Tree Frog

After looking for owls and not succeeding in the North Bay a couple of weekends ago, I went back to some of same spots the following weekend armed with a little better information. Unfortunately I didn’t see any of owls that weekend either. I did have a nice day, though, and saw some other cool things. The first place on my agenda was Lynch Canyon, because it was the LAST place on my agenda the prior week and then I realized it annoyingly closes at 5 p.m. and I had very little time. But the good thing about being there as it closed was the park ranger was in the parking lot and she gave me some intel on the exact location of the burrowing owl I sought. So bright and early the following Saturday I went back, donning rubber boots because the place was a muddy mess. As I turned the corner that would lead me to the location, four fighter jets flew over my head making a huge amount of noise. So of course I didn’t see any owls but I’ll never know if I would have had it not sounded like Armageddon when I arrived.

I tried to stick around a little bit to see if they would come out. To occupy myself, I decided to hike on down to a trail that is currently closed, because I am a disobedient person. Although in my defense, someone put the “closed” sign on the wrong trail name at this particular junction so I had a really good excuse had I gotten caught (unless it was by the park ranger from the prior week and she remembered me, haha). Anyway, the closed trail was really, REALLY muddy; I couldn’t have gotten down there if I wasn’t wearing the rubber boots. But in the middle of the muck I saw a tiny blob of lime green and looked down to spy this little tree frog. He made me really happy. I snapped a picture of him from above, but that’s a terrible perspective, so I squatted down, turned the LED screen on, and got a picture from his eye level with my mirrorless camera, while trying to keep my butt out of the mud and keep myself balanced on the muddy hill with a heavy backpack on my back, tripod and walking sticks, binoculars on my hip, and a DSLR + telephoto lens on my other hip. Trying to stand up without falling when I was done was even harder. Much later down the trail I realized the lens hood for my 400mm had been dangling in the mud and was caked. Oops! At least it was the hood and not the lens, although the hood is integrated on that lens and thus not super easy to clean. Anyway, getting a good picture of this little guy was worth it. Was it worth not seeing the owls? Let’s just say “yes” so I don’t feel bad about it. YES OPTUS.

Bonus kestrel: