The Night Has a Comet and a Lion

Comet PANSTARRS - thanks to sky-aware friends who point out these things.

We saw the Comet PANSTARRS from the Dipper Ranch gate tonight. A herd of five deer were watching too, or perhaps, as someone suggested, the deer were looking to see who was making all that racket. Just sitting in lawn chairs at the gate in the dark with binoculars and cameras. Such a pleasant way to spend a late winter evening. Meanwhile, a mountain lion has showed up several times on a wildlife camera on a remote part of the ranch. Mostly at night.

Coyotes to the Wind

Coyote running in its colorful winter coat

As summer progressed, the coyote pups were showing up less often on the wildlife cameras along The Coyote Brush Highway.  They were growing and probably roaming farther and joining the adult coyotes on hunting trips.  We had started a construction project on the lower end of the Dipper Ranch to remove an old road and repair landslides to improve the water quality of creeks in the Pescadero watershed.  This resulted in construction equipment and contractors driving onto the property several times a day, a big change from the usual traffic-less conditions, and I wondered if this affected the coyotes' behavior.  Furthermore, there had been several trespassing incidents, so I decided to move the wildlife cameras away from the gate.