The summer has been very mild so far. The grass has dried out, and the ticks have become scarce (finally!). Adobe creek flows nicely and will become a magnet for wildlife throughout the rest of the dry season.
At the creek crossing, we got our first clear photo of an American badger. This is in the heavily wooded canyon, which I would not think is prime badger habitat, as compared to the more open upper mountain meadows.
We had hundreds of photos and videos of blacktail deer at the creek crossing. Primarily does and fawns here, with just a few bucks.
In May we had a partial photo of the first mountain lion we had seen in
many months.
This month we saw two different individual cougars, I believe, at the same
creek crossing a few days apart.
This one was photographed at twilight on July 3. It looks well fed.
This one (a male?) was photographed at 2:00 p.m. on July 7. It looks more
slender, even gaunt, with many embedded ticks.
On the hillside forest trail, the usual assortment of skunks, squirrels, and opossums were present.
And the bobcats which we reliably see here. This video splices together two clips of the same individual, taken a few seconds apart.
Many deer were photographed on the upper mountain cameras as well. Whereas we saw mostly does and fawns in the wooded canyons, in the mostly open upper mountain hillsides we saw mostly bucks.
Some bucks still have their antlers in velvet, like this buck on July 2...
While by July 11, just nine days, later, this buck (is it the same
individual?) had entirely shed its velvet.
No feral hogs were seen this month, although their sign is evident on the upper mountain.
