Sebastian 'Seabass' Kennerknecht's Blog

If you spend enough time outdoors eventually you get lucky to have ‘once in a lifetime’ wildlife experiences. We all remember these distinct events clearly and I know I won’t forget any of them for the rest of my life. This last weekend I was lucky enough to once again have one of these completely breath taking encounters.

Jeff Swanson, a good friend of mine and amazing landscape photographer, and I made the trek to Pinnacles National Monument to try and find some California Red-legged Frogs that JK let us know we could find there (thanks again Jake). Since we wanted to be at Bear Gulch Reservoir by sunrise that meant getting up at 3:00am. It was amazing to be the only people at the reservoir, it was completely tranquil and quiet (except beautiful bird calls of course!).

Bear Gulch Reservoir, Pinnacles National Monument

Since we didn’t have much luck finding adult frogs (we did find tadpoles which were awesome) and the light was getting harsher we decided to go for a little hike. First we encountered this amazing valley scene:

Bear Gulch, Pinnacles National Monument

and then as we were higher up the trail we saw what I was hoping for the whole time while hiking, California Condors!

There were a couple of them perched in a tree so I left my gear with Jeff and went into stalking mode. I was still quite a bit away but got some images with the 100-400 telephoto lens when one of the birds flew right at me and landed on the rocks fifteen feet away from Jeff. I got back there as quickly and quietly as I could, hoping to be fast enough to get some shots but also not too fast to scare the bird away. The juvenile condor then decided it wanted a closer look at Jeff and I so he started hopping even closer (if you have ever seen a condor hop, you know how funny yet powerful it looks). My heart was pounding and my body was shaking from the excitement. I decided to grab some portrait shots while I had the chance, knowing that this was a rare event.

Juvenile male California Condor, Pinnacles National Monument

Juvenile male California Condor, Pinnacles National Monument

Juvenile male California Condor, Pinnacles National Monument

After having taken about 50 images, he decided to come even closer and was within 5 feet of us. I used my landscape camera and lens to get wide-angle views of him. Here is a shot as he seems to check us out.

California Condor in Pinnacles National Monument

Just to give you an idea how close he is:

California Condor and me photographing it - Copyright Jeff Swanson

Finally, after about 20-30 minutes he decided to take off again. It was absolutely impressive as he spread his 9 foot wings to glide off.

California Condor flying in Pinnacles National Monument

Jeff and I were sitting there for another 10 minutes saying how crazy that really was. What an experience!

Note: I keep using the term he, this is based on his tag that is attached to his wing. It looks like he is a three year old male (his pinkish throat pouch would seem to confirm this as well) born on April 23, 2008. All California Condors are tagged, even the wild born chicks are caught and fitted with a radio transmitter so if you see a bird without a number it is very very unlikely that it is a California Condor. You can find out about each condor’s life on the Condor Spotter site.

What was one of your most memorable wildlife experiences?

This is one of those cases where I realize how little I know and how little experience I have in regards to Mountain Lions. I am sure an experienced puma biologists could look at the picture below and say, duh, that’s a male, or duh, that’s a female…well even after doing some more research I once again have no clue.

Mountain Lion Rear View

Mountain Lion Rear View Close Up

From Ken Logan and Linda Sweanor’s 2001 “Determining the Sex of Treed Cougars“:

“Male adult and subadult cats have a conspicuous black spot of hair, about 1 inch (2.5 cm) in diameter surrounding the opening to the penis sheath behind the hind legs and about 4 inches (10 cm) below the anus. The anus is usually hidden by the base of the tail. In between the anus and black spot is the scrotum, which is covered with light to dark brown hair and will usually appear as another dark spot.”

“Female adult and subadult cats do not have this conspicuous black spot of hair. The area is entirely covered in white hair. The anus is directly below the base of the tail and the vulva is directly underneath the anus. Both the anus and the vulva will usually be hidden by the base of the tail.”

So my guess would be female, but then there is that little amount of dark hair just to the left of the tail, but is that too close to the anus. What do you think?

Note: This image was taken two weeks (almost down to the minute) after the second image from the Aptos Mountain Lion Characters Post

I found this video on youtube recently. Its quite amazing what the guy captured and it provides an interesting example of mountain lion prey selection. Researchers have found that in most cases a mountain lion has to have eaten a prey animal (most likely as a dependent kitten) before they think of it as potential prey (I am assuming this is smell based). This may be like the learning behavior of ‘problem’ black bears which teach their cubs that garbage is a meal leading to human conflict. This cougar had no interest in the sheep (a seemingly much easier meal) but was fixated on the deer way further away. It’s mother had probably never hunted sheep herself therefor this puma didn’t think of them as prey either.

The counter-argument of course is that in some cases mountain lions attack people, something the mother most likely did not do. In twelve of the fifteen cases where cats were killed after attacking humans the cats were underweight or sick so the mountain lions seemed to be desperate.

Note: at the end of the video the guy says “I wonder if I should have shot him” something I strongly disagree with!

