This site is dedicated to wildlife and landscape photography.
This site is dedicated to wildlife and landscape photography.
In my last post I mentioned that I saw a coyote on the H Ranch. It was hunting for rodents. It didn’t catch any rodents while I was there, but it did eat something that looked like it came from a cow dropping.
Coyotes cover a lot of territory each day. You never know where you’ll see one at Point Reyes, but when you drive by the H Ranch (before Abbott’s Lagoon) look carefully. You have a good chance of seeing one there.
This owl was in a tree next to the road to Point Reyes Lighthouse. Point Reyes National Seashore has a healthy population of great horned owls. The ranching portion of Point Reyes is mainly made up of grazing lands. These lands have a fairly high population of gophers and other rodents. They are also punctuated by stands of mature trees. Find a stand of mature trees and you’ll find a pair of great horned owls.
I saw this bobcat for the first time a couple of days ago. He’s very well-marked. I’m used to seeing bobcats in Point Reyes National Seashore with little or no distinctive markings on the torso. This guy has very pronounced spots and stripes on his trunk. I think I’ll remember him as “Handsome Bob.” Unfortunately, Handsome Bob didn’t stop in the prettiest place. It looks like a badger has been through here shortly before Bob and really tore the place up. I saw a coyote stop here and hunt a couple of weeks ago. It must be (or was) a good spot for gophers and/or other rodents. Click here to purchase a print of this image.
I saw this coyote last Thursday in the Pierce Point area of Point Reyes National Seashore. Saturday he was a bit south of there. Yesterday he was at the south end of the Tomales Point Peninsula. I know it’s the same coyote because there is something wrong with his right foreleg at what would be the “wrist” for a human. It doesn’t seem to handicap him at a walking pace, but when he runs it’s obvious and slows him down. It doesn’t handicap him in feeding though from what I can see. I watched him hunt rodents last Thursday and he was having no trouble catching them. When I saw him yesterday he was feeding on something larger than a rodent.
He should have stayed around Pierce Point Ranch a little longer. Yesterday I saw a fairly fresh elk carcass there. Some turkey vultures had found it, but it didn’t look like any other scavengers had fed on it.
It also looks like there is some fur missing on this coyote’s back.
