Preening scene

Sanderlings in a group preening session along Limantour Spit in Point Reyes National Seashore.

Western snowy plover

A western snowy plover in breeding plumage along the beach at Limantour Spit in Point Reyes National Seashore.

This one looks tasty

A bull tule elk in Point Reyes National Seashore checking out what looks to be a delicious branch of lupine.

Sandpiper inspection

After following a small flock of these guys around the beach for at least half an hour, this curious one decided to check out what exactly the slow crawling monster with the giant lens coming out of his nose was. He tentatively ran over pretty close to me, gave me a few up and down glances, and then scurried back to the group. Apparently I was deemed no threat (probably because they saw the glacial speed at which I was moving while belly crawling after them through the sand), or perhaps they found me to an acceptable proxy of a new kind of sandpiper species (well, I'm not so sure about that!). Either way, it was a real pleasure to have a chance to photograph them with some summer color.

Quail in the Valley

A male California Quail in the brush along the trail in Tennessee Valley.

Snowy plovers on the beach

If you walk far enough down Limantour Spit in Point Reyes National Seashore you're very likely to encounter these threatened shorebirds. My walk on this day in March was no exception, and I had a chance to snap off a few shots as they scurried down the beach.



I like the pose and the breeding plumage of the plover on the left in this frame, but unfortunately, they only stayed in this position for a few moments, and I wasn't able to get a shot without that distracting stick in it.

Male Quail at Tomales Point

After a few weeks of traveling for a conference, a holiday in Europe, and visiting family, I'm back to the grind back at work and finally taking a few minutes to post a new image, with the goal of getting back to the regular pace of an image around every other day or so. In addition, I've increased the size of the blog page, since Flickr is now using a larger medium image size, and I like the increased detail of the 640 pixel image.



This is a male California quail being as conspicuous as possible while trying to attract a mate (and perhaps a friendly photographer?). I took this shot on a weekend in May in which I was inundated in quail photography opportunities. This was actually among my goals for the trips I made to Point Reyes and Tennessee Valley, and I loved the many chances to photograph our striking state bird. This male is sitting on an old log near the Tomales Point Trailhead in Point Reyes National Seashore.

Sunrise at Chimney Rock

From the same April Hike as my previous few posts -- a sea of wildflowers covering the ground with the sandstone cliffs that are so characteristic of Point Reyes National Seashore in the background.

Long-tailed weasel, Point Reyes National Seashore

I’ve come to appreciate the fact that not everyone finds wildlife encounters to be as truly thrilling as I do. After a relatively boring hike out to Abbott’s Lagoon (in terms of photographic opportunities), I was fairly resigned to be out of chances to make an interesting image for the day. However, my ever constant scan for wildlife came up with a huge score when I saw this adorable mustelid standing tall in the pasture along the trail. I was stoked! The long-tailed weasel is an animal that I’ve wanted a chance to see for a while, but I figured that it wasn't likely to ever happen.



We saw him take a few leaps and chases at something, although he never came up with a snack. It was fun to watch him disappear down one gopher hole and then have to scan the area to see where he would pop up next.



While the pictures themselves aren’t anything special (harsh midday light and cropped significantly), crossing a new wildlife species off of my list is always fantastic, and I was excited to tell anyone about it when we got back. Alas, the odd looks on the faces of the people I told reassured me that it takes a, umm, *special* kind of person to get so excited about encountering a weasel.

Now that I’ve got that one off the list, here’s to hoping a get a chance at a badger!

Sparrows and flowers

Another handful of sparrow shots from along the Tomales Point Trail in Point Reyes National Seashore. I believe these are white-crowned sparrows, one of the three sparrow species I was able to photograph on this hike (the Song sparrow in my previous post, and some Savannah sparrows that will appear in a future post).



This one landed in the lupine and started pecking at the flowers. I suspect looking for some kind of seed? Although I'm not sure.



As I was walking down the trail, some of the birds would occasionally take cover below the tops of the vegetation, but this one was particularly curious while hiding on the underside of some cow parsnip.

Singing in the wildflowers

The Tomales Point Trail is just covered in wildflowers right now, especially over the first half mile or so. It was especially fun on my way out to take a few minutes every now and then to stop and wait until I heard a sparrow's song, and then try to locate it in the viewfinder. Most of them stayed a little more hidden in the vegetation, but every now and then one would display itself proudly.

