Last Friday, March 1, was the first day of the year that the nature preserve was open until 7 PM. Spring is supposed to be approaching, although you wouldn't know it from the current cloudy, windy, misty weather. The weather conditions, however, were not as important as being able to stay out until dusk in one of my favorite places on the planet. As soon as I got home from work and got a quick snack, I grabbed the camera and my backpack and rushed out to the trail.
As I passed the gatehouse and drove down the road, I saw a bobcat cross the pavement. As I got closer, I could see that he was still standing close to the road on the trail. This was a great start to the hike! I hadn't even gotten out of the car and the wildlife was already finding me! I stopped, rolled down the window, turned on the camera, and got the message "No Memory Disk". I'd probably left it at home in the computer. Not to worry, I thought. I had another one in my backpack. I grabbed it, put it in the camera, and looked up to see that the bobcat had decided to go on its way.
Lesson learned: Check camera before leaving house. Otherwise, this might be all you get.
I mentally beat myself up for the next hour. I know better than this. Grandpa of No's favorite advice was to never forget the 6P's- Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance. (When I got older, he stuck a 7th P in there, so it became Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance"). Chances were good that no matter what else I saw, I'd missed my chance to get at least a decent photo of a bobcat. It didn't help that not much else was stirring, and what was stirring was hiding- I settled for taking a photo of a well-gnawed tree at the blind. I was hoping that the gnawer of the tree would make an appearance, but that didn't happen.
I also found a neotropic cormorant standing on a tree. Secondary lesson learned here: Check the bird guides before entering this bird into iNaturalist, because I get neotropic and double crested cormorants confused, and I picked the wrong one. Last Friday was a day of reinforcing lessons I should already know; the Nature Gods must think I'm slacking off or something.
Even though I still had time, the light (or what light I had on a cloudy, cold day) was withdrawing. I headed back to the trailhead, still mentally giving myself a tongue-lashing for forgetting the 7P's. I get a lot of great observations, but I don't see a lot of bobcats. As I turned to go back to the parking lot, I thought to myself that I still had a few minutes before the light got unworkable, so I wandered over to the riprap by the outlet works of the dam, and:
I stood and watched the bobcat as it walked on the riprap. At one point it glanced up in my direction and turned to go back into the vegetation on the left side of the trail. I stood still for a few seconds and it then turned back again and headed towards the river, where about ten great blue herons were standing in the water. The bobcat sat at the river's edge, looking towards the water and the herons. What its plans were I did not know, but I did know that it was time for me to head to the house. The Nature Photography Gods had given me a second chance.
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