Tag: point reyes national seashore

Tule Elk

Tule Elk Cow, Point Reyes National Seashore

Photo of cow tule elk.
Caught with her Mouth Full

I drove out to Point Reyes recently.  Things look a little greener in places.  Red-tailed hawk numbers have increased.  The Pierce Point Ranch area was free of fog for a change.  This cow, along with some others, was grazing near the ranch.  I don’t particularly like the background (or foreground) in this photo, but I do like the expression on her face.  She is wondering what my intentions are and why she failed to see me until now.   Now if I were a mountain lion ….

Song Bird

Western Bluebird, Point Reyes National Seashore

Photo of a western bluebird perching near the Estero Trailhead.
Western Bluebird, Point Reyes National Seashore

I’m almost done upgrading my website.  Having to search for the master file for every image on my website so I can enlarge it has caused me to look at nearly all the images I have and that has taken a lot of time.  It’s been very beneficial though because I’ve found a number of images that I should have put on my website when I took the photos.   This little bluebird is one.  It has everything I look for in a good wildlife photo.  It has an appealing subject, good body position/pose, good light, good color and a clean, out-of-focus background.  No distractions.  It’s now on my website.  To see the upgraded/larger image click here.

I’ve added a number of other overlooked images as well.  The tule elk portfolio is a good example.  I’ve added about 10 new images to that portfolio.  I’ve also removed several.

One thing I’ve realized doing the web upgrade is that I’ve not been paying enough attention to my website since I started doing this blog.  I’m probably not the only photo blogger doing that.  Keeping current with my website seems like a good New Year resolution.

Uncategorized

Non-Native Bird at Point Reyes National Seashore

Photo of a Eurasian-collared Dove.
Eurasian-collared Dove, Native to India

As I go through my images taken at Point Reyes in upgrading the images on my website I’m finding some interesting photos I didn’t appreciate when I took them.  I took this photo last February.  I don’t think I had any thought about it at the time.   When I came across it yesterday my first thought was that it was a mourning dove.  But it didn’t look exactly like a mourning dove.  Band-tailed pigeon?  No.  It’s a Eurasian Collared-Dove.  It’s native to India.  It seems they got started in Florida (like so many things) and spread from there.  They compete with our native mourning doves.  This got me to thinking.  How many non-native birds are there in Point Reyes National Seashore (and/or Marin County for that matter)?  The ones I see most at Point Reyes are brown-headed cowbirds and European starlings.  Sometimes I’ll see a wild turkey there.  There must be house sparrows.  I think there are barred owls in the Seashore, which compete with Northern spotted owls.  What other birds?  I don’t know.  Probably several more.

Tule Elk

Seven-Point Bull

Photo of a 7-point bull bugling during the rut.
Tule Elk Bull Bugles, Point Reyes National Seashore

I’m still upgrading my website by making each image larger.  It’s a lot of work, but I think it will be a nice improvement to the site.  One extra benefit is that I’m finding some images that I like that I didn’t know I had.  This photo was taken in early August.  As I often do, I came back to this photo after I published the blog and was struck by how wide this bull can open its mouth.  For some reason, I pictured a set of canine teeth in there, developed for defensive purposes.  I wonder what wolves would say — if they had any say in it?  For that matter, I wonder what elk hunters would say?

Tule Elk

A Lot of Bull, Point Reyes National Seashore

Photo of a tule elk bull at end of rut.
Bull Tule Elk

The day I photographed the peregrine (my last post) I also saw this big 7×8 point bull.  He was with about 40 cows and calves a short distance west of the Drake’s Beach Road.  I don’t like the background, but I think the size of this bull warrants a posting.

My postings have slowed down recently because I decided a month or so ago to make the images on my website much larger and it is taking a lot of time.  When I started I thought I’d use one or more actions to speed up the process.  However, as I assessed what was ahead of me I came to the conclusion that my Photoshop skills had improved enough that I could improve most of the images if I went back to the background layer of each image.  It’s going to take a few more weeks to get the revised site up, but I think it will be well worth the extra time.

Hawk

Peregrine Falcon, Point Reyes National Seashore

Photo of peregrine falcon eating its prey.
Peregrine Falcon Holding Its Prey

I went out to Point Reyes yesterday for the first time since I left for Yellowstone in early September.  I’m still trying to get some good images of elk during the rut.  Thanks to heavy fog around Pierce Point, I didn’t have much luck in that regard.  I was lucky, though, to spot this peregrine feeding on some prey while perched on a fence post.

Osprey

Osprey, Tomales Bay, California

Photo of an osprey perched on a dock.
Osprey Perched on Dock

I was backing up some images recently and realized I had forgotten that I photographed this osprey last month.  I like the background in this photo which is comprised of the hills on the east side of Tomales Bay.    The bird is perched on the top of an ornate gate to a dock along the shoreline in the town of Inverness on the way into Point Reyes National Seashore.