Another Day, Another Wildlife Extravaganza
Today dawned sunny. Plan 'A' was to get out on the Ducati again and go hit some of the roads at the north end of the bay, that used to be the southern end of my motorcycle playground when I lived in Santa Clara.
However, the fact that it was sunny and clear on the bay allowed me to spot that there was fog in the Santa Clara valley that was spilling over the Santa Cruz mountains where I planned to ride. That would mean that half the roads would be wet - I decided to postpone that plan.
Plan 'B' then kicked in - let's go mountain biking (having a week and a half off work is awesome!)
I headed to Fort Ord and went for a 16 mile ride in the sunshine. I'm guessing there hadn't been too many other folks out in the hills earlier in the day as I came across two bobcats at different parts of the ride - my first multiple bobcat sighting at Fort Ord.
I only just spotted the first one as I was about to ride past it as it crouched down in the grass next to the trail. I decided to stop and it decided to wander nonchalantly off (as they frequently do). By the time I got the camera out of my pocket, it was out of range of a decent point and shoot camera shot.
However, its attention was then directed to a clump of grass near where it had wandered off to. The bobcat was soon paying 100% attention to this clump of grass, very gradually, stealthily getting closer to it. It had totally forgotten I was there, so I got of my bike and wandered into the grass as stealthily as I could manage which proved to be stealthily enough.
I watched it for about 2 minutes - closing in on the grass pile - eventually it pounced, but whatever it was after either wasn't there or eluded the cat as it came up empty pawed.
Then it remembered that I was there and went back into nonchalant wandering mode - at which time I was close enough to take this shot before it got out of my range.
Later in the ride, bombing down some downhill single track, I came around a corner to find another cat sitting the grass by the side of the trail. One emergency stop later and I'm fumbling for the camera again while the cat looks like it's waking up from a nap.
The cat's blinking and squinting while I'm getting the camera out, and then it's awake and off into nonchalant wandering off mode - I managed to get a blurred shot of its ass as it wandered off - I didn't include it here.
However, the fact that it was sunny and clear on the bay allowed me to spot that there was fog in the Santa Clara valley that was spilling over the Santa Cruz mountains where I planned to ride. That would mean that half the roads would be wet - I decided to postpone that plan.
Plan 'B' then kicked in - let's go mountain biking (having a week and a half off work is awesome!)
I headed to Fort Ord and went for a 16 mile ride in the sunshine. I'm guessing there hadn't been too many other folks out in the hills earlier in the day as I came across two bobcats at different parts of the ride - my first multiple bobcat sighting at Fort Ord.
I only just spotted the first one as I was about to ride past it as it crouched down in the grass next to the trail. I decided to stop and it decided to wander nonchalantly off (as they frequently do). By the time I got the camera out of my pocket, it was out of range of a decent point and shoot camera shot.
However, its attention was then directed to a clump of grass near where it had wandered off to. The bobcat was soon paying 100% attention to this clump of grass, very gradually, stealthily getting closer to it. It had totally forgotten I was there, so I got of my bike and wandered into the grass as stealthily as I could manage which proved to be stealthily enough.
I watched it for about 2 minutes - closing in on the grass pile - eventually it pounced, but whatever it was after either wasn't there or eluded the cat as it came up empty pawed.
Then it remembered that I was there and went back into nonchalant wandering mode - at which time I was close enough to take this shot before it got out of my range.
Later in the ride, bombing down some downhill single track, I came around a corner to find another cat sitting the grass by the side of the trail. One emergency stop later and I'm fumbling for the camera again while the cat looks like it's waking up from a nap.
The cat's blinking and squinting while I'm getting the camera out, and then it's awake and off into nonchalant wandering off mode - I managed to get a blurred shot of its ass as it wandered off - I didn't include it here.
posted by Tim H at 6:46 PM
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