountain that was also bathed in the last light of the day.  I don’t know the name for it, assuming there is one.  There are two large structures at the top of it, unfortunately.

Photo looking east from Inverness, California
View to Northeast from Inverness

I was somewhat lucky yesterday which counterbalanced my poor planning in not bringing some landscape lenses.  I was lucky in the sense that I made it to Inverness with about 5 minutes to spare before the sun’s golden light left these mountain tops.

Tule Elk

Spring at Point Reyes National Seashore

It's Spring!
Tule Elk Cow in Mid-April

I was out at Point Reyes a couple of days ago.  Everything is nice and green. It’s been that way for a while, but recent heavy rains will ensure that things stay that way for a while longer.  This cow elk looks to be in good health.  She has shed most of her light gray winter coat and is now mostly showing her darker, reddish summer coat.  I saw one cow which seemed to be suffering from some health problem involving her digestive tract.  I’ve seen other elk with the same apparent problem.  I assume it’s Johne’s disease which causes severe diarrhea, usually (always?) resulting in death.  The disease has been a problem for the Point Reyes elk since the early days of their reintroduction to the Tomales Peninsula.  Virtually all ruminants, including the deer, cattle and goats in the Seashore,  are susceptible to the disease.  Johne’s disease occurs throughout the world.  For more information click here.

Photo of bull tule elk in velvet.
Tule Elk Bull in Velvet

The bulls are sporting new antlers.  This bull is part of the Tomales herd.  The Limantour herd seems to start new antler growth earlier than the Tomales herd.  In fact, it seems to start everything earlier than the Tomales herd.  I’ve heard elk calving has started and I’d bet that it started with the Limantour herd.  Newborn are kept hidden by their mothers for a while after birth, but the early-birth ones should start appearing with their mothers soon if they haven’t already.

Landscape

Point Reyes, Point Reyes National Seashore

Photo of Point Reyes from the Tomales Peninsula.
Point Reyes

Have you ever been out on the coast on a foggy day when some cracks in the fog let the sun shine through?  This was one of those times.  I was driving back from the Pierce Point Ranch area just after lunch when I saw these sunspots on the ocean.

Addendum:  As I posted this WordPress informed me that this is my 200th blog posting.  I started this in May of 2010 as I was leaving on a trip to Yellowstone.   I didn’t know then if I would manage to keep doing it for very long.  I still don’t know.  Twenty two months isn’t that long, but it is a milestone of sorts.  We’ll see how long it goes.

Tule Elk

Bull Elk, Point Reyes National Seashore

Photo of big tule elk bull.
7-Point Bull, Tomales Peninsula

This photo was taken on February 22 near Pierce Point Ranch.  The bull is sporting a pretty impressive 7-point rack.  He won’t have those big antlers for long though.  I saw one of the Limantour herd bulls with only one antler that day.  It looks like antler-dropping season has begun.  Last year I posted a photo of a bull on February 15 whose antlers were gone and new antler growth was already quite visible.  To see that post click here.

Collecting antlers is illegal.  That doesn’t stop people though.  Antlers sold on the black market are worth a fair amount of money.  The Park Service goes out and tries to keep ahead of the collectors.  You may wonder what the Park Service does with the antlers.  The answer is that it grinds them up and puts them back in the areas where they found them because they are an important source of calcium and other minerals for rodents and other wildlife.  For a photo of an elk with a deer antler in its mouth click here.

It’s too bad people won’t just leave them where they’ve fallen, but they won’t.  As long as people want animal parts (tusks, horns, paws, teeth, gall bladders etc.), and are willing to pay for them, there will be people who will hunt for those parts even if it means killing the animals (which it usually does).  Unfortunately, this is the way it’s always been.

Shorebird

Sanderling, Point Reyes National Seashore

Photo of a sanderling.
The Hunt for Food

I’ve recently begun photographing shorebirds at Point Reyes.  I’ve looked for them twice at Drakes Beach and found sanderlings and marbled godwits there.   Identifying some of them, such as the various sandpipers, is proving difficult.   Also difficult is identifying what they eat.  I’m not sure what this one has caught.  My first guess was that it had a sand flea.  However, a quick search taught me that it might be a mole crab.  Of course, it could be neither of those.  I’ll have to get better informed as I photograph more shorebirds.