Loch Leven in Shades of Gray

More Than A Hunt

More Than A Hunt

  2^nd Annual Wounded Warriors Pheasant Hunt

   “The primary goal was that we have a safe hunt and that the warriors have a pleasurable time”, was Jeffery’s Simonides mission statement as he walked closely behind and monitored the soldier, six marines, five dog handlers each with one to two dogs and several press photographers as they made their first pass through the green alfalfa field. As well as being an organizer of this annual hunt, Jeff also works for the Department of Fish and Game as a Hunter-Education instructor in the Southern California District and was in charge of everyone’s safety throughout the day while the hunt progressed.

NightWings Over Yolo Bypass

Mexican Free-Tailed Bats at the Yolo Basin Wetland

 If you happen to be in Northern California on a hot summer night driving between Davis and West Sacramento you might be lucky enough to see one of nature’s grand events. As the sun is setting and the tree swallows, crows and black birds are flying home to their roosts after the long day in the marshlands, a large colony of 250,000 Mexican Long Tailed bats is beginning to stir 30 feet off the ground in the long narrow slits of the cement eight lane Interstate 80 that runs east to west over the wetlands.

Hunt for the Water Ouzel Along a tributary of the American River

THE waterfalls of the Sierra are frequented by only one bird, --the Ouzel or Water Thrush ( Cinclus Mexicanus , Sw.). He is a singularly joyous and lovable little fellow, about the size of a robin, clad in a plain waterproof suit of bluish gray, with a tinge of chocolate on the head and shoulders. In form he is about as smoothly plump and compact as a pebble that has been whirled in a pot-hole, the flowing contour of his body being interrupted only by his strong feet and bill, the crisp wing-tips, and the up-slanted wren-like tail.

-John Muir