Bobcats in the Mist

Its that time of year in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Our summer (takes place on the calendar in what most consider early fall) is officially over and our good friend, the fog, rolls back in. That means you get a lot of condensation on your camera trap lenses, especially at night.

Its something to think about when making your sets, but I've never found a great solution. Rain-X helps some, but not as much as one would like.

You can at least point your camera away from the great Pacific, but then you have to worry about the rising sun coming up in the East.

Mainly you just learn to live with less than perfect images, like these two of a bobcat who came by the Ghost Deer cam during a single visit.




This Bob has a pretty well endowed tail. We may come back to that at a later date.

Ghost Deer

A spooky deer from the Santa Cruz Mountains for your Halloween pleasure.








LOOK ABOVE YOU!




Ghost deer was trying to haunt the coyotes by leaving a leg in the tree, but he only managed to scare this poor little doe. Either that or the leg did such a good job that no carnivores even came by this set.

More of the Redwoods: 'Possum style

More from the winter season in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Such a California setting, right?

This time our culprit is not a critter we should find in California. The Virginia Opossum, Didelphis virginiana, was introduced to California in the late 19th Century. It was first introduced to Los Angeles in 1890 and then near San Jose in 1910. Opossums were brought to California as a cheap fur-bearing mammal, but also as a food item. The California opossums may have originally hailed from South Carolina, rather than Virginia.

Sexy Opossum or Sexiest Opossum?

Almost cuddly

Why go around a log when you can just lumber over it? And look at that nice tail!

With a purpose

Does anyone know if that pink ear pattern can be used to identify individuals? Unfortunately during the first visit we get a good look at its left ear and in the second visit its right ear, so comparison is a moot point on these images, but my guess is that it is the same guy or gal.

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Opossum introduction information from: The Opossum: It's Amazing Story By William J. Krause and Winifred A. Krause, Dept. of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri; pages. 23-24 (.pdf link)

Squirrel Heaven

OK, time for an actual camera trapping post. It's been a while. Hopefully a few of you still check in on the blog.

These are some images from a set way back in Fall of 2012 and January of 2013. Yeah ... its been a while. When I first went through these images I did not ID all of the squirrels correctly. I wasn't paying enough attention and let that be a lesson to all of you out there. You might have something more interesting than you think you do.

In these two sets I got three different species of squirrel. The native Western Gray Squirrel, Sciurus griseus, and two invaders from the other side of the Rockies, the Eastern Gray (Sciurus carolinensis) and Fox (Sciurus niger) squirrels. At first I dismissed the Westerns as Easterns because of the bit of brown on the shoulders. It fooled me and Randomtruth, pointed out the error in my ways.

Fox Squirrel posing

Fox Squirrel exploring

Western Gray Squirrel found a nut

Western Gray Squirrel hiding its nut

And now for something completely different ... more squirrels at an earlier set.

Western Gray

Eastern Gray with nut

Eastern Gray hiding its nut

Western Gray found the Eastern's nut? Nom Nom Nom

Maybe there is another one down there

About face

"Where the hell did my nut go? That damn local better not have stolen it!"

"Guess I'll just have to drink my sorrows away"

Glug, Glug, Glug

So thanks again to RT for point out that "There's more to your squirrels"

And two (Fox and Western) new species on camera trap for me, just by looking at my images with a better eye.

Spring Break!

After a brief spurt of activity we had gone back into hibernation.

Here are some wanders from early last month to hopefully stir the posting juices...


A glorious perk often mentioned as part of the life of a teacher is the scheduled breaks.

It is indeed a treat, my friends, and after an intense few months in the classroom, it was a true joy to get back out in the world.

First stop, Santa Cruz, for a long overdue meeting of the Camera Trapping Campus minds. A visit was made to the Santa Cruz Mountains... and several brewing establishments.

northern alligator lizard

western skink

western toad

western toad

ca tarantula

stoned bee

some kind of dusky-wing????

Next up: Petaluma.
The place of origin for both of your CTC authors. While visiting the family, I made a stop to Shollenberger Park for a little birding. Shollenberger was my training site as a high school trackie and could be noted as having a significant role in the development of my appreciation of nature.
Nothing too wild on the feathered spectrum that day: terns, stilts and avocets aplenty, but it was the start of what seems to be the trend of my spring -- nearly stepping on kingsnakes

1 of 6 CA Kings I have come across in the last two months. It had a buddy about 25 feet down the trail.
I have almost stepped on two more of these guys while running recently. A very snake-y spring...

and a Swallow Scream

Let these images be our incantations to raise a wild summer of outdoor rambles...

SC Mt. Herping

A few weeks back a handful of us went out for a little spring herping in the Santa Cruz Mountains. We had a productive day even if we struck out once again on L. zonata. I am bordering on Adam Dunn territory for this species. On the day we got 9 species of herps. Not pictured in this blog post are: Arboreal Salamander, Slender Salamander, Alligator Lizard (Likely Southern), Western Fence Lizard, and Ensatina. To make up for it I included photos of two non-herps.

Neonate Western Rattlesnake, Crotalus oreganus

Uroctonus mordax, I believe. Two different subspecies have been described in the area.

The prize of the day. A very small Pacific Giant Salamander, Dicaptodon tenebrosus

Young Western Skink, Plestiodon skiltonianus

Adult Western skink with an almost thrown tail (not because of anything we did. We found it that way)

A missed focus shot of a juvenile Santa Cruz Black Salamander, Aneides niger. There is little to no yellow in the armpits which distinguish it from the juvenile Arboreal Salamander which we also saw. I really should have taken a picture of one for comparison.

Banana Slug AKA Dicamptodon dinner

And a few additional images of two of the individuals above.












All in all a good day.

Silly Buck

Randomtruth had a great post up on bucks of the Santa Cruz mountains.

I'll just add one image of a buck, also from the SC mountains.



I don't know WTF this little guy is doing.

Just got a taste of something yummy?

Thinks he is a snake?

Realized he still had food stuck in his hipster stache?

Just trying to let the young does know that he is a fantastic lover and will bear them strong fawns?

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See also Friday Coyote Blogging from the same set.

More of the Redwoods: Predators

Its been a busy month.

I am hoping February may give me a little more time for misadventures, but more likely it will be March.

So here are a few images for the Santa Cruz Mountains that I should have gotten up a few months ago. These are from the same set that got the raccoon family hijinks.







And I am going to go ahead and consider the loud-mouthed Steller's Jay a predator.

One more shot of a Steller's Jay, mostly to show off this beautiful redwood creek setting