Tag: point reyes national seashore

Bobcat

Bobcat, Point Reyes National Seashore

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.

Bobcat hunting at Point Reyes National Seashore.

My Old Friend, Handsome Bob

Male bobcat.

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.

Bobcat

Bobcat, Point Reyes National Seashore

Bobcat, Point Reyes National Seashore

A bobcat stops and poses in Point Reyes National Seashore.

This photo of a male bobcat was taken in March when things were still green out at Point Reyes.  The landscape is mostly bare now, thanks to the 6,000 to 7,000 cattle living year-round on Park Service lands.

I just learned that people like me who blog, and who have arranged it so their blogs immediately appear on their Facebook Profile when published, will no longer be allowed by Facebook to do that starting tomorrow.  One option is to start a Facebook Page.  Facebook Pages aren’t subject to this new rule.  I hope this change has a good purpose, like making it more difficult for the Russians to interfere with the 2018 election.

UPDATE:  Facebook didn’t wait until August 1.  I just checked and this post didn’t make it onto my Facebook Profile.

Coyote

A Coyote “Mousing” at Point Reyes National Seashore

I never get bored watching wildlife.  One f the things I always enjoy is seeing a coyote perform the “mousing” leap to try to catch a rodent.  Here are some photos I took in June of a coyote at Point Reyes doing that.

A coyote spots a rodent.

Coyote, Point Reyes

The coyote begins its jump.

Coyote, Point Reyes National Seashore

It hits the apex of its jump.

Coyote, Point Reyes

Descending snout first.

coyote, mousing

Did the coyote get its rodent?

No, it missed.  However, in my experience coyotes are more successful at catching rodents than bobcats.  I’ve wondered why and whether it’s because they grab rodents with their pointed snouts which fit in rodent holes nicely.  Bobcats have flatter faces and have to use their paws which may not fit in the small rodent burrows as well.  I don’t know for sure, it’s just a guess.

Hawk, Peregrine Falcon

Peregrine Falcon, Point Reyes National Seashore

Peregrine Falcon, Point Reyes National Seashore

Female Peregrine takes wing with its prey.

As I was leaving Point Reyes a few days ago I noticed this female peregrine perched on a fence post with her recent kill. I pulled over and photographed her as she alternatively plucked feathers and fed. After several minutes she decided it was time to go. She flew right over me, but I had too long a lens to photograph her once she left the post. Point Reyes is a good place for seeing not only elk and other mammals, but also various birds, including birds of prey.

Kestrel

Kestrel, Point Reyes National Seashore

Male Kestrel Point Reyes National Seashore

A male kestrel perches on a metal fence post.

I love to photograph kestrels, especially the males because of that additional gray/blue color.  I would have preferred a wooden fence post here, or better yet, a nice tree branch.  The post reminds me of a photo contest rule that the camera clubs in the SF Bay Area followed when I was a member of one of the clubs.  I think it was referred to as the Hand-of-Man Rule.  As I recall, if you entered a photo in the nature/wildlife category, there couldn’t be anything in the photo that was man-made.   Obviously, this photo wouldn’t qualify, and rightly so.   I might be more sympathetic if the metal post were a wooden one, especially if the post were very old and weathered, but rules are rules and it’s not easy to make exceptions.  They did have an exception though, which I thought made the whole rule kind of stupid.  As I recall, the exception allowed for photos of wildlife that were collared or tagged in some way.   I could never figure out the justification for that one.  My only thought was that when they wrote the rule there was someone involved in the rule-writing who had a photo of a tagged or collared animal that he/she really wanted to enter in a contest in the wildlife category.  As I write this I wonder if some photos I took recently of a coyote in a field planted with silage for later mowing and feeding to livestock would be prohibited by the hand-of-man rule.  Writing clear rules (or laws) is not easy.

Bobcat

Bobcat, Point Reyes National Seashore

Bobcat Point Reyes National Seashore

A bobcat crouches as it walks through the grass in Point Reyes National Seashore.

This bobcat photo was taken in Point Reyes National Seashore in early March.  The grass was nice and green from the winter rains.   It’s a different story now.  Thanks to our Mediterranean climate, for the next six months you’re photographing most wildlife in brown grass and scattered green shrubs.  In areas where there is no livestock grazing, the tall brown grass can be aesthetic.  But where grazing has occurred, it loses that tall, aesthetic look.  And where grazing has been heavy, it can get downright ugly.  It’s that way in a lot of the ranching area of the Seashore.  Needless to say, my favorite time of year to photograph wildlife in the Seashore is during the rainy season, from November or December through April.

Blacktail Deer

Blacktail Deer, Point Reyes

blacktail deer point reyes national seashore

Blacktail Buck at Sundown

I was out at Point Reyes recently.  Thistle and other vegetation that I’ll call “weeds” are growing tall, making it harder to spot bobcats.  I only saw one and he wasn’t having any of me.   I shot some video of a coyote who was in a field that had just been mowed to get rid of thistle and other weeds (not silage mowing), but the midday sun was harsh.  As the day was nearing its end I decided to go to the elk enclosure at Pierce Point.  I was there a bit photographing cow elk and yearlings in nice light.  After a while the light was fading and I decided to head home.  Shortly after leaving the elk enclosure I saw this blacktail buck.  He was bleeding a bit on the upper inside of his left foreleg.  I don’t know what that was from.

The sun was disappearing fast when I took this photo and I had to shoot at a much higher ISO than I like, but when I have a nice subject I just keep shooting and worry about the noise in the image later.