Dipper Ranch

Windscorpian    It's walnut harvest time. There's going to be a big crop and lots of neighbors and friends to share the bounty...

A sapsucker stretches after its winter arrival at the Dipper Ranch orchard. This one looks like a cross between the red-naped sapsucker ...

The first time a bobcat goes by the camera in this time period is November 12 near first light.    A few days after I posted the Puma Sc...

A male violet-green swallow lists to the side in the hot sun. July 4, 2014    Swallows appear in large numbers at the Dipper Ranch f...

Mountain beaver (a.k.a. aplodontia) is one of the unusual mammals you get to practice camera trapping on at this workshop in the Sierra Ne...

Female hairy woodpecker showing a black back with a white blaze down the middle and white checkering on her black wing feathers. 09/28/13...

An agile red-breasted sapsucker feasts on a ripe persimmon. 11/10/2013   Everybody likes the persimmon tree in the backyard in the fall...

In the family of "goatsuckers", I first starting seeing these small birds hunkered down on the ground at night at the Dipper Ran...

Fresh sawdust chips on a trunk. I noticed piles of fresh sawdust beneath a dying canyon live oak when I was chasing some cows out of The...

This way or that way? As a large mammal, mountain lions have choices on where they can go but they are still blocked by roads and human co...

Nighttime silhouette in the wildlife camera at the cattle pen. I felt restless in late November as I often do around the full moon, but ...

Full moon through California buckeye tree at the Dipper Ranch, February 25, 2013 Late February's full moon is the Snow Moon .  In ce...

One afternoon in Yellowstone National Park I wanted to hike, but I was on my own and the Park Service strongly recommends that people...

When the days got short and the nights crisp, the animals came to the horse meadow. Mostly they came to eat the persimmons off the tree....

Vultures checking out the new cattle trough. Random Truth just posted great photos of bears bathing in cattle water troughs in the ...

House finch nestlings  growing rapidly and waiting for more food. The house finches won the battle of the porch again this summer. Last ...

Large tracks on Windy Hill Open Space Preserve (no longer sure whether these are mountain lion or not, see comments) The San Francisco ...

Brandt's cormorant and nestlings on Guillemot Island at Point Lobos State Natural Reserve. Both male and female parents tend the nest....

Male Brandt's cormorant in breeding display - head tipped back over back, distinct bright blue gular pouch inflated, wings fluttering,...

Welcome back.  Ash-throated flycatchers fly up to the Western US to nest in cavities, often in manmade structures like fenceposts and tel...