Nature Photography and Lake Los Carneros

     Nestled in a suburban residential area below the foothills in Goleta, California, is an unlikely little 136 acre park known as Lake Los Carneros.

     As the name implies, it does contain a lake – a little 25-acre lake, with a dam at its south end and reeds around the rest of its perimeter. Being the largest puddle of fresh water in the area, and having a surprising array of small habitat areas around it, the lake attracts wildlife, water birds, and birds of prey, as well as many humans.

     By the way, if you get bored at any time while reading this, please feel free to scroll down. You'll find several photos below the text.

     I first found Lake Los Carneros (I’ll abbreviate that as LLC from now on) many years ago when I worked for one of the aerospace firms in Goleta. On stressful days, or when I felt homesick for my home lake in Michigan, or if I just needed a nature fix, I would visit LLC during my lunch breaks or after work. Being there always made me feel better.

     It was those walks around LLC that led me into nature photography.

     About seven years ago, while on an after-work walk around the lake, I glanced down into the bushes between me and the lake, and I saw a feline face looking back at me. It looked like an extra-large house cat, but something about it didn’t seem right. Then, I got a look at its ears: they had little tufts of fur sticking up from them. I was eye-to-eye with a bobcat!

     I stared, enthralled. The cat stared back, seeming more curious than worried. We studied each other for at least five minutes before a dog walker came by and broke our trance. The cat quietly slid off into the reeds by the lake, and was gone.

     The experience was so unexpected, so magical, that I wanted to share it with someone, but it now existed only in my memory. From that day on, I vowed to carry a camera with me whenever I went to the lake, in the hope that I’d see the bobcat again.

     I started out with a small point-and-shoot, inexpensive and easy to carry. Bobcat sightings were rare there, though, and while I walked and looked and hoped, I began to photograph other things: birds, trees, fungi, and the landscape itself. It didn’t take long to discover that I needed a better camera if I was going to capture far-off hawks or, even more important to me, photos of that bobcat.

     My next camera was one of the intermediate models that fill the gap between point-and-shoots and SLRs. I still hadn’t seen the bobcat again, but I was having a wonderful time photographing birds, caterpillars, pets, bugs – anything that would hold still long enough for me to shoot. Those cameras had an infuriating characteristic, though: when you pressed the shutter button, it could take a second or more before the camera actually snapped the picture! By that time, birds had flown, pets had moved, opportunities had disappeared. Frustrated, I finally decided to spend the “big money,” and buy an SLR.

     My cameras have changed over the years, along with my perception of what “big money” means, but my love for Lake Los Carneros has remained. Once a week, every two weeks at most, my camera and my heart begin to whisper, “It’s time. Take us there – you know where we mean.” And I go, and I walk, and I photograph. Sometimes I meet LLC friends along the way, people I’ve come to know from our encounters in that place.

     This past Monday was one of those times. I met a friend on one of the paths, another nature lover and photographer. We lingered over birds, laughed at missed shots, shared successful ones. When I came home, I had 260 photos to process. Here are a few of them.

I'm not sure what species this is. The other birds around at the time, the ones I was trying to shoot, were Nutmeg Mannikins. This might be a female Mannikin, but it doesn't look right.

To the right: definitely a male Nutmeg Mannikin, AKA "Spice Finch," "Scaly-breasted Munia," or "Rice Finch." Native to Southeast Asia and India, escaped pets have formed several thriving colonies here in the Santa Barbara area.

Yellow-rumped Warbler (affectionately called the "butter-butt" by some).

American Kestrel. These beautiful little birds of prey are photographically notorious for always being backlit against a bright sky and just out of reach of whatever lens you're using. For this shot, I used about
+1-1/3 stops of exposure compensation.

I love a good Mystery Bird, and this was mine for the week. I thought at first it might be an American Tree Sparrow or, more likely, a Chipping Sparrow. It was neither. Thanks to the kind birders at the SB County Birding web site, I learned that it's a first-year White-crowned Sparrow. I fear these juvenile birds will spell the end of what little sanity I've retained!

With all of the hawk photos I've taken, you'd think I should be able to look at this and say, "Oh, that's a such-and-such." Well, I can't. This might be a Red-shouldered, or it could be a juvenile Red-tailed. Another one for the "more research" pile.

Cedar Waxwing eating toyon berries. This is what my LLC friend Barbara and I were looking for during our walk together. Unfortunately for Barbara, I only stumbled upon this group of waxwings after we'd gone our separate ways.

Nuttall's Woodpecker. Pretty, ain't it?

Oh, and in case you’re still wondering: yes, I finally did get that bobcat photo. This picture marks what remains one of the very best days of my photographic life.