Weather

A nice looking late season storm is about to arrive!

 

Red-throated Loon Rescue

An oiled Red-throated Loon was swimming around a local lake on Thursday and Friday. My girlfriend and I had just finished discussing whether or not it could be rescued from the water, when it swam directly towards us and clumsily hauled itself out of the water.  That made rescuing the bird a more realistic proposition and we quickly made a call to the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network.  Thankfully, the loon showed no signs of returning to the water, and within ten minutes a volunteer arrived and was able to easily capture the bird.  Hopefully it is now much cleaner and on its way back to the wild.

Oiled Red-throated Loon

Close-up of Red-throated Loon

Oiled Red-throated Loon on land

Video Preview of the Discovery Channel’s “North America”

I’m excited to share the first preview of the Discovery Channel’s documentary series on North America.  Two years ago, I had the pleasure of chatting about bobcats with Nick Lyon from the Wild Horizons production company.  Because they are so elusive, bobcats are almost never filmed for major documentaries.  I want to thank Nick for putting in the work to document this incredible animal and share that with the Discovery Channel audience.

I also have to thank Trish Carney for posting the link to the preview on her blog. She’s doing some of the most original bobcat photography and I always look forward to seeing new work from her.  This preview looks incredible and I’m really looking forward to watching the series in 2013.

Via Trish Carney

Interesting Science: Mountain Lion Behavior

A recent study from the Teton Cougar Project has found multiple mountain lions sharing prey in the Gros Ventre River drainage.  According to conventional wisdom, mountain lions are solitary animals, expect when breeding and raising young.  These researchers have found multiple females and young sharing elk kills and have also noted a male lion in the same location as a female and her kitten.  My own experience with bobcats supports what these researchers have seen.  I’ve seen multiple male bobcats interacting with females and kittens outside of the breeding season, which the literature says shouldn’t happen.

Jackson Hole News via Adventure Journal