This site is dedicated to wildlife and landscape photography.
This site is dedicated to wildlife and landscape photography.
With a break in the wet weather, I headed out to Point Reyes yesterday afternoon. It turned out to be a good day. I saw and photographed several bobcats and coyotes.
I also photographed one of my favorite hawks, the American kestrel. It’s the smallest member of the falcon family and the most colorful bird of prey that I know of.
Point Reyes has a good population of kestrels. If you visit the seashore, look for them on fences and bushes.
I went out to Point Reyes today. It was a beautiful day. The temperature was in the mid-60s and the place was very crowded. It was a slow day for me photography-wise. Fortunately, near the end of the day this male bobcat saw me and decided I needed some cheering up. So, he decided to walk toward me rather than make the normal quick exit in the opposite direction. Thanks “Bob.”
About a year ago I posted a blog with my 10 favorite wildlife photos from 2011. Here are my 10 favorites for 2012. Most of this year’s photos are from Yellowstone.
Finding and photographing this red fox vixen and her two kits was the best part of my trip to Yellowstone last spring.
Baby animals are usually photogenic and these two certainly were.
While on the subject of baby animals, this doe pronghorn kept her two fawns right around the Roosevelt Arch for a week or more. They stopped a lot of cars.
This grizzly bear spent several days in May on the slopes above Yellowstone’s Soda Butte Creek feeding on grass, roots and whatever other vegetative material grizzlies feed on in the spring.
I spent a fair amount of time photographing this bear. It often looked sad to me. I think it was a young bear and perhaps it was its first spring without its mother.
I always see mountain bluebirds in Yellowstone in the spring, but until this past May I’ve never really had any good opportunities to photograph them. They seem to be constantly on the move. This May was different. They hung around.
There are always some sandhill cranes in Yellowstone in the nesting season. They usually tend to be far off though. You often hear them calling before you even spot them. I was lucky here.
I don’t recall ever having seen a yellow-headed blackbird in Yellowstone before this spring. This male was singing to attract a mate I assume. I spotted him while driving the road to the Slough Creek Campground.
There are a lot of white-crowned sparrows in Point Reyes National Seashore in the winter. This male saved what was otherwise an uneventful day.
Coyote, Point Reyes National Seashore
The coyotes I see in the ranching areas of Point Reyes are pretty wild. By that I mean they don’t stick around when they see a human. This individual was different. He was comfortable with my photographing him. He may have previously lived in an area with heavy human recreation use.
Point Reyes is my local Yellowstone. It has a wide variety of wildlife considering where it is located. No bison or moose, but it has elk and deer. No wolves or bears, but it has coyotes, bobcats, badgers and one or more mountain lions. You’ll see elk as easily as in Yellowstone and deer more easily. You’ll see coyotes as easily as in Yellowstone and bobcats much more easily.
Well, that’s it. My 10 favorites for 2012. If you’d like to see my 10 favorites for 2011 click here.
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 ….
I haven’t gotten any good photos of bobcats lately. They’ve given up their crepuscular ways and they’ve gone back to being nocturnal. This photo was taken in February. This particular guy was my favorite this past winter. He has a very pronounced chin. I had a house cat with a chin like his. It was diagnosed as feline acne, treated and it cleared up. I wonder if bobcats get feline acne.
On another note, I’m working on a review of window mounts. I hope to have that done in the next day or so. Included in that review will be the new Puffin Pad.
This is one of two calves I photographed a couple of days ago in the elk preserve. The other was much smaller (and younger). It was also noticeably darker.
This buck was grazing in a rancher’s field. H e must have liked what he was eating given how stuffed his cheeks are.
