Taking a photo of a barn owl has been hard work. After finding a tree where I have seen two different barn owls perched I set on an epic adventure to fulfill a spot for them on my photo list. Theres one problem they are experts at stealth. There patterns on their feathers blend in perfectly with the trees, and silent flight doesn't help either. Consistently I would go towards this specific tree frequently to capture these spectacular raptors. But each time I would near the trees the crackle of oak tree leaves under my feet would spook them. I would see probably over 10 owls this way each day. They would fly out and almost hit me but only a few pics of them flying away actually came out. Some struggles were that the consistent brush would always block the view of the camera. Other struggles were lighting. Underneath the shadows of the trees it was quite dark.This meant using a slower shutter speed on my camera which in consequence gave a lot of motion blurs when I finally had the chance of capturing these elusive creatures. After an exhausted 3 weeks of no pictures I set out one more time. This time thinking positive with high hopes. As I neared the tree as stealthy as possible much like I have done for quite sometime a barn owl flew out. But this time he did something different. He flew out of the tree and then circled around and quickly perched just out of my view in a nearby tree. Thanks to my eye sharpness I spotted his perch. This time more stealthy than ever. I would only take a step when there was other noise like a plane flying by. This took about ten minutes to sneak up on the owl. Then I zoomed in only halfway to get as less motion blur as possible. I did it!!!! I finally got a photo of a perched barn owl, and it only took 3 weeks to do! After taking a few shots the owl silently flew off into the sunset. But I wasn' finished just yet. There was another oak tree that I had seen other owls fly into. Sure enough there was a barn owl. He did the same thing as the previous one and perched on a branch. I quickly zoomed in halfway again and took some shots. There was a twig in the way of his face, But I like how it shows the superb camouflage if these barn owls. I am so happy I got these shots. This proves to myself if I set my mind on something the possibilities are endless

Mountain Lion Tracking (P18)

Today was a great day!!! I went with a national park service ranger to go track P18 a young male cougar. We started off the day checking a game camera where a road kill deer had been placed. There were coyote tracks everywhere and no signs of lion. As we checked the pictures there were plenty of pics of coyotes but no lion. Then we brought the roadkill deer back to a deer freezer for use another time.  As we hopped in the truck the ranger put the transmission of the cat on his radio, and we headed toward a spot where he had seen him just yestersday.As we got closer we could hear a faint beep and decided to hike in on a trail near a play park. While walking in the signal got stronger and stronger untill he made me stop. This is when the park ranger pulled out his wildlife pepper spray and he told me the mountain lion was very close probably about twenty feet away in a gully. Normaly (according to the ranger) he never moves in on a lion unless he has to capture it or find a kill sight. The ranger and I started to move off the trail towards the gully and just as we did the mountain lion sprung up from his resting place and bolted nto the gully. The cougar must have been 15 feet away. It amazed me that although we were looking where he was sitting we never saw him untill he jumped up and ran as his long tail swirled in the air.( the ranger told me that he has been out with film crews before for months at a time and they never saw a cougar even with a pinpoint location he said he still rarely sees them unless there on camera or he captures it with a snare) Anyway we moved on towards where the cat had ran and from the beeping on the transmitter we found a thick underbrush in the gully where the tranmitter said the cat was. As the ranger moved toward the brush I stayed up a little higher out of the gully to see where it went incase the cat ran. Just then I watched as a coyote moved slowly towards the underbrush, and then I heard a faint whistle! The park ranger spotted the cat in the brush laying down. The ranger and I must have been 5-10 feet away from the elusive cougar. But the cougar wasn't watching us his eyes were pinned on the coyote. The ranger and I hoped he would go after the coyote because it would help us trap the mountain lion. But the cougar never went after the coyote. So we decided to move closer to see if we could get the mountain lion with a blow dart but the brush was to thick. Our next approach was to try and tree him so we could get a better shot to tranquilize the cat. We attempted to tree him by barking like hound dogs and running at the cougar, but this did not outsmart the elusive cat and he ran off in the distance. The young mountain lion was in a larger male's territory and the ranger is hoping that the mountain lion crosses the freeway soon to a new territory because either P18 will run into another male and get killed or inbreeding will have such an effect on the cougars that there will be none left in the area. I had an amazing time with the nps ranger and hope to do it again not many get this oppportunity and I will cherish this day for my entire life. Sadly I did not get any pics, but it would probably have been impossible in the situation we were in.

My friend and I decided to go to Yosemite for 3 days and it was worth it. we stayed and some beat up tent thingy that coulb barely fit us, but who cares we were never really in it. On our first day up there we wondered near the bases of the famous cliffs looking for bobcats. yet, there was no luck in seeing a bobcat we did find an awesome bobcat den! It was late in the afternoon and we decided to walk in the meadow near el capitain by a creek. As we followed a quiet game trail we came up on something. It was bear scat extremely fresh. About 5 seconds later my friend yelled bear. Right there about 20 feet away stood a mama black bear drinking from the creek with her cubs. The cubs were very curious and would pop there heads up often, while the mom just cariied on with her duties. After about 20 min. the black bears moved on into a forest area. After our bear encounter we went into the woods looking for bobcats again and stubled on a beautiful buck. Shortly after we also found an injured doe that was not camera shy! The very next day while driving along the road we came upon the mama black bear and her cubs again. Though this time the mom was more aggresive and grunted at us a few times. Later that day my friend and I figured out how to take long exposure photagraphy of creek rapids. It was loads of fun and they just all look professional. While going towards lower yosemite falls that night to take more long exposure photographs, we found a large black bear in a tree eating the leaves. An hour later we came back to the spot where the bear was in the tree and found him tranquilized because he grunted towards the people taking pictures :( During our stay almost everywhere we ooked we found deer, I was also very surprised to see as many bears as we did, by I am astonished to find that I didn't see one coyote :( and no bobcats. But this was an expierence of a life time and would love to do it again!! :)

