Welcoming wildlife

Wanting this bobcat to have a good life in our yards that border nearby preserves is why I rooted for AB-1322 via emails to elected officials. Predators like bobcats, mountain lions, coyotes and raptors are skilled hunters that too often fall victim to rodenticides that travel up the food chain.

This bobcat captured a midnight snack.

Presumably this is the same bobcat returning to continue the hunt.

Rufous/Allen’s hummingbird (Selasphorus sp.) working one of the Dudleya pulverulenta I planted on the slope a few years ago

Anna's hummingbird (Calypte anna) with Dudleya pulverulenta

Callianda x Sierra Starr® is a robust hybrid between Calliandra eriophylla (pink fairy duster) and Calliandra californica (Baja fairy duster) that keeps the hummingbirds very busy.

Great Basin western fence lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis longipes) on the house

Very adorable and tiny Baja California tree frogs (Pseudacris hypochondriaca) often find cover in our potted plants from Andy’s Bromeliads, in this case a Hohenbergia.

A southern pacific rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus helleri) was eyeing me from beneath a chaparral mallow (Malacothamnus fasciculatus) I planted on the slope. Our yard and the preserve is clearly a great place for neighbors’ dogs to be permitted to run and dig off-leash.

greater roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus)

This may or may not be the racoon who flipped our container water garden sending the water lilies and lotuses everywhere. The garden is now caged.

chaparral yucca (Yucca whipplei) seed pods with full Moon

Great white sharks!

The water has been calm around here as of late and I knew the conditions were perfect for spotting sharks and other ocean life from the cliffs at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve. I was super excited to see three juvenile great white sharks as well as harbor seals and nearshore bottlenose dolphins.

It might be tough to see them on a smartphone screen, but there’re two sharks here—one at the far left and one on the right.

It’s pretty easy to tell the dolphins and sharks apart even at a distance.

It’s a delight having harbor seals whiz past me when I’m snorkeling.

Offering

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Coyote shares his thoughts on being surveilled

…and probably on the bobcats as well.

Seeing the wildlife around here makes my day.

This bunny has good reason to hide in the Shaw’s agave and Cleveland sage.

Juvenile cooper’s hawks raised in the canyon finger have been crying to be fed for weeks now. There’s a lot of circle of life behavior to observe in the yard and adjacent preserves.

Valley Carpenter Bee working a white sage.

Anise swallowtail butterfly pausing on golden cereus.

This Texas red yucca is currently being relished by a Costa’s hummingbird, a bird species I most often see in the desert. It’s no ocotillo or chuparosa, but he thinks it’ll do in a pinch.

California sea lions in San Diego

Tourists and locals alike understandably flock to La Jolla to see the California sea lions and harbor seals, particularly when it's their pupping seasons. I need to have my increasingly mislaid "I can cope with the public" hat on in order to brave the crowds. It's typically the lure of getting in La Jolla Cove that does it. Both pinniped species are curious and will often approach me underwater on their own terms which never gets old. I couldn't effectually chase them in their oceanic realm if I wanted to and neither could Michael Phelps. We humans are comparatively out of our element in the water no matter how much we love being in it. On land, I keep my distance and photograph them with a 100-400mm telephoto lens. I've seen a lot of folks get way too close over the years putting both themselves and the wildlife at risk, but I've never been present when animals were being beaten or their newborns picked up. Those photos and stories fill me with rage, sadness and disbelief that anyone could do this. Bad actors in our parks and preserves are why we need to pony up cash to pay more rangers who can dish out actual consequences as needed. If that's not a good use of taxpayer dollars I don't know what is, not to mention the creation of hard yet surely rewarding jobs. I'm in favor of closing Point La Jolla during sea lion pupping season for the same reason the Children's Pool is closed for the harbor seals when they're giving birth and nursing. I want to believe most people who visit mean these animals well, but there are enough assholes out there that these animals need better protection. Please join me in signing the Sierra Club's San Diego Chapter's petition to Mayor Gloria and San Diego City Council by clicking or tapping HERE.

Please back up. A little more…a little more… Perfect!

(Hey, I never said I’m a nice person.)

Look closely and you’ll see one blending in with the rocks. They’re pretty inaccessible in this spot. The youngest pup is almost vertical.

I could easily spend all day watching them surf. Waves and weather that keep me and my snorkel dry are seemingly nothing to them.

The sea lions and harbor seals can swim so fast that sometimes I don’t see them until they’re in my face! I’d rather not have that encounter with one of the larger juvenile white sharks aggregating off of our coast, though I REALLY want to see one from a safe distance…as in having been out to the Farallon Islands three times levels of interest with no luck yet. And now I want to reread The Devil’s Teeth by Susan Casey.

Resting up for the hunt. They can appear lazy, but are very active at night in search of fishes. Yup, it’s “fishes” because we’re talking about a diverse diet that includes many species of fish as well as squid and octopus.

On second thought, why hunt when you can just train the fishing crowd to do it for you like this charismatic bull did?! Everyone involved was clearly having a great time, but this is one reason why NOAA doesn’t want us to feed them:

“Marine mammals change their natural behaviors, including feeding and migration activities, and show decreased willingness to forage for food on their own. They may also begin to take bait/catch from fishing gear. These changed behaviors may be passed on to their young and other members of their social groups, increasing their risk of injury from boats, entanglement in fishing gear, and intentional harm by people frustrated with the behavioral changes.”

Chilling on a bait dock at dusk.

This guy benefited from SeaWorld’s rescue, rehab and release program. They’re who I call when I find a distressed pinniped.

California sea lions thermoregulating off of San Diego.

Hanging out with a juvenile California brown pelican. La Jolla is a great spot to watch them, cormorants and gulls as well.

“Thanks for helping me out!”

Every day is Earth Day

It hurts to watch organisms we love dearly die, particularly when it wasn't their time to go. And it’s difficult to be in the company of people who don't accept that anthropogenic climate change is the real deal.

Mule deer family in the yard

Hi there.

A few moments in Wilderness Gardens County Preserve

This is a species that results in muffled squeals when I find one. Everything about it is beautiful in my opinion. I wasn’t exactly thrilled with myself for having left my macro lens at home.

California Peony (Paeonia californica)

Kumeyaay Ehmuu (Bedrock Mortar) with Oak Leaf and Acorn

These are used by native people to grind acorns and other foods.

Discarded Butt

If this action had resulted in an inferno, would it really have been a “wildfire?” Careless arson is more like it. And the native plant “fuel” would be blamed.

Blue Dicks (Dichelostemma capitatum) with Buffalo Gourd (Cucurbita foetidissima)

Coyote Stare

It was a brief encounter and wonderful as always. Coyotes who aren’t fed by humans will be out of sight shortly after you see them.

Fingertips (Dudleya edulis) and Chaparral Yucca Remains (Hesperoyucca whipplei)

I planted this very combination in our backyard years ago and both have become huge. Sea dahlias (Leptosyne maritima) have woven themselves through the chaparral yucca and are currently blooming; the latter will send up a large inflorescence at some point, bloom profusely and then die. Sculptural hardly covers it.

A heartfelt thank you to the people who saved this land for the native plants, wildlife and us to enjoy respectfully. Some “things” are irreplaceable.

Gossamer lair

Fog and rain reveal the beautiful homes of funnel spiders in shrubs and ground covers. Agelenidae are pretty harmless unless you happen to be an insect or another spider that wanders into their lairs. I enjoy seeing our resident spiders and appreciate the balance they help maintain in the garden.