This site is dedicated to wildlife and landscape photography.
This site is dedicated to wildlife and landscape photography.
Elk calving has been going on for a while at Point Reyes. This photo was taken on April 28. Mothers keep their calves hidden for the first two weeks or so because it is the best protection from predators. By two weeks of age they can run with the adults. Given that, I assume these calves were born no later than April 14. I have also been seeing fawns lately. As you can see, wildflowers are also well underway.
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.
These two bulls were sparring with their hooves because their antlers obviously aren’t ready for fighting. This photo was taken yesterday near Pierce Point Ranch just as the sun was setting. Chrysler was there shooting commercials for several of its cars and trucks. It occupied the Pierce Point Ranch parking lot, the McClure’s Beach parking lot, and the east side of the road leading to the ranch. It looked like a movie set. They may be out there today as well.
This photo was underexposed about one and a half stops because the mode dial on my Canon 7D got moved inadvertently from AV to manual. This happens too easily and frequently. Canon now offers to fix this problem for a fee. I don’t know why Canon hasn’t always made the prosumer cameras so that the mode dial can’t be changed inadvertently. You shouldn’t have to send in your camera to prevent this from happening.
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.
I photographed this bull Tule elk in the Elk Reserve at Point Reyes National Seashore a couple of weeks ago. The bulls are dropping their antlers there now. This bull may no longer have his. If elk have egos I wonder how the bulls feel when they lose their antlers?
Those of us who live in the San Francisco Bay Area and like to see wildlife are very fortunate to have Point Reyes nearby. We are certain to see Tule elk and Black-tailed deer at Point Reyes. We have a very good chance of seeing coyotes and bobcats. We can see whales off the coast and marine mammals, such as elephant seals, on the shore. We can see all sorts of bird life, including peregrine falcons. I can’t think of another large metropolitan area that has all of these wildlife species nearby.
This bull has shed his antlers and has the beginnings of new ones. Recently, I posted some photos of two bull elk fighting at Tomales Point and said that some bulls were already shedding their antlers. That was based on having seen several bulls in the Limantour herd that had shed one or both antlers, including the subject elk. However, last Saturday I was at the Tomales Point Elk Reserve and noticed that none of the bulls that I saw had shed any antlers. That surprised me. For some reason the Limantour herd seems to be shedding antlers earlier than the larger Tomales Point herd.
At this time of year the Park Service has to be on the lookout for people who collect antlers to sell. That is against the law. Yet, people do it knowing it is illegal. There must be enough money in it for some people to break the law. It could be worse. I mean they aren’t killing the elk for the antlers. Countless animals are killed illegally every day for one or more body parts that are marketable. This happens to many species. The ones that come to mind for me now are sharks, bears, tigers and elephants, but there are many more.
January 28, 20011. Two bull elk face each other before a post-rut sparring session.
They went at it for quite a while. There was a winner and I think they’ll each remember that. There won’t be much more fighting now because the bulls are dropping their antlers. However, come the next rut these two will probably go at it again.
