This site is dedicated to wildlife and landscape photography.
This site is dedicated to wildlife and landscape photography.
This photo was taken yesterday at Point Reyes National Seashore. It’s a great time to be out with a camera if you like to photograph wildlife. Members of the deer family are growing new antlers. Babies are being born, both predators and prey. I saw several elk calves yesterday. Wildflowers are also underway. If you look closely, you can see lots of douglas iris to go with the cow parsnip.
There are three things in the photo above that say it’s spring to me. The first thing is the flowers. The second is the change occurring in the elk’s coat from a warmer (longer), lighter-colored, winter coat to a cooler (shorter), darker, summer coat. The third thing is the early-stage growth of antlers.
During the winter season the Point Reyes tule elk shed their antlers. Almost immediately after shedding them they began growing new antlers. Under that velvet skin the antlers are engorged with blood. At this early stage you can easily see evidence of blood-rich tissue. Below is a cropped version of the above photo showing the blood-rich tissue.
