Saturday, November 24, 2012

Lions and Critters and Birds - oh my

Pics from the last 3 weeks on the preserve.



Javelina momma and twins



Red Tail Hawk



Western Screech Owl




Coue (cow) White Tail deer



Hawk with rodent meal



__________________
Arizona Alligator Lizard


Squirrel gathering acorns


Gambel Quail





Mittens




Our son Shaun is visiting from Albuquerque, and the three of us  saw the mountain lion Friday evening at 5:20 pm.

We were sitting outside the motor home, and the lion was on the wood line about 200 - 250 yards away. It was out past the preserve well pump, near a little game trail that leads to cement footings across the creek.

Sandy saw the movement, then we looked with binoculars and verified it was the mountain lion. Dan walked out about half way across the open field and fired one shot into the ground as a noise maker as the cat was sitting looking our way The cat laid down but did not retreat.
Shaun walked out with the binoculars so Dan could better see what the lion was doing, and the lion sat back up. Dan closed a little more distance towards the cat and it started moving into the wood line out of sight. Dan put one more round into the ground as a noise maker as the cat was leaving.  Dan was never closer than about 50-75 yards with open field and good visibility.

AZ Fish and Game documents advise "hazing" the cat with noise and aggressive behaviors to teach the cat to keep more distance. Fish and Game documents detail lion behaviors, and this cat is not considered a direct threat at this point in time according to their guidelines.

Dan has now seen this lion 4 times, Sandy 3 times, and our son once. And no, Mittens cannot move into the motor home - we have enough house cats as is.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Lion Around

Dan walked up on a Mountain Lion today on nature trail, about 30 yards across the creek from him and approx 150 yards from the motorhome.  We think it is the same lion we posted pics of just above in our October blogs, but some of the facial markings are different. Perhaps it was dried blood spatter last time and he cleaned it.  Dan shot lot's of pics and some short videos which he  posted to youtube.

The you tube videos came out fuzzy, even though on camera and computer from the sd card it is clear.  The camera was zoomed in about 30 - 40 X so it is shaky footage (handheld, no tripod or monopod). The one labeled Mtn_lion is the one to view first.

5 videos of the lion taken yesterday, plus other critters from videos we took last year:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AC7880

The cat isn't stalking us. It might think Dan is stalking it - second time he has walked up on it. If there were not so many deer and fawns around we would  be more concerned. It looks well fed.

Dan and the cat watched each other for 10 - 15 minutes.  Dan even called Sandy on the cell phone, and she was able to walk over in time to see the cat leaving.

This makes Dan's 3rd sighting and Sandy's second within the last 25 days.