Sometimes you feel like a nut!
Mary and I were driving into camp last summer and were approaching a little creek. As we rounded a bend in the road, this bear burst out of the blackberry bushes. It ran across the road in front of us and stopped in the blackberries about 30 feet away. I stopped the truck. It stared at us and we stared back. It appeared to be a young bear. It stayed there for a good 3 or 4 minutes while we took pictures. This bear was covered in burrs. unfortunately, that comes with this territory. 
Wild black bears usually run, but this one didn’t. Maybe, being a young bear it was curious. We’ve seen that before, “Curious Young Bear.” We also suspected that it might be a sow and she had a cub that was still below the road. Perhaps, she wasn’t leaving her baby.
Maybe, it was hoping we might stay and pick all those burrs out of it’s fur. After a few minutes of staring at each other, it ambled up the draw in search of a fresh patch of blackberries.
Keep looking.
The Watchers, Pen and ink.
Just a few more of our feathered neighbors at the sawmill.
Great Blue Heron
Mallards
Me and Bliss.
This gallery contains 5 photos.
A fawn lying low to avoid a predator. I added to the original pen and ink. Mary thought it was lacking. Is it an improvement?
The Fawn as I originally drew it in a vignette.
The pen and ink was based off of another fawn picture I took. I love when they are just a couple of days old and they’ll lay down and be still.
A lot of deer come down to the foothills to winter. I saw this big black tail buck on the way home last week. He wasn’t far from the house. The rut is going on right now and hunting season has been over for awhile, so the deer are unconcerned with people. It’s a great time to shoot them with the camera.
California Valley Quail on sentry duty. Pen and Ink.
It’s tough being a prey item. California valley quail deal with this fact of life by having a sentry to watch over the covey. He’s not much for defending the covey, but will sound a pretty good alarm.
The mill pond, also known as the otter pond, is visited by various birds all year long. This was a snapshot of the visitors one day in November.
I had to visit one of our loggers the other day. My route took me through the little hamlet of French Gulch. It was settled during the Gold Rush, but you rarely see any rush around this sleepy little town these days.
We also enjoyed some rain. They say El Nino is coming and we’re hoping so.
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