Bobcat bonanza day

26 April 2016

We started our day super-early, heading out before sunrise so that we could look for sewellel on the highest part of Point Reyes. The sewellel is a primitive form of rodent, also called a “mountain beaver”, that is very elusive and lives on plants other animals can’t digest like ferns and rhododendrons. It isn’t a beaver at all, by the way, and also we renamed it Brian Sewellel for giggles. It was elusive for us, too. Instead we saw some tiny and cute brush rabbits and a brief glimpse of an otter in Abbott’s Lagoon.

It was looking like a low-key kinda day again, but after a midday meal at the Station House Cafe (including the local speciality – oysters), a nap and a restful afternoon we went out again to look for mammals in the late part of the day. First we got a lovely view of a grey fox in broad daylight, just hanging about in the tall grass. Then a long-tailed weasel ran across in front of our car, plain as your nose. And after dark while driving along the Estero trail road, Maureen spotted the gleaming eyes of a bobcat lying in the thick undergrowth grooming itself. It stood up to give us a good look before disappearing, but we spotted it again on our way back along the road and had another look. As a final bonus, later still I spotted a skunk’s butt sticking out of a bunch of flowers by the roadside. Very much Pepe le Pew! He never did show himself, just disappeared into the flowers and was gone.

Point Reyes is obviously a great destination for wildlife watching. It is also a singularly beautiful landscape, much like the islands and headlands of Scotland with its grassy slopes, rocky crags, grey seas, glancing sun and brisk winds.

Update: next morning we had a lovely view of a skunk (could be the same) trotting along the road in front of us. For five minutes we followed behind him in the car, before he ambled off into a field of flowers with his tail high. I was tempted to follow with the camera, but I honestly have no idea how long a skunk’s range is!

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