Welcome to the Pack

Each day I spend atleast an hour with them. The packs alpha female is growing comfortable with me and is now starting to come much closer her name is Red. One of the pack's male "Lobo" is very uncomfortable with me each day he spots me and runs away and usually takes the pups back into the bushes. Scar the alpha male is growing more comfortable also but not nearly as much as Red. One female that a usually see the most Half-Tail has not been around for a week I have seen everyone else but her. I'm not sure if she found a new mate or got kicked out of the pack. The pups are very curious but are still very cautious towards intruders (usually humans) they always pop there head outand thatis the only glipmse I see. I hope to the pack will soon get more accustomed to me staying around more often and will go out with their daily plans.

The Pack's Newest Additions

/Today I set out to take pictures of the pack near my house. As I walked up the trail towards where I usually see them I nearly stepped on the Alpha Male (scar) but he quickly bolted off. I took one more step and was staring face to face with a mom and her 2 pups, (no close up pics though :(  .. they were still out in the open though and the pups were rolling around chasing eachother and chewing on everything. As I moved in closer the mother got nervous and started to pull the pups in to the covered brush. Both of the pups are very distnctive one has a very black tail and the other a dark tail as well but with a white tip at the end. Anyways as the mom pulled the pups in the blacktailed one didn't want to go and rolled on the ground, she quickly reacted by biting his neck and the pups went into the brush. Although they stayed their for the rest of my time spent. the black tailed one would always pop his cute little head out of the thick underbrush!!! This was one of my greatest encounters hopefully there will be more with the pups!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Go see the pics of today's encounter by clicking here  http://www.flickr.com/photos/tannersaul

Fun day visiting 2 state parks

Today my friend and I set out the day to try and find some coyotes at a different state park so we wandered and saw nothing untill the end of the trail coyote?? nope deer and her fawn.

later we went back to chheseboro to try and see coyotes but yet again just deer and I did my first attempt at motion photagraphy. and we also saw some beetles that I had never seen before

New Mountain Lion Video

Yesterday my friend Jared Hughey (who is an outstanding photagrapher) and I decided to go check my trail camera. After 3 weeks of being up there it got one form of wildlife and it came in the shape of a cougar click here and check out the video!!! .Mountain Lion

It's not about the photo It's about the experience!

Today I went back to the canyon at about 11 a.m. I went towards a common spot to find rattlesnakes and a red tailed hawk swooped down and missed a rabbit. (this is the first time I have ever seen a hawk do this) I was very excited then going towards the rattlesnake spot I found one with his rattle injured, so I didn't bother him. walking down a trail I saw four cooper's hawks going in n out of a tree and I decided to go have a closer look as i got closer all of the hawks flew away, and just as I was about to turn back to the trail a barn owl swooped over my head and off into the distance. I was very excited to see one out in the middle of the day(I probably scared it out of his resting spot) down the trail more I decided to stop and for some reason my body turned me to the right. Then a doe comes running full speed out of the brush and then stops. I figured she was watching me but I then realized she was looking behind her, right behind her was a coyote slowly moving towards her. ( I thought to myself there would have to be more coyotes to take down this doe but there was none.) I figured he was just getting her out of his territory. As the doe leaped off somewhere else I watched the coyote who was now hunting gophers( sadly all of this was so far away that I couldn't get it on camera) heading back to my car the red tailed hawk that missed the rabbit earlier was sitting on a pole eating a rat and then he flew away carrying his trophy. All though no pics really came out It's not about the photo but the experience is the true reward

Yesterday I went back to cheesebro with my friend and met up with Jared Hughey ( who is the most amazing photagrapher) and we searched for about an hour not finding anything. Then in a far away field we spotted a coyote. we snuck up on him and just as we got a good glimpse he pounced. he was unsuccesfull, but wondered around for a while untill we lost sight of him. walking back to our cars we saw ears pop out of a bush and assumed it was the coyote again. But it was four does and a buck.( these were the same deer I took photos of on an earlier adventure). although it took a while to find wildlife it always is worth it!

Long day with few pictures!

Spent anout 4 hours today tracking down wildlife. I went with my best friend and he spotted a deer resting in the shade. But as soon as I went in for a closer look the doe leaped into the air into the opposite direction.Moments after a cooper's hawk flew into the tree next to us We got to wrestle with a very very pissed off southern pacific rattlesnake. And as we left the coyote pack howled at the top of the mountain.

My favorite pictures from todays adventure

Today I set out to explore Cheeseboro Canyon and was very pleased. As soon as I got there I went to a spot and found 4 rattle snakes. all were southern pacifics nd between 4-5 ft long. Then I had a face to face encounter with a young coyote who I ater found sleeping under a tree. And everywhere I looked there were deer. In total I saw 7

The Mountain Lion

I will cherish this video forever after trying for a year to film the santa monica mountain lion I finally do!!