I finally got around to creating a separate gallery for my photos. I'm actually fairly new to photography, but it's one of my creative passions along with drawing/painting and my Border Collies

I have a separate gallery for my regular art work and didn't really want to mix that with my photos.

Please take a look around and enjoy!

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In going through some of my dad's things I found some historical wildlife study photos. He was a wildlife biologist for the CA Dept. of Fish & Game for nearly 30 yrs. There were several photos from the 1965 California Condor Count which helped get them on the endangered species list and get a captive breeding conservation plan going for them. I remember my dad going on the Condor count every year and telling me about these HUGE birds. He was always amazed at their wingspan (9 ft.). Unfortunately, the photos were very faded, but then again they are 44 yrs. old!

I also found photos of San Joaquin Kit Foxes from 1977. These are also on the endangered species list and when the study was done on them, they used radio collars and biotelemetry to track their movements. My dad built the radio collars and I went on many of the field trips in the desert to help track them.

Anyway, I felt it was important to share these photos because at the rate things are going I think our wildlife is going to start disappearing at an alarming rate unless we get things turned around. There are around 126 California Condors in the captive breeding program and only about 54 in the wild. I think the San Joaquin Kit Fox is faring much better than the Condor, but how many of us get to see them? Of course, a good portion of the Kit Fox habitat is privately owned by the oil companies.

What about the Pika, which has been being found at increasingly higher elevations due to global warming? How many times do you see badgers out in the wilderness in CA? I've seen one and that was on another Fish & Game field trip. I was ecstatic when it was confirmed that a student had caught a wolverine on a camera trap in the Tahoe National Forest. The last documented sighting of a wolverine in California was in the 1920's!!!

I was extremely fortunate to have a wildlife biologist as my father growing up. I was even more fortunate that he always took me on field trips and shared his love of the wilderness and it's flora and fauna with me. I wish those opportunities were available to all children, but unfortunately they aren't. That means we need to work harder to save those wild creatures for our children and our children's children to enjoy. There is no excuse that let's us get by with allowing any wild animal or bird to become extinct. We are no longer ignorant of why it happens - it's us and our history of doing whatever the heck we want and worrying about the consequences later. Of course, some of this was brought about many, many, many years before we were ever born - but that doesn't mean we all can't do something now to help turn it around

OK - hopping off my soapbox now

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NOTE:

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Watching from just one account makes it easier for me to keep track of DevWatches