The Wildlife Photography Thread

And some eye contact:

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Thanks for the cool whale pics, SunMan -- amazing! :)
I gotta get down there and experience it in person...maybe next year.
 
Thanks folks. This trip in particular was extra special, the whales that chose us were incredibly playful and friendly, I must have kissed five different whales. We seem to get lucky late season when fewer whales are remaining, I think ~80 mamas and babies were all that were left. As it's been said here many times previously, ad nauseam, this really is something you need to do, it'll change you forever. Damn, said it again!
 
I was invited by the Feather River Land Trust to join a private showing of their latest acquisition in Sierra Valley.
A small group of a dozen folks were being escorted on a canoe paddle of the Sierra Valley Channels which are the headwaters of the Feather River. It's a fantastic wetlands, home to thousands of migrating birds and the source of the Feather River, in Plumas County. Get it?

I encountered a sandhill crane after the tour, while cruising my favorite off-pavement birding road. The guy was not shy and I took many photos (still being processed) of him. The behavior was strange. The bird was pulling up muddy grass and rubbing it all over his feathers. SR googled it, and they can stain their plumage thusly for months at a time.



Here is one of the more entertaining moments.


If only my neck was as flexible.
 
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To explain the funny expression, this bear is eyeing Barking Spider who is standing about 20 feet away. The bear is licking his chops, drooling, and probably thinking, "After this little snack, I wonder what's for lunch?"
 
While waiting for Smokecreek to come up from Susanville, I ran down to Badger Camp in the Sheldon Antelope Refuge to check out the CCC cabin there. The bad news is you can not approach the cabin any more. The good news was the small herd of wild horses that was very close to the road...

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This little guy knocked himself out hitting a glass wind break at Point Arena. Friend picked him up and kept him warm for about 5 minutes. Came around and took off about 30 seconds after this picture.

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SR and I spent the weekend up at Perazzo Meadows, north of Truckee. We left Saturday morning, stopped at Truckee Bagel for lunch to go (smoked salmon with capers on a rosemary bagel for me :) ). Our travels took us to Sierra Valley to check out our birding loop, soak at the Sierra Springs, ($15 x 3 hours per person) and make it back to Perrazo Meadows for an evening of fly fishing (small brookies) on the Upper Truckee.

Our goal was to hike to the upper end of Independence Lake on Sunday, now owned by the Nature Conservancy, where an article by the SF Chronicle had sensationalized the spawning Lahontan trout and brown bears. Independence Lake has a fishery of Lahontan Cutthroat Trout. An early dam prevented rainbow trout from hybridizing with the native Lahontan's, who originated from Pyramid Lake, at the foot of the Truckee watershed.

A two and a half mile hike brought us to the inlet of the glacial lake, with gravels and moving oxygenated water. We met a field officer who had a USGS truck and a trailer parked at the far end of the lake. He told us they had tagged 110 individual fish, the lowest in eight years since they started the program. He said we have yet to see the full effects of the drought.

These trout were big! Reminded me of watching salmon in their redds. I have many still photos I'm reviewing and will post photos later.

Here is a video from today. Wait for the end to see the female do her spawning shimmy:
 
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