Cats and Dogs

All summer long, a bobcat has been walking past a trail camera next to our house that has a super bright flash.

The flash doesn't seem to bother her... she has visited very regularly for months, leaving territorial scrapes and scat in strategic spots near our house.

I was surprised by her behavior. Usually, bobcats start avoiding trail cameras that flash brightly after a few passes. I've shown you only 2 photos but the camera captured many many more.

Well, I discovered one reason why she might have been staying in a small territory over the past couple of months. There's a bobcat in the foreground of the next photo, and there's another one in the background. I think the bobcat in the foreground is a kitten!!!!!!!!!!!

Yipee! I love getting glimpses of our wildlife's secret world like this. The funniest part is that the dogs and I were probably on the deck a very small distance from these two sneaky cats!

Although we have bobcats around our house regularly, I've never captured photos of a mountain lion near our house. They seem to give the road and the houses a wide berth. I have trail cameras that are around a half mile from our house, deeper in the forest, that see mountain lions regularly.

Just recently, I captured photos of a lion heading through our neck of the woods.

His attention was caught by the scents at the base of a bear marking tree that he was passing, and he turned suddenly.

Then, he lay down to sniff the scents more closely. Almost every animal who passes a bear marking tree slows down to sniff the ground below it.

I loved how his tail remained taut while he laid still to sniff.

Some animals, including some mountain lions, will even roll around to leave their own scent under these trees. This guy didn't - he hurried on his way.

It is the season when I find that my trail cameras get far less wildlife traffic going past them than the rest of the year. I suspect that some of the animals take advantage of the huge elevation differences over short distances in our area. So, at this time of year, they can walk 5 miles and drop by 3,000' in elevation - which makes a huge difference in the weather. It's much more summer-like down lower than here.

The leaves haven't even started to change yet at lower elevations. At our elevation, almost all the leaves have turned color.

Here, autumn is in full swing, and winter is not far behind. So, my Shyla and I are making the most of these colorful days!