October Tam Cam

* * *

Tam Cam - October 2015 from John W. Wall on Vimeo.

Sculptured Beach

* * *

I never got around to either Palomarin Beach or Sculptured Beach during my recently finished year of photographing Point Reyes, but I finally checked out Palomarin over the summer, and with a significant low tide due on Monday the 26th of October, I took a day off work to check out Sculptured Beach, about an hour's walk south of Limantour. The fog was so thick when I left the southernmost parking lot that I memorized landmarks on the beach so I'd be able to find the trail through the dunes on my way back. Even with the fog pretty much burned off by the time I got back, it was still tricky to find the exact spot where the trail comes out.

Santa Maria Creek, not making it to the ocean.

Heermann's, mew and western gulls hung out to bathe in the freshwater creek.

The reef at Sculptured Beach had endlessly interesting forms, and I easily spent four hours exploring a fairly small area, leaving only when my belly insisted I head home for dinner.

* * *

Waiting for Rain

* * *

What sounded like rain in the woods was just the pitter-patter of fog 

dripping from the canopy onto a carpet of dry leaves.

Sometimes a Douglas fir's rat tails show loud and proud. 

Sticky patches of sap pool among the cone's scales.

Hardly a drop of water in this little arroyo seco off the Benstein Trail.

Spotted this crime scene at my feet as I knelt 

to explore a small pool of water in the ravine.

A California Giant Salamander, here a juvenile sporting about three inches 

of length, chills in the bottom of a pool.

An excited mob of acorn woodpeckers and steller's jays called out 

from the vicinity of this coast live oak bristling with nuts, 

stopping only when a cooper's hawk swooped in.

* * *

Fallen

* * *

All images made on Cataract Creek at Laurel Dell.

Trinkets

* * *

Drove up the mountain this morning to check on the game camera, 

and picked up a few trinkets presented by the sunrise, including "god beam" crepuscular rays, while I was at it.

Sunrise Timelapse

* * *

Tam Cam - September 2015

Tam Cam - September 2015 from John W. Wall on Vimeo.


And some shots from this morning on the way to picking up the trail camera card:

* * *

Smoky Sunrise

I went up to check on the trail camera, which I recently placed in a new and untried location, and was surprised to see a colorful sunrise unfolding. Glad I brought my camera. 

It's been downright chilly in San Francisco the past couple of days, so I brought some extra clothes -- a pair of jeans, a longjohn top, a flannel shirt -- just in case. But the second surprise of the morning was stepping out of the car into extremely warm air and catching such a strong scent of burning fire that I looked upwind -- north -- for smoke. I felt sure the fire must be close, and I was poised to jump back in the car and git. It was only after I got home that Pam told me a huge new fire (the Valley Fire) had erupted in Lake and Napa counties, that hundreds of homes had already been lost, evacuations were being ordered, and a state of emergency had been declared.

* * *

Tam Cam - August 2015

Tam Cam - August 2015 from John W. Wall on Vimeo.

The only critters I got all month were deer. The camera was pointing a little too high to capture the actual water hole, so small critters might have gone in to drink without setting off the camera, but I doubt it. In any event, this water hole had also dried up by the end of the month, so I moved the camera once again, this time to a spot near the water hole, but pointing toward an area that might be a little more photogenic as well as better able to snag critters shorter than deer.

The morning I stopped by to check on the camera, a full moon was dropping in the west. It was very windy, with a bit of a marine layer.

* * *

Glory Hound

* * *

I don't expect to have much of a trail camera video this month. The water hole dried up at my old location, and I haven't snagged much of interest in my new one, which I checked for the first time today, but which will continue to run for the rest of the month. I'll probably move it again for September. This morning I hiked out of Rock Spring to Barth's Retreat, then Potrero Meadow to Rifle Camp, down to Azalea Meadow and High Marsh (dry as a bone) and back via High Marsh Trail to Cataract Trail, all the while scouting potential trail camera locations.

But before I started the hike I did a little glory-hounding.

Nice birthday present. Thanks, Mt. Tam.

* * *

Tam Cam - July 2015

* * *

Mt. Tam Trail Cam - July 2015 from John W. Wall on Vimeo.

The water hole is drying up, and the saw-whet owl no longer visits here to bathe. A fox still came for a drink, but only once. A raccoon -- the first in a long time -- passed through twice, the second time to scratch its butt on the deer antler to leave its scent. The fawns are still coming and even appear to be digging a bit with their hooves to deepen the water hole. A big buck and a new buck play through, and a coyote comes for a drink -- and of course marks the deer antler quite voluminously. This will be the last installment from this water hole. I'll need to find a new spot for August.