One word. Cold! Driving out to the Preserve, the sky was aflight with geese seeking morning forage and loafing areas and their silhouettes were dramatic against the flaming background of morning colors. It was 32 degrees with frost on the ground as the sun rose over the Sierra Nevada to the east and gave a gorgeous show through early morning clouds, sending pink, coral and soft orange hues shooting across the sky. It was a

The day broke clear and cold and the sunrise foretold another dry day. The lack of precipitation this season is concerning. With last year’s historic flooding, resources on the Preserve have abounded, causing all the wildlife to thrive and produce more babies because there’s been more food and favorable conditions for raising young. But the bounceback of another possible drought this year would mean that there will be larger populations of wildlife competing for smaller

The Preserve was peaceful and quiet in the early morning fog. It’s funny how the thick moisture in the air dampens sound and makes everything feel silent and timeless. We gathered before 7am and headed out to see who moseyed by the cameras during the previous week. In the Field We had enough folks for three teams today so it made for fewer cameras on everyone’s route and left more time to explore and take

There was frost on the ground as we started out in the foggy chill and the road to the Preserve was deep in fog as the sun rose this morning. The Preserve’s Visitor Center has a ‘Caution slippery walkway’ sign out in this kind of weather to remind us all to tread carefully on the frosty boards of the walkway up to the building. Today was longer than usual because one crew checked some outlying

The government shutdown was in place over the weekend but that didn’t slow our lion camera crew down one little bit.  When we came in for the camera checks today on Monday, we had no access to the Visitor Center, which is under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management.  We had stowed the Go packs at the Barn, which is managed by The Nature Conservancy and so still accessible even as we watched