Calendars are Here!

For the past several years I’ve been making calendars for friends and family.  This year I’m expanding production and offering four different calendars for sale at $15 each (plus $3 shipping per order).  They make great holiday gifts and are truly unique.  As a matter of fact, I believe that I might have the first and only Bobcat calendar!  If you are interested, please contact me via email:  wildphotography.barry @ gmail.com

Sample photos can be seen below the fold.

Cuteness alert!

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Here’s a video from the other day of the mother and female bobcat kitten licking and cleaning each other.

Unique Encounter – Male bobcats seen together

As the title of this post indicates, we had a completely unexpected sighting of the two male bobcats together.  The two bobcats were the father and his son.  Bobcats are well known for their solitary lifestyle, apart from mating and the mother raising the young.  I have been unable to find any other record of an adult male tolerating the presence of another male.  This sighting makes me wonder if he knew that the young male was his offspring and that’s why he wasn’t chased away.  The younger male actually ran up to his father and playfully head-butted him in the side.  We were anxiously waiting for the adult to snap at the youngster, but he just abled away with the young male following closely beside him.  What an amazing thing to see!

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“A Window into their World”  -  Adult Male Bobcat ~ Lake Los Carneros, Goleta, CA

Common Beauty

Some interesting large migratory birds are finally arriving in the Santa Barbara area.  We have had flocks of Canada Geese overnighting at Lake Los Carneros and a juvenile female Northern Harrier coursing over the surrounding meadows.  There has certainly been no shortage of creatures to photograph around here recently.

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“The World’s Prettiest Mallard”  -  Lake Los Carneros, Goleta, CA

Two Kittens, Two Days – Male

This is Part II of this two part series.  Yesterday the young male was only seen just as twilight descended.  I managed to capture a couple documentary photos, but nothing worth posting.  He more than made up for it today and spent nearly an hour hunting and prowling out in the open.  We haven’t seen the young siblings playing with each other recently and it was great to get a glimpse of the past as he briefly and playfully chased his sister.  Unfortunately I wasn’t expecting this at all and missed getting both of them in frame.

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“Young Male Bobcat”  -  Lake Los Carneros, Goleta, Ca

Two Kittens, Two Days – Female

Both of the bobcat kittens have been very active again and there have been some great sightings over the last two days.  Yesterday a small group of us spent almost thirty minutes watching the young female successfully capture and subdue a pocket gopher.  The gopher attempted to fight back which only prolonged its misery, as the cat took its time wearing down the poor creature.  Today we witnessed the cat’s caring side, as the mother and daughter spent several minutes grooming each other.  I managed to get some great video and hope to post it later this week.

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“Young Female Bobcat”  -  Lake Los Carneros, Goleta, Ca

Scenic Sights from the Lake

There are many more bobcat and bird photos to post.  Due to all the great sightings recently, I think my nose is permanently bent out of shape from being smashed against the back my camera!  In any case, I have been taking the time to capture other beautiful sights along the way.  Here’s a small and colorful selection of recent views at Lake Los Carneros.

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“Intimate Field”  -  Lake Los Carneros, Goleta, CA

More Bobcat Photos from Early November

Here are a few more photos from some of our recent bobcat encounters.  For the first time, we had another wild animal point out the location of one of the cats.  An agitated crow was calling incessantly from a treetop, which isn’t too unusual.  But then it flew down from the tree and looped low over the ground while angrily shrieking.  Sure enough, one of the bobcats was lying in the grass right where the crow had indicated.

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“Clean Kitty”  -  Lake Los Carneros, Goleta, Ca

Bobcats – November 10th

The bobcat kittens have not been nearly as easily visible as they had been.  Partly this is due to the decreased amount of daylight after work, but they also seem to be spending more time hunting on their own.  Fortunately, a bunch of us have still quite a bit of success finding them.  Last week Tuesday was a particularly lucky day.  To start with, we saw the bobcats both in the morning and evening that day.  It was a lot of fun to watch them walking through a dew covered field as they attempted to avoid the dewy vegetation.  The female kitten was particularly funny, as she bounded from one spot to another in an attempt to avoid walking through the grass.  Life’s tough when you’re small!

In the evening, after a ton of looking around, we spotted the mother run across a path.  She seemed to vanish into thin air, however several minutes later the two kittens were spotted in an adjacent field.  I found myself inadvertently too close to them and started to slowly crept in the opposite direction.  It appeared that this caution was unwarranted, because the young male’s curiosity got the better of him and walked right over to me!  He looked up at me, gave a few quick sniffs and decided I wasn’t a threat, and then returned to hunting with the other bobcats.  After that encounter, I circled back away from the cats and attempted to head towards the main path.  As I rounded a bend in the trail I came upon the mother sitting only  a few feet away!  Another photographer motioned for me to look for another bobcat and I was rewarded by seeing the male kitten posing on a decaying stump only a few feet further away.  After getting a few pictures, we let them get back to their nightly hunt.

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“Early Risers”  -  Lake Los Carneros, Goleta, CA

Bobcat Jumping Sequence

The young female bobcat put on quite a show on Saturday at Lake Los Carneros in Goleta.  She caught and killed a small rodent just before we first spotted her.  This cat must be a firm believer that “practice makes perfect” because she spent the next ten to fifteen minutes batting around and pouncing on her prize.  This may seem like play to us but it is important that she practice and improve her hunting skills and reflexes.

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“Bobcat Leap”  -  Click on the above image to view it larger.