Happy Easter from Point Reyes!
To go with our Black-Tailed Deer, the west has the Black-Tailed Jackrabbits. Many other species of hare also have black tails, so I can only assume the taxonomists decided to go easy on us with coincidental naming.
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Nuthatch Building a Nest
A Red-Breasted Nuthatch hollows out a nest in a tree. It would tap at the wood from inside the cavity and then carry it out of the hole one beakful at a time. This cavity was deep enough to completely hide the nuthatch when it dropped down to excavate.
Mated pairs build the nest together, while unmated males make up to four nests to impress potential mates with their work ethic and engineering skills. The female selects the nest from the options her new mate presents.
Hopefully this nest is judged worthy of housing tiny nuthatches!
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Stellar’s Jay Portrait
A Stellar’s Jay sits for its annual portrait. I’m looking forward to getting another clear shot at one of these birds sometime in 2025.
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Badger Profile
An American Badger sniffs the air before heading out on her early evening hunt. It is said that spotting a badger in your birth month portends a very productive year.
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Incoming Coyote
We prize eye contact in wildlife photography. It’s just part of how we’re wired. Eye contact demands reciprocation, pulling you into the scene and making you feel more connected with the subject.
Unfortunately, eye contact often means the subject is reacting to the photographer. Often when there’s direct eye contact in a photo of a wild mammal, you’ll noticing it’s standing still, trying to decide whether to flee or perhaps looking back to see if it’s being pursued. I’ve posted shots like that. I try my best, though, to minimize my impact on my photographic subjects, approaching them slowly and carefully so that I can get shots where they’re behaving naturally instead of reacting to me. If I capture them looking at something in my general direction, I can still create a feeling of connection, but also invite the viewer to wonder what’s caught the animal’s attention.
In this case, you can tell that the Coyote is walking towards me. This is my favorite interaction. The Coyote is aware of me, giving me a glance to make sure I don’t turn into a threat, but for now has concluded I’m just an odd feature of its habitat that it can safely bypass. For me, the moment is at once exhilarating and slightly terrifying, because I’m lying prone near its path, trusting that as long as I stay still, the Coyote will remain at worst indifferent to my presence.
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Elephant Seal Crib
I personally would not choose to sleep on a pile of old lumber and driftwood, but this Elephant Seal pup appeared to find it quite cozy.
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American Kestrel Tree Topper
An American Kestrel dries out after a break in the rain while scanning a field for bugs and rodents.
