Kat's Mountain Lion Photos (Trail Camera Photography)

Katharina,

Your photos and videos just keep getting better and better.  I’m with Malto: whoever manufactures your video gear would (should!) happily sponsor a channel for you on youtube.  I’m pretty fussy on how that all works, but there are people who now make a decent living creating interesting youtube videos.  And yours have such an obvious tie-in with selling some gear, even if it didn’t give you an decent hourly rate, any manufacturer should be thrilled to give you free gear just for plugging their wares on a youtube channel.

Others on BPL are more savvy on the New Economy, and you could start a thread about it and probably find out if it was anything you wanted to stick your toe into.

David,

thanks for the kind words. A youtube channel would be fun; I have many hours of footage that I have not posted anywhere. I have been given a few free cameras in exchange for providing the footage the manufacturer can use to sell their cameras. I sold some postcards but had to have so many made to get a good deal that it will be a while before I make my money back, but eventually that will be a few dollars that come in regularly. It’s been a great adventure for me to do this and quite rewarding with the footage I get but the best part has been learning about the different animals and how they interact with each other. What interspecies  communication I detect is already amazing and I am imagining how much more goes on that I will never know.

If anyone here is able and willing to give me a hand….I am always looking for another little income so I can fix my  cabin in the alps.

I just wanted to say thanks, again, for sharing with us. This and your recent new thread are my two favourite BPL threads.

Thank you William! Sometimes I wonder how relevant this is to BPL but since we share a love  for the outdoors I figure it might be of interest what travels our same trails.

There’s no question this is relevant to BPL.  As shown by the number of replies.

From on this morning about 3 am.

From this morning around 1 am.

I think these are the two big cubs, a little over a year, siblings. It could be a pair, mating, but they are both very young and there are much bigger, older males around here.

Date is wrong….for some reason my Reconyx cameras reset to 1/1/2008 every October 1st. I change the date and the next day they are back to 1/1/2008. Until november 1st and then the new date sticks,

Those eyes of the second one morphing into a ghost slowly materializing into solid flesh and bone … shivers up my spine!

Memories of that footage are gonna make midnight bio-break outings a bit more disconcerting for a while:-)

It’s been busy here in the last fews days.

First….I saw one from the kitchen an hour ago casually walking in the rain toward the back of the barn.

This morning I checked the four cameras behind the barn and over the few days there have been 4 different big cats. I have several videos too but with the rain my internet is too spotty to upload those.

This big collared/tracked male from this morning

There’ll be multiple posts because I don’t know how to control the order they appear in the post…

Then there’s this young one, another male. I will show how I know that on the next post.

He rested in front of this camera for five minutes. I have a few videos of that.

They all look the same until you look closer ( plus I have other footage to help me)

Look at the time stamp too.

This first one is a male. More pictures show black under the tail etc. His tail seems a bit thinner than the other two youg cats and a thin tail means an older cat. I would say older than 3 but not by much…maybe 5. He’d have  more scars and his head would be much bigger if he was older than that.

About 12 hours later, last night, come two younger  cats together. The first one here

And both of them here. Can’t tell the sex. These must be those two I got on video a couple of days ago . Like I said on my other post, they are probably the two yearlings that I got travelling with mom a while back. It’s not unusual for them to be together for a while after they leave mom.

So to tally them….

Since I started this, the biggest and oldest male that used to rule around here has been gone over a year now. In this lower area behind the barn and toward the creek and probably up the next mountain on the other side of the creek, the new boss seems to be that collared male. He does not come around up higher on this  ridge. A younger male with a limpy shoulder seems to be have claimed that territory.

Then there is an occasional younger male that is collared but I have not seen him in over 3 months. Then we have the first one I ever got, she’s been gone for over a year. She had a distinct little split in the ear and I have not seen her.

Then the mom of these two big kittens .

Then this male here.

Then a young ( 3 years old) mom with 3 little guys. She’s been my most frequent visitor here until she took her litter further up the hill. I know her because I got her as a young cat, about a year old, and she had a big chunk of flesh missing from above her tail. She still has a scar that I can see on any shot from behind. I did not know she had kittens until she took them out and about and then away.

There could have been more; ofetn I have no idea who it is from a few shots. Now and then I see exactly who it is by scars, mostly tears on the ears.

If Roger or Ryan could edit that overly enthusiastic title to this thread….I would really appreciate it. It looks so silly now.

Done Kat. This has been such a cool project to follow. I feel like I know your cats!

Thanks for editing the title Ryan and for the nice comment. Telling the animals apart and following them  these last 3 years has been educational besides just fun.

I was offered a monthly gig at the resort :)

While they are offering it for free to guests, I will get paid well for doing something I love.

If you are near the central coast, stop by..

Congratulations, Kat! I wish I lived near enough to be able to attend. At least those of us who can’t be there get the benefit of your posts on here.

Nice gig

I wonder what other places would like your presentations?

There are speaker’s bureaus that pay people to speak (like Hillary, Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice,…).  I wonder if there are any that want less famous people?

Take several cameras with you and show them.  Set one up so it takes people’s pictures

Featured on The Weather Channel :)

https://weather.com/science/nature/video/big-cats-wander-california-mountains-0

Lots of nightime shots but this gem from yesterday morning. This is the mother of the cubs, out looking for food. I just spent half the day on Saturday clearing trail with the tractor, the weed eater and the chainsaw. Rewarded the next day :)

hmmm it’s a video but you have to click on it and it takes you to flickr. Also disappointing how much video quality has been lost via the Flickr app. It is a high res video, just not after it was compressed for upload. Oh well.

I don’t know if it’s ok for me to post this here. I guess I will find out.

Someone offered to do something with my night time photos…..

this little book is “launching” in Toronto this weekend.

http://www.smingsming.com/product/night-moves

https://flic.kr/p/VqPMEt

Kat, I am so glad I found this thread. It has been amazing walking through this tonight. You have an awesome ability and I hope you continue to keep us up to date on Kat’s Cats. I do not subscribe to many threads but I have this one. I am sure that many others in this community have come to love seeing your cats and watching you learn about them it has been a real joy. Taking the time to share them with all of us is very special.  Thank you!!!!!

Thanks Mike. Makes me want to upload some more footage I got recently ..

There are also a couple of separate threads on the 3 kittens, growing up….and the golden eagles one:

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/88047/

Yours was a nice post to read :)

I posted this link on a different thread a few weeks ago..

https://thesixfifty.com/feral-photography-amazing-animal-imagery-from-silicon-valley-trail-cams-b02a37ffe09d

but next month it will be out in print in the Half Moon Bay Review :)

Nice article, congratulations!  It’s great to see you get recognition for your beautiful work.