Hugh and I were doing our initial survey of an old pioneer cemetery in the East Bay, when we saw these unexpected travelers in the haze. I grabbed a few frames as a doe and her two fawns ditched around the tombstones. Autumn is deer hunting season. I’ve heard some deer hunters say they’ll shoot…
Ahimsa at the Tidepools
I swear, if I have to ask one more kid to stop throwing rocks at animals . . . It was an imperfect plan to begin with: super-low tide on a Sunday at the gorgeous but hardly-secret Fitzgerald Marine Reserve. I’ve been waiting for a daylight minus (-) tide for a few months. I’d even…
Sir Sea Otter
I saw this otter on my way home from Morro Bay last week. He was foraging and grooming around the public pier at Moss Landing. The otter was awfully far away for my lens, so these shots are heavily cropped, not too crisp. But they capture the moment. He (or she) had repeated success diving…
The Mock Snail
This title, The Mock Snail caused the tiniest bit of confusion on Flickr. He’s a real snail. It’s just that the psychedelic tone rendered by my Raynox 150 lens inspired a Lewis Carroll reference.
Life Beneath a Water Lily
A water lily leaf in its imperfection . . . its asymmetry . . . its blemishes . . . the leaf detritus and pebbles collected at its core. In the family Nymphaeaceae, this — one of many species of water lilies — lives in the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden. Its underwater stems provide cover…
An American Bullfrog in Berkeley
I don’t usually ignore visual anomalies. They bring me to interesting things. On this Berkeley day, something seemed out of place — that nagging oddity in my periphery. I turned and looked closer in the mud. Sure enough, there was an unusual outline in the creek bed. As quickly as I noticed the frog, it…
Attack of the Giant Fish People
I saw these gigantic creatures slithering through the shallows — whipping up mud with each slap of the tail. They looked like radioactive versions of pond koi, ranging from about two to four feet long. And where I was, it was just me and and wind and the sound of their slither, evoking the Creature…
Encounters With [the Elusive] California Beach Hopper
California Beach Hopper or Megalorchestia californiana As fleas go, they’re giants. Not giants in the sense of Bikini-Atoll-nuclear-mutant-gone-bad giants. But by flea standards, they’re positively huge — about 1 inch long. That’s probably because they’re not parasitic dog or cat fleas, but rather, amphipods — shrimp-like creatures who dine on organic matter at the outer…
Marine Mammal Viewing — From a Distance
Hugh and I had another wildlife harassment incident this past week with a family on the Mendocino coast. We hiked over an unpopulated bluff and saw a mom and kids chasing a young sea lion across the rocks for a photo op. Their actions were forcing the young animal away from her resting spot, as…
Young Fox Squirrels at Play
Photos of young/juvenile fox squirrels playing in an urban environment, on telephone poles and wires. Also includes images of baby squirrels in the hands of a wildlife rehabilitator.
