peregrinetracy's Favorites

Melanistic juvenile (likely male based on size relative to the Great-tailed Grackle it was feeding upon). Verified by William Clark, and Lance and Jill Morrow. First observed by M. Silvas with me, and I shouted "melanistic Cooper's Hawk, OMG" as I identified the bird preliminarily, before submitting it to experts for review.
N31.070728 W-97.369269
JPK-2925

26 FEB 2021 ANZA BORREGO DESERT: On our quarterly transect of the Narrows - while investigating woodrat nests - the Anza Borrego Desert Tracking Team came across what appeared at first blush to be a very large bobcat latrine under rip rap supporting the steep bank of Highway 78. The scats were all on the small side for bobcat - approximately 3/8 - 1/2" diameter - and not well segmented. A few were connected in typical tootsie-roll lengths but many were not. None of the team had ever seen anything like this before. We find lots of bobcat scat in the Narrows, much of it in latrines, but nothing under a rip rap wall in such a volume, and none of it this small.

I put a cam on the "scat cave" on 26 February and retrieved the
SD Card 14 March 2021. Seven animals appeared. Most notable was a Ringtail 26 Feb just a few hours after I departed. The scat matches Mark Elbroch's and James Lowery's descriptions for Ringtail.

Other images captured were of a Rock Wren, Black-throated Sparrow, Bryant's Woodrat, Merriam's K-rat, Peromyscus, Antelope Ground Squirrel and a Desert Cottontail.
San Diego Tracking Team and Anza Borrego Tracking Team trail camera wildlife monitoring of wildlife in the The Narrows area of Anza Borrego Desert State Park by permit with California state parks.

Incredible experience with this Mink. She was moving her babies from one den to another. When I arrived, I was told she had already moved 2. I saw her move 2 more.

Not sure why she was doing this, but guessing her den was disturbed somehow. It is right next to a place where fishermen sit, but not sure if it was that or another animal that got up in there.

Such interesting behavior to see!

I was driving slow (10 mph) down a dirt road and this owl was either 1) under a bush or 2) in a hole during broad daylight next to the road and I scared it from its home and it flew out. High 80’s to 91 degrees at 4:26pm. 3,500+ feet elevation. No man made structures in this immediate vicinity, so it was definitely under a bush or in a hole. I’ve only seen long-eared owls, great horned owls, barn owls, and burrowing owls before. So this one was my first short eared owl. Pretty neat :)