Thoughts From Behind the Viewfinder Vol 2.

 Vol 2: Frisco Commons Bobcats

John W. Garbutt- Class of 2019

I have been fortunate to have a few memorable encounters at Frisco Commons. Some of my favorites are my first Golden-winged Warbler, my first Least Bittern, a Ring-necked Pheasant, coyotes, a Great-horned Owl, Eastern Screech Owls, bobcats, and the Cooper’s Hawk and Yellow-crowned Night-Heron nests.

One of the most recent encounters was of a pair of Bobcats. I arrived the morning of November 13^th to focus on photographing sparrows, but sometimes my day goes a different direction when a situation presents itself.  I was on my way to the habitat restoration area when I stopped at the pond to look for hawks hunting the roosting blackbirds. Ground level movement across the pond grabbed my attention. It was a pair of bobcats playing together near the edge of the pond. I used the northern berm as cover as I worked closer to the bobcats.

As I made my way toward them, the bobcats headed toward the western wood line, and I thought they would disappear. I momentarily lost visual contact before I arrived at the vantage point I had selected as the cattails had blocked my view.

Once there, I could only locate one of the bobcats as it sat looking intently toward a tree.

I focused on a squirrel clinging at the base of the tree, barking at something above it.  My eyes returned to the bobcat looking up at the tree. My immediate thought was that the bobcat was going to pounce on the distracted squirrel from behind. I prepared to capture this moment. Soon, there were falling acorns and a flash of movement, which I believed was a paw swatting at the squirrel. I relocated my focus further up the trunk of the tree to just under the canopy. I did a double take and then I knew the location of the second bobcat.

Squirrel and bobcat.

It happened so quickly. The squirrel, for whatever reason, made a move up the tree in an attempt to get above the bobcat, and was knocked or fell to the ground as it tried to escape to safety in the numerous limbs of the edge habitat. The bobcat below immediately pounced on its prey. Quick. Efficient. I heard the squirrel cry and knew it was over. Mother was hunting for one of her kittens.

I captured this shot before it took its meal into the wooded area to eat.

Mother after she climbed down and took a leisurely stroll past me, made eye contact, then took a seat in the grass near her young eating in the brush.

She eventually laid along the edge of the wooded area and kept watch for potential threats.  During the nearly 40 minutes I was able to observe, it was amazing how many people walked past without noticing the bobcat.

 In this photo, she was tracking a passerby with a dog.

She sunned and napped. She rose, stretched, and leisurely made her way out of sight into the wooded area where her kitten had been eating.

I rose from where I had sat and nodded in their direction, thanking them for allowing me to be a part of their life, if ever so briefly.