Wildlife in Photography

Friday in Shenandoah National Park, I scoped out Limberlost again in the morning. Snow was still abundant along the path and earlier tracks had been mostly covered. During the morning walk, it was cold. Not just a little bit, but the biting cold that hurts within seconds.

I made my way to where I had seen bobcat tracks last time, and caught onto something else, bear tracks.

I followed the bear tracks for a bit, and then saw fresh bobcat tracks in a different location than last time. These tracks were fresh enough that I imagine they were from the night before, or even that morning.

I tracked the animal into an area of wooden debris and scanned the perimeter, but was unable to find anything further.

It was about this time that the sky opened up and thick snow began to come down. I took that as my cue to move on, and I worked my way back to the parking lot. The snow passed, then I ate lunch and cruised north to Jeremy’s Run Overlook. Approaching Mary’s Rock, the snow on the ground disappeared and I didn’t see anything on the ground further north. Along the route, I watched a woodpecker for a while but it was a species that I’ve already photographed.

Two hours after finishing my first walk, I hit Limberlost again. To my surprise, more fresh snow had fallen and the path was smoothed over, so any tracks were less than two hours old. I noted some chipmunk and squirrel activity, but not much else.

The bear and bobcat tracks from earlier were covered with snow and I couldn’t even find a trace of them. Nothing else of much interest was around the area, but I did manage to photograph some birds playing in the snow.

On the way out around 3:30, I saw another woodpecker and took in the view from a few overlooks.

UPDATE (1/8/10): For an overview of my bobcat experiences, click here.