Frosty sparrow, Tennessee Valley

With the extra cold weather this weekend in the Bay Area, I figured I'd take a walk in Tennessee Valley with the hope of seeing some wildlife in the frosted meadows. Unfortunately, nothing was stirring in the early morning light except for some sparrows along the trail.



Perhaps it was singing about how cold its feet were!

Bobcat among the branches, Tennessee Valley

When this bobcat decided to go off trail for a bit, it made the photography a little more challenging, since it was wandering through an area with a lot of dead vegetation. But I stayed patient and waiting for the moments that its head was in a clearing to try to get an unobstructed view of its eyes. It's amazing how much of the clutter in an image your mind will ignore if you can get contact with a clean set of eyes.



It was cruising along when it heard something in the undergrowth. It just happened to stop right in a clear line of sight for me, and even gave me a glance before continuing its walk.

Great horned owl in Tennessee Valley

We spotted this great horned owl sitting along the trail watching the hikers go by near the lagoon in Tennessee Valley. It really blended in quite well with the rocks, so it's easy to see why it selected what could otherwise have been a conspicuous perch.



Great horned owls seem to be pretty common in the park, and I guess that's no surprise since there are plenty of rodents in the meadows. It's a lot of fun if you plan to be walking the trail around sunset, since they really start to make a racket in both the eucalyptus trees and the willows. We even saw a pair mating as we were walking out that evening! We heard two hoots coming right after another from the same location, and as we searched for the source, it was pretty easy to find once the feathers started fluttering!



We watched this one for a while, and pointed it out to many hikers who were curious about what my big lens was pointed at. I was happy also to get some frames of it preening. My wife laughed and said that most people would be more excited to get it with its head showing, but I like to capture their everyday behaviour as well.

Bobcat in the bushes, Tennessee Valley

Three shots from our weekend encounter with this lovely bobcat in Tennessee Valley. After finishing its meal and strolling down the trail for a bit, the bobcat decided to take a break in the bushes just off of the trail. There were a lot of branches around, but thankfully it picked a spot where I could shoot over the coyote brush to get an unobstructed view of its face.



They are such beautiful animals, and they seem to carry themselves as if they know it. This one looked quite regal, even with its eyes closed.



The cat was eventually brought out of its restful trance by a small white dog following its master down the trail. The shot below is of it eyeing up the dog as it passed -- we were able to watch it turn its head to follow the progress of the fluffy canine. I'm not even sure that the owner knew there was a cat in the bushes, but you could tell that the cat was contemplating if it was worth taking a run at it.

Western snowy plover, Point Reyes National Seashore

Snowy plovers are one of my favorite subjects to photograph, and Limantour Beach in Point Reyes National Seashore is a great place to find them. I took this series of images under a heavily overcast sky, but by dialing in some extra exposure, it almost looks like they were in a snowy landscape.



I like the attitude this bird is showing in this shot, with that foot raised while its calling out. I also thought that the straight on view is an interesting way to see them.



The next two shots unfortunately didn't come out sharp, but I thought the captured behavior was interesting enough to share. In this shot it's preparing for a strike at an unseen prey item.



And in this frame, it lunged through my plane of focus (you can see the tail feathers are sharp) to catch a small critter for lunch.