13 replies to this topic

[Andrea B.]

Yesterday I opened our front door to check for a book package delivery and what did I find instead? A Bobcat meandering down the walk towards the gate of the enclosed front courtyard.

A real live Bobcat !!!!!

I just had to tell someone.

Bobcat very casually sat down by the gate, and we looked at each other for a while. Kitty seemed not at all to be scared, and I was able to quietly call the SigOth to come to the door and see it. When M stepped through the door, the Bobcat jumped up onto the courtyard wall and walked along it to sit behind some tall shrub branches. Another step forward by M and the Bobcat departed.

So amazingly cool to see this critter. It certainly must make a good living in this area as there are rodents galore. I have no idea what it was doing in our front courtyard or how long it had been there. Perhaps it was seeking a safe haven from the coyotes.

[nurWolfgang]

Hello

to see a bobcat is grate I wish to see one one day
May be bette you did not had a camera in your hand
you may would have looked thru the optics all the time to get the best shot and you my
have missed the live experience.

regards

wolfgang

[UlfW]

I envy you so much for that.
The only bobcat I have seen was in a nature-park in his big habitat.
They are really nice animals.

Maybe it was a good thing that you weren't distracted by e camera.
Oops, did not read nurWolfgang's post until now.
We seams to think alike

[Stefano]

You had more luck here: https://www.ultravio...ater-roadrunner

Sometimes we are lucky and sometimes not. Like all the times I missed the bus for a few seconds or took it just in time. I miss taking it, but I don't miss when they were so full and crammed you couldn't even move and barely stay inside when the doors opened.

[Andrea B.]

I agree that having a camera in hand might have been a distraction.

Our Bobcat was not quite as tawny/orange-y as some of the Wikipedia images, more of a dusty greyish-tan. Perhaps this is the appearance of its thicker winter fur or just a slight variation of the usual colors. It did have lots of spots like in the pictures.

*****

This afternoon the Roadrunner (link in Stefano's preceding post) came around. So I am 2 for 2 !!

I noticed the Roadrunner under the "portal" (a kind of deep sheltered porch) at the back of the house. The Roadrunner wandered around the back courtyard garden then hopped up and over the adobe wall to continue its walk around the kitchen side of the house and then eventually on down the gravel driveway.

One cannot help but laugh a bit at this big bird as it passes by in a rather furtive manner as though it were on some kind of a secret mission. It moves very sl-o-o-o-wly and then quite suddenly makes a short burst of speed in typical Roadrunner fashion with neck/head extended and low to the ground. We see the Roadrunner about once every two months.

[Øivind Tøien]

Up here north we have the somewhat similar looking Lynx, which is usually a very shy animal. One evening when skiing back home in the dark in the light of my little headlamp, I suddenly see something that first looked like a big cat at the edge of the ski trail, and when I came up to it, I realized that it was a lynx. Very strangely it was just sitting there and I got so fascinated that I just stood there still staring at it, it staring back at me for what seemed like a while. Then I remembered that I had my camera in a holster so it could be reached without taking off my backpack. I grabbed for it, but then the lynx took off and the camera did not focus correctly, so I just got t a blurry image of some branches with no lynx in it. I stuffed the camera and continued on my path, but then I realized that the lynx had wanted to cross the ski trail, and that it was moving parallel to the trail, and had then turned around again. So when I got back to the same spot, the lynx was just crossing the ski trail. Again I grabbed for the camera, and just when the lynx was leaving the trail I fired off a shot with the lens cap on !!!

There is a special lasting feeling to seing rare wildlife at spots one will keep passing in the daily life. I always hope another lynx is going to show up at the same spot, although I know it is not going to happen. A few meters down from the spot with the lynx, a nice winter day a few years back I encountered a crazy young bull moose which started chasing me at full speed for hundreds of meters - but that is another story.

Edited by Øivind Tøien, 14 January 2021 - 05:53.

[Andrea B.]

I would love to see a Lynx. It's great that you got to see one.

It is indeed quite memorable to have seen something wild and beautiful.

And haven't we all made that shot with the lens cap on! Or with no card in the camera. Or where we've gotten the unusual bird framed only to have it fly off just as we are firing the shutter.

[Andy Perrin]

Yes, the lens cap filter is truly the worst filter I own!

[dabateman]

No,
But I usually have the wrong lens attached. Fisheye when need telephoto or similar craziness. I did get an ok male deer image through my front window. But they are horribly dirty so not the sharpest.
Our local bear hasn't been in our backyard yet. But I do get to see foxes and deer. I heard the coyote a couple nights ago, but didn't see it.
Lots of fun animals in the city now.

[Andrea B.]

What's dirty, the windows or the deer?

I hope never to have a local bear !! Or a mountain lion !!

[Øivind Tøien]

Another version of the shot with lens cap on is back in the film days exposing a whole film without film in the camera. It happened on a boat trip around a beautiful island in western Norway. It is still stands as the best film I ever shot.

Edited by Øivind Tøien, Yesterday, 09:08.

[UlfW]

The modern variant of exposing a whole film without film in the camera, is doing a full photoshoot with no flash card in the camera.
That is how I "recorded" almost fifty different images of the dolmen this winter solstice.

I had enabled the feature to use the camera without any card to be able to practice using the camera.

It took 50 minutes to return better equipped for a second run.
At least I could return rather fast and get the images.

It was also very cold and I added some warmer cloths at the same time

Edited by UlfW, Yesterday, 14:14.

[dabateman]

All my windows are quite dirty. I was glad I missed the bear on campus at white oak, in Silver springs. People were way too close to that bear from the emailed photo.

[Andrea B.]

omg, I used to live (for a year only) in Silver Springs, MD. Never thought a bear could appear there! But I guess there are still many park like areas where that could happen?