As many of you have noticed I am completely and utterly fascinated by mountain lions, pumas, cougars, catamounts, or what ever you like to call them (did the webpage url and logo give that away???). It has always been my fascination getting pictures of them and seeing them in the wild. Though i have been able to get images, I have never seen one in nature (how is that possible you ask — camera traps!).

As anyone with any obsession, I can’t get enough information about them. Absolutely everything interests me about them including home range size, territoriality, density, prey species, den sites, when cubs leave their mother’s home range, and the list just keeps going on. I am telling you this as a forewarning for future posts under the Project Puma heading that will have anything and everything to do with mountain lions whether that is information or pictures just in case there is someone else as interested in this beautiful cat as I am.

This post is also supposed to serve as an introduction to the cat(s) of the area I camera trap in Aptos near Santa Cruz in the Monterey Bay area. As of right now there are two camera traps out there and I have gotten mountain lion pictures on three different occasions. I am not completely sure whether it is the same cat or different cats so I figured I’d ask you guys. Here are the three pictures followed by close-ups in the same order.

Taken on June 8th, 2010 at 4:35am

Taken December 25, 2010 at 9:31pm

Taken March 5th, 2011 at 6:32am

Is it all the same cat, I really don’t know. In other cat species researchers use the spotting pattern which is unique to each cat to identify them. For Puma concolor (the scientific name of the mountain lion meaning cat of one color) this isn’t really an option. What I was looking at is the black marking around the mouth, the black whisker markings, and the shape of the ears. Nothing leads me to say that its the same cat or different cats (in the second image, that is a tick in the ear, sadly not something to identify the cat by) — do you see something I am not? One thing for sure is that the second cat is much bulkier than the first, but the images were also captured months apart.

An interesting thing to note are the few faint slightly darker spots on the back leg of the first image, which could give us some clues of its age. Puma kittens are completely spotted loosing these marks as they become older. By ten months, the markings are difficult to see except on the hindquarters. The eyes turn from a light blue as kittens to yellow brown as adults (this change is complete by sixteen months). Young pumas are independent around 15 months (with a range of 10 to 18 months) leaving their mother’s territory and searching for their own. Based on the fact that I had not captured an image of a puma before this individual (for a period of 8 months) and its morphology it leads me to believe that this must be a juvenile looking for its own territory. If the second and third image are of the same cat, then I am glad to know its doing well in its new home!

Camera Trapping Campus Screenshot

I am humbled by being featured on Camera Trapping Campus as their first wildlife photographer for their new feature ‘Wildlife Photographer Spotlight’. I met Jake, who writes the blog along with Christian, a few weeks ago to join him as he put out one of his homebrew camera traps. He is an awesome guy and I love reading their camera trapping stories. Please join me in following their blog, you will most definitely be entertained!

I also look forward to more outings with the Trapping Campus gang as it guarantees a fun time in the outdoors!

Simply put, yes!

Most of us outdoorsy people like to get in a little bit of adrenaline here or there. This is easy for wildlife photography since the adrenaline starts kicking in every time you get close to a wild animal, but when adventuring is the first reason for the trip, is it still possible to combine it with photography?

I am no expert on hardcore adventuring but I definitely enjoy strenuous trips hiking, biking, kayaking, and what ever else my friends or I can think of. Since these trips are generally always focused on an outside location I always get the urge to bring the camera just in case an animal shows up or a landscape screams to be photographed. To make these trips a success it is extremely important to make conscious decisions about what gear you bring. If you have too much you get slowed down and start seriously worrying about your gear getting damaged, if you have too little you may not get a shot. (let’s just say I struggle with this a lot). To help you make better decisions check out Jeff Bartlett’s Blog, who writes extensively on the subject of adventure photography (I will need to follow his advice more) and packing for a trip.

Just to give you some examples of small adventures that have provided for excellent photographic opportunities.

Kayaking in Elkhorn Slough – Equipment Brought: Canon 30D, 100-400mm Lens

I somehow always make funny faces when doing self portraits...

Taken from kayak, still better picture than anything I have taken from land

Riding Bycicle Across the US with Best Friends – Equipment Brought: Canon 5D, 24-70mm, 100-400mm, 580Ex Flash, Graduated Neutral Density Filters

Bicycle Route Across the US

All the camera gear is in the back in one pannier

Lily Pads on Lake in Pennsylvania

Great Horn Owl Roadkill, this was one of the most 'intact' dead animals we saw

Coniferous Forest Panning Shot

Reeds reflected in water, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

Grand Tetons at Sunrise, Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming

So the lesson I have learned is to not choose but to smartly combine photography with outdoor adventures!

This is a some-what of a follow up to the previous blog post about politician Joe Baca introducing a bill that would certainly bring the Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly to extinction. I wanted to stress how important it is to save not only species that we can easily fall in love with like the endangered Sea Otter, or Giant Panda but also species that we might not even recognize what it exactly is.