Doe at Sunrise

A female mule deer giving us a surprised glance as we came upon her on the trail at sunrise. Taken on the Chimney Rock Trail in Point Reyes National Seashore.

Peaceful moments

Well, a very busy past few weeks has kept me away from posting new images, but I did manage to slip out for a great early morning walk along Limantour Spit two weekends ago, and we went for a terrific camping trip to the North Coast redwoods this weekend (many images to come, I'm sure -- once I've actually had a chance to look at them). But first, I thought I would share two relatively serene scenes, at least as far as sanderlings go.



For anyone that has watched these guys frantically pick at the beach and stay one step ahead of the waves, they seem to be in constant motion. It was a nice change of pace to capture some fleeting quiet moments with them before they picked up speed again and took off up the beach.

Quick Post -- Mid-afternoon redwoods

Trying to get an even exposure during midday light was quite challenging, as was the fact that I left auto-ISO on by mistake and ended up with all ISO 1600 images. But regardless of the challenges of capturing these giant coast redwoods the experience always leaves me breathless. Even with hundreds of other tourists around, the magic of these trees still have an effect on most of the people who walk through there.

Organized chaos -- sanderling takeoff and landing

Watching these birds attempt to stay a step ahead of the waves is always a fun thing to do. Especially when there is a large flock involved, as its great to see them move in unison. But every now and then, they seem to misjudge the incoming water and have to result to a mass takeoff. My challenge on this trip was to attempt to capture the chaos, as well as the beauty, of such a scene. Below is a sequence from the action that followed a single incoming wave.

Quick Post - Sanderlings ahead of the wave

This weekend we took a late afternoon trip out to Point Reyes, and while we were more or less fogged out of the sunset I was hoping for, I did get to spend some time chasing sanderlings on Drake's Beach. I made some attempts to capture the chaos that occurs when a wave finally catches up to these little guys, and I did catch a few interesting frames of takeoffs. This first one is a bit more toned down, when the whole flock was running along the sand in front of the wave-line.

Finally -- a bobcat

After a handful of unsuccessful trips to Tennessee Valley over the past few weeks, I finally encountered a bobcat there. This is the first time I've ever been in the presence of a wild one, and even though it never came real close it was still awesome to have the chance to observe it.



The bobcat listened for prey along the trail and made a pounce into the bushes along the right side before disappearing for a few minutes. It sauntered back out into the path before briefly listening for a meal along the other side of the trail before it strolled up along the path and into the woods.



I also had the pleasure of bumping into local wildlife photographer Trish Carney, who was looking for bobcats along the same trail. I highly recommend checking out her website if you want to see some spectacular bobcat images (as well as many other species).

Quick post -- when you've got an itch, elk style

Watching this bull elk scratching those hard to reach places was fairly comical, and seemingly dangerous with those spikes. Taken alone the Tomales Point Trail in Point Reyes National Seashore in January.

It seems like it might be fairly useful for helping to get rid of that thick winter coat too.

Further up the trail, Cataract Falls

A few more shots from further up the trail along Cataract Falls in Marin County. There is just something magic to me about the water flowing past those lush green covered stones -- especially in the middle of January!



The following two shots were from the falls near the top of the trail before it levels out. Again I couldn't decide between a horizontal or vertical composition, so I went for both.



I think the scene would not have been quite as compelling for me in the vertical if it wasn't for the redwood right beside the trail.

Cascade along Cataract Falls

This weekend I really wanted to find some waterfalls since we've had so much rain in the Bay Area lately, and Cataract Falls on the western slopes of Mount Tamalpais has been on my list for quite some time. We picked an awesome day to see it for the first time, as the water was really flowing, and the overcast skies helped to bring out the awesome green colors of moss and ferns found all over the wet rocks. It almost had a feeling of walking through a tropical rain forest, although with the occasional redwood tree sprinkled in.

Here's a vertical take on the same scene that I liked as well, with the lifting fog in the background.


This was a relatively easy hike, although it is fairly steep as you follow the creek vertically past a number of large waterfalls. It's a hike well worth taking with all of the wet weather we've had, although I suggest getting there early, since there is only limited parking along the roadside, and it fills up quick. This seems to be the place to be though -- as I've seen this set of falls featured on SFGate.com and on one of the local news channels here.

This last shot is of a tiny creek that was flowing into Alpine Lake Reservoir, before we even made it to the real falls.