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I can think of at least one trail marker in Tennessee Valley that incorporates a picture of a Great Blue Heron, and if the park has an animal icon, I guess that would be it. (I wanted to look into it more, but the NPS web page for T.V. is broken.) Although Tennessee Valley is the first place I ever saw a Great Egret capture a rodent, it’s been months since I last saw a large egret or heron in

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 Coyote In The Grass

As I was driving along Bolinas Ridge I spotted three deer standing still as fenceposts and intently focused on something in front of them. I backed up to a nearby pull-out to see what was going on, and only after I stopped and rolled down the tinted window did I spot the coyote sitting in the grass, maybe 40-50 yards from the young deer, one of whom was a buck.

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Coyote In The Grass

 Duxbury Reef

It was Friday and I’d been wanting to get back up to Mt. Burdell to check on the vernal pool, but there was a chance my wife could join me for a hike there over the weekend, so I thought about a return trip to Duxbury Reef instead. I checked the tide table on my desk calendar and saw there’d be a minus tide at 6:30 in the morning, so off I went

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Duxbury Reef

 Elk Sunrise

Having stopped at Nicasio Reservoir to photograph the Black Mountain dawn, there was very little chance I was going to make it to Abbotts Lagoon by sunrise. I considered trying for nearby Kehoe Beach since it’s a shorter walk to the interesting bits, but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and even the usual pastel-pink horizon was just about played out by the time I reached Pierce Point Road

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Elk Sunrise

 Black Mountain

As I was about to leave home at around 4:30 a.m. last Sunday I looked around at my camera packs and other gear arrayed on the livingroom floor and had a sudden thought about going back to bed. I’d been planning to get out to Pt. Reyes and start the day by photographing the sunrise, but I still hadn’t decided where I wanted to be when the sun came up

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Black Mountain

 Kitchen Macros

Excuse me for just trying to pass the time, but I got my second tick bite infection in as many weeks yesterday, and it’s not very comfortable to even wear a shirt much less go out and enjoy this beautiful (though windy) day. I was tempted to post a picture of the infected area, but it’s on my belly and shows maybe too much naked flesh for a family-safe nature blog

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Kitchen Macros

 Intertwined

A lot of nature observation involves simply standing still until the commotion caused by our arrival subsides, then opening our senses to what’s around us. With poison hemlock and stinging nettle around, we can perhaps be forgiven for not entertaining our senses of taste and touch. And if you’re like me, you might take your sense of smell for granted, especially if it’s slightly out of whack

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Intertwined

 Can You Herp Me Now?

Thanks to Yosemite Sam, I’ve always thought of these guys as horny toads. I saw my first one in the Ventana Wilderness sometime back in the 20th Century and only just learned that they also live on Mount Diablo. I got these photos early on my hike up the Black Point Trail and spent the rest of my hike obsessing about finding my other principal quarry, the Chaparral Broomrape, which I didn’t see

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Can You Herp Me Now?

 More Broomrapes

Thanks to Ken-ichi over at Flickr for posting directions to this excellent Chaparral Broomrape, a plant I’d never even heard of before, much less seen. The plant is parasitic on the roots of Chamise, and I spent quite a bit of time looking for it before I finally spotted my first specimen, a tiny, flowerless critter maybe two inches high. I reached down to touch it to confirm that it wasn’t just

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More Broomrapes

 Plants What Ain’t Green

I headed up the Hogback Fire Road to the Hoo-Koo-E-Koo Trail in search of an excellent wildflower I’ve never seen before, called California Ground Cone (Boschniakia strobilacea, supposedly named after a Russian botanist named Boschniaki, but I can’t find anything about him on the web), which isn’t green because it doesn’t have chlorophyll. It’s said to be a root parasite, and I’ve been told it

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Plants What Ain’t Green

 TOOB, Pt. 2

I was watching some deer along Bolinas Ridge when I spotted this one browsing her way toward a couple of California Poppies. I thought it would make a nice picture to have them in the scene with her, but she improved it quite a bit when she walked right over to the poppies and nipped one off. It always interests me when I see a deer eat something besides its usual browse of grass and small

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TOOB, Pt. 2

 Wildflowers (4-28-10)

The guy who delivers the newspaper comes by around 2:30 a.m. Sometimes I’m up and I hear the tossed paper either whack into the gate with a thud and rattle, or sail under it and slide across the smooth concrete entryway with a snake-like hiss. You can get into some pretty deep thinking — not always wacky! — in those wee hours, and the other night was no exception.

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Wildflowers (4-28-10)

 The Other Blacktails

I was surprised to see old Lepus californicus, the black-tailed jackrabbit — two, in fact — sitting at ease in the middle of the corral where people take horseback-riding lessons. The corral was nicely swept and smooth, and the rabbits were seemingly a long way from protective cover. I’d seen their scat here and there, but this was the first time in Tennessee Valley that I’d seen the rabbits

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The Other Blacktails

 NFF, Pt. 2

I’ve been thinking about changing the name of the blog to something that reflects my local orientation of late. As much as I love exploring other parts of the state, my taste for long drives has ebbed in recent weeks. My plan for this weekend was to drive down to Big Sur and then Carrizo Plain, but in the end I didn’t feel like putting in all the hours behind the wheel.

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NFF, Pt. 2

 Turkey Strut

The day’s hike sort of began and ended with turkeys. As I’ve walked down the trail so many times I’ll shake my head at the crazy normalcy of seeing wild turkeys roaming the hillsides, either alone or in pairs, or a gaggle of toms strutting in the trail while a couple of shy hens lightly chirp and busily forage and hardly seem to notice all the attention being directed their way.

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Turkey Strut

 Urban Coyote

It has seemed during last few years that everyone but me has seen a coyote in San Francisco. There’s a charming little booklet about a coyote at Twin Peaks, and there’s even a movie about coyotes in the city! Thankfully, the drought is finally over. I drove to Glen Park this morning to see what the nesting Great Horned Owls were up to and almost immediately caught a glimpse of an animal

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Urban Coyote

 Mileage Plus

Too bad there isn’t a club that gives benefits for going on 1,700-mile photo safaris.  I know, I know — don’t even ask me how I drove so many miles in so few days!  I wanted to stay out a couple more days, but I didn’t exactly get the “spring-like” conditions I’d hoped for.  In fact, not once on this trip did I don a pair of short pants. My first stop was the Salton Sea State Recreation Area

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Mileage Plus

 January Slideshow

One of the best features of Flickr is the slideshow function. It’s an effortless way to view a set of someone’s photos in their original size instead of the shrunken 500-pixel view. I’ve been creating sets based on months of the year because my goal is to eventually have photos from all over the state, at all times of the year, and viewing the monthly set as a slideshow is a good way to see

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January Slideshow

 Winter Bobcat

I’d given up and was on my way out, already thinking about someplace to go look for mushrooms to photograph, when I spotted the bobcat sitting near the edge of the meadow. There was no way to make a direct approach without having to ford a rushing stream, so I circled around an unfamiliar area to try my luck. Stepping carefully among fallen eucalyptus twigs to keep quiet, I approached the edge

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Winter Bobcat

 Free Seminar with Director & Writer of Captain Abu Raed!

Amin Matalqa, Director & Writer of Captain Abu Raed Join us on Thursday, February 11 at the IUPUI Campus Center for a FREE seminar with Amin Matalqa, Director and Writer of 2008 Heartland Film Festival Grand Prize winning film, Captain Abu Raed .

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Free Seminar with Director & Writer of Captain Abu Raed!