We had moderate rain in late April which kept the grass green and growing high well into May.
We begin with an identification exercise for an animal passing beneath the camera at the Adobe Creek crossing.
Tawny coat, muscular shoulders. The ears are visible and allow us to rule out a deer.
MM
Mountain lion or bobcat? The next two photos show the tail, allowing a
conclusive identification.
This is the first mountain lion we have seen in seven months, and the
first we have seen in full daylight!
On a different day, the same camera captured a bobcat in daylight. Note
the tufted ears, and compare the the non-tufted mountain lion ears, above.
Two large birds repeated their earlier visits to the Adobe Creek crossing: a great blue heron (the same one, I believe)...
and a turkey vulture, which seemed to be bathing (!) in the creek. Apparently that is not uncommon behavior for them.
As seen in the background of these photos, there are quite a few
horsetails (a.k.a. "horsetail ferns") near the creek.
I have not seen deer eat horsetails, and I have wondered if anything eats
them. Here is an answer:
Deer are plentiful, and look healthy (other than ticks which are
sometimes visible -- yuck!). Several spring fawns have arrived,
including these two with their mother on two different cameras, on
different days.
Two coyotes were photographed on different days in tall grass of an upper
mountain meadow.
I believe we have seen these individuals before.
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Another deer in the mountaintop bay laurel grove. This buck shows spring velvet antler growth.
No feral hogs were seen this month.
