We had heavy rain during the holidays, but the middle weeks of January have been cool and dry.

Owls are active this time of year. We hear their mating calls in the tall trees in our neighborhoods, and sometimes see them on the mountain cameras.
The great horned owl landed to drink from the creek.

Skunks, an important prey species for great horned owls, are also active and looking for mates in the winter.
Does this activity represent courtship, rivalry, or just frolic?

A great blue heron is a daylight visitor, working its way up the creek running full after a rainstorm.
This looks like a different individual (younger?) than we have seen previously.

We saw three individual feral hogs on two different nights.
The tusked boar is on the hillside forest trail is lean and has humped shoulders like a European wild boar.
The even bigger boar crossing the creek in the video is built more like a hippopotamus.

Many blacktail deer were seen, as usual. These two bucks on the upper meadow tolerate each other's presence now that the rut is over.
They will shed those antlers soon.

We didn't see any mountain lions this month, but bobcats where present, including this maternal pair.

This squirrel in afternoon light rounds out the month.

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