The reason for this is quite simple, all species are connected ecologically, removing one species from the system will have some kind of impact on the rest of it. This can lead to devastating effects, even for us humans. A prime example of this (and I am very much simplifying it here) is the connection between the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, Black-legged Ticks (Ixodes scapularis), Western Fence Lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis), and us humans. Black-legged Ticks can carry the above mention bacteria which is the agent of Lyme disease. If a tick buries itself into a human it has the potential of passing on the bacteria and disease leading to potentially debilitating effects for the person later in life. Enter the all important Western Fence Lizard, it has been shown that when nymphal Black-legged Ticks feed on Western Fence Lizards the disease carrying bacteria is destroyed by a protein in the lizard’s blood — aka the tick no longer has the potential of spreading the disease to us humans. The fact that the lizard is found only found the west coast might be the exact reason that only 2-4 percent of adult Black-legged Ticks carry the disease here compared to up to 50% in the north east of the US. Here is a map for a quick view.

Western Fence Lizard and California Poppies

Now we are lucky that the Western Fence Lizard is not endangered, but what if it was, we would start caring a lot more about it. My guess is there are a lot of these kinds of examples out there in the natural world, many of which we don’t even know about yet, many of which involve endangered species. So yes, let’s save the Blue Whale and Polar Bear but let’s give equal attention to less charismatic endangered wildlife.

Botanical Gardens and Arboretums are amazing places to not only visit but also to photograph. It is always fascinating to me to see plants from all around the world in such a small area. How amazing is it to wander from South Africa to Australia in just a few yards. From Proteas to Pincushions. It doesn’t even matter at what time of year you go, something will be in bloom.

Living in Santa Cruz provides the amazing opportunity of visiting the UCSC Arboretum, a deeply under-appreciated place. It contains the largest concentration of southern hemisphere plants in the northern hemisphere. When I photograph in these floral collections I tend to shoot in a macro-style, concentrating on single plants, often on single flowers. This is mainly to eliminate distracting backgrounds and since the plants are not in their native habitat showing the landscape in the background is not beneficial most times.

Here are a few examples of the types of pictures I am talking about:

Pincushion (Leucospermum sp), UCSC Arboretum, Santa Cruz, California

Pincushion (Leucospermum sp), UCSC Arboretum, Santa Cruz, California

Pincushion (Leucospermum sp), UCSC Arboretum, Santa Cruz, California

Still unknown plant to me...., UCSC Arboretum, Santa Cruz, California

Spiral Aloe (Aloe polyphylla), UCSC Arboretum, Santa Cruz, California

Then you always have the option of getting more abstract pictures. This is the advantage of plants over animals, they don’t move too far. The picture below was taken at the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden. I loved how the light was coming through the fern fronds. I first took images that were in focus but I really liked the shape of the leaves so I decided to manually put them out of focus, having nothing in the image be sharp. It’s different, but I like it.

Fern fronds out of focus, Berkeley Botanical Garden, Berkeley, California

Finally, all the plants attract wildlife as well, so keep an eye out for movement. Hummingbirds are frequent visitors to gardens so they are attracted to these ’super gardens’ in even higher numbers. This male Allen’s Hummingbird was photographed in Santa Cruz. He would continuously land on this perch and then chase off any other males intruding into his space. Every time he was off chasing a rival I crept closer, stopping when he would arrive back at his perch. I wanted to still include some of the amazingly colorful background created by all the plants so I stopped when I was about 10 feet away. It is one of my earliest photographs, but I still love it.

Allen's Hummingbird calling, UCSC Arboretum, Santa Cruz, California

So go out and find your local botanical paradise, you will be amazed by what you find!

This is not a new event, throughout historical times, politicians have reduced or eliminated the chances for scientists and NGOs to increase their conservation efforts. The latest bill and possibly the one with the most impact comes out of southern California where democrat Joe Baca introduced a bill that would de-list all endangered species (aka eliminate all the protection and funding going towards saving the species) that have been listed on the Endangered Species Act for 15 years.

He declares a species should be listed as extinct if it meats one of a few different options. The first is the previously mentioned criteria of a species being listed as endangered for fifteen years.  Another option is if the species has not been found to have a substantial increase in population size since its initial listing. The third option is that the species is declared as a limited listed species, which basically is defined as a species that may or may not be  present in its range because not all individuals were accounted for at the time of its original listing.

What drives me crazy here is that this bill takes no ecological science into consideration. What about slow reproducing species like California Condors where chicks spend two years with their parents and adults don’t reach sexual maturity until the age of six. This species will continue to be listed as a critically endangered species, let alone as an endangered species for a much longer period of time than 15 years. Should we just stop our conservation efforts now? Based on Joe Bacca’s reasoning we should indeed.

California Condor

This bill stems from conflicts that have been going on for years between developers and conservationists that want to protect the Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly and therefor also its habitat which is considered prime real-estate by developers. The sad part is that this tiny bit of land is only 2-3% of the flies historical habitat. Yet even this sliver of land needs to be developed? To me this is pure ridiculousness.

The bigger problem, besides the certain extinction of the fly, would be the extinction of many other species. Species more charismatic than the fly, and species with larger ecological impacts. With their destruction, much of the habitats we know today would forever be altered.

If you have a problem with this as well, please write to your local house representative.