Belated Happy Mother's Day!

I recently was delighted to see this cute young chickadee, who was crying loudly for food.

The mother (or perhaps father) brought a nice fat worm and gave it to the chick.



But then the mother seemed to change her mind and grabbed the worm and tried to pull it away from her young.



The mother won, and the little chickadee had to resort to crying some more. Perhaps the mother decided that the worm was too big? Or maybe she was just really hungry.






Bonus photo of a young fawn I was lucky enough to spot the day before mother's day.

Ducklings flee danger

I had been watching a River Otter work its way around a pond, looking for fish.



I noticed that it was getting closer to a mother duck and her ducklings. The mother took off first, leaving her charges on their own. Three of the ducklings took off soon after their mother, but I noticed one little duckling left behind.



This duckling did eventually set off in the direction of its siblings.




All the little ducklings escaped on this day, but I know that a few fish did not, including the one that seemed to leave this otter looking so satisfied.

Bunny Time

I have always enjoyed looking for rabbits out on the trail, whether I am running, mountain biking, or just walking with my camera. Until recently, however, I have found that rabbits are a difficult subject to photograph. They are shy and skittish, appropriate enough for a prey animal.



For some reason, this year, in the East Bay Regional Parks, I have enjoyed a few fun encounters with rabbits, a few who even seemed to pose for the camera (like the one at the top). Or a couple like the two below who were almost hidden under a bush.





And quite a few who would continue eating their grass while watching me closely.

Bold Coyote and the Cow

Coyote focused on grazing cows, originally uploaded by Jen Joynt.




I recently saw this coyote in an East Bay Regional Park. I was curious to see what the coyote would be about the group of 4 cows that were nearby.

Uncowed, this coyote watched them intensely, considered going around behind them, and instead trotted right in front of the cows on a small path. Now, it was the cows turn to watch the coyote intensely.





Once the coyote was about 100 yards beyond the cows, he laid down to rest in the grass for a short while.



When he got up, I assumed he would continue on in the same direction he had been moving. Instead, he headed back towards the cows. This time, the large, black cow shown above was not having any of this. The very large cow charged at the coyote, who then trotted far off and disappeared into a dense area of bushes and trees. 

Great Horned Owl Mother and Owlet, Part 1

As the year draws to a close, I've been spending some time going through my photos and recalling some of my favorite wildlife encounters of the year. One of the the most amazing opportunities I had this year was the ability to observe a Great Horned Owl pair raising an owlet. I watched the owlet and the mother on numerous occasions and witnessed lots of interesting behavior. I have shared one photo from this owl's nest on my blog before but thought it would be fun to show some more of the moments I captured.

The photos for this post were from the first day I watched the mother and owlet in the nest. This was in the morning, and the mother left the nest multiple times, either to hunt or to retrieve food from the father or a separate cache. I could not always see where she flew to when she left the nest. It had rained heavily the night before, so the mother's feathers are wet in these photos. Here she is sheltering her young from the chill in the air.



This is the mother preparing to leave the nest. Notice the young owlet underneath the mother. (You might also notice the beak of the second owlet that did not thrive to the right.)



While she was out of the nest, the owlet appeared to alternate between resting, actively looking for her/his mother, and staring at nearby disturbances (jays, squirrels, even photographers).



Stay tuned for a second installment focused on feeding the owlet.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gray fox peaking through the leaves

Gray Fox Kit, originally uploaded by Jen Joynt.

I've been a little slow on posting lately, but here is a photo of a cute fox kit I saw this summer. I have been lucky enough to see fox kits on a couple of occasions.  But in my experience they rarely stop moving and are hard to capture in the open.  They are quite curious, though.  I've had them walk almost right up to me, before they decide that might not be a good idea.