A Wildlife Safari at Point Reyes

What began as a spring break birding trip to Marin County's Point Reyes National Seashore and Samuel P. Taylor State Park quickly shifted its focus to other wildlife and abundant blooming wildflowers.  High winds at Point Reyes made birding difficult, and searching for birds among the redwoods, where we camped at Samuel P. Taylor State Park, is notoriously difficult in the best of circumstances.  In the redwood forest, quite possibly my best birding was done from inside my cozy warm sleeping bag, as I listened to nighttime sounds and the dawn chorus.

All told, however, we tallied up 74 different species of birds during our trip, so I would consider that a successful venture!  (For the record, the National Park Service has recorded a mind-blowing 490 species of birds at Point Reyes!)

A male California Quail poses on a fence post at Point Reyes

Point Reyes National Seashore is renowned for its variety of watchable wildlife.  Not only is it a world-class birding location, it also boasts tidepools full of cool invertebrates, a thriving butterfly population, and a host of engaging mammals - around 80 species, in fact, only half of which are terrestrial!  

The two National Marine Sanctuaries adjacent to Point Reyes National Seashore are home to about 25 species of whales and porpoises, some of which can be seen from shore.  The best time to watch for migrating Gray Whales is during December and January, as they make their way south to calving grounds in Baja and southern California, and again in March, as the whales return to northern feeding grounds with young calves in tow.  

While seeing whales off the Point takes a little patience and good timing, observing loafing elephant seals is much easier.  From the Chimney Rock trailhead parking lot, simply walk down the path to the elephant seal overlook.  

Elephant seals, mostly juveniles and females, loafing on a protected beach at Point Reyes.

The demographics of the hauled-out elephant seal population varies throughout the year, as different ages and sexes come ashore during different seasons.  December through March is their breeding season, the most exciting season in terms of wildlife viewing, during which males vie for turf and females, and the females give birth to their pups.  Adult seals return to the sea once their pups are weaned, and through spring and early summer, the beach is populated by juvenile seals and adult females undergoing their annual molt.  Adult males come ashore to molt later in the summer.  From September to October, juvenile seals return once again to the beaches for a period of rest, a time known as the "juvenile haul out."

I don't know, they look pretty content to me... 

The return of breeding colonies of elephant seals to the beaches of California is one of the West's great conservation success stories.  Like sea otters, elephant seals were hunted nearly to extinction (though the seals were hunted for their oil-rich blubber, rather than their fur!)  By the early 1900's relatively few were left and Point Reyes' breeding colonies had long since disappeared.  It wasn't until the 1980's that the first breeding pairs returned to the Chimney Rock area of Point Reyes National Seashore.  Worldwide, northern elephant seals breed in only about a dozen locations, Point Reyes being one of them!  

The big guy in the center of this photo - the one with the quite prominent snout - is a young male,
not yet fully grown.

Another resident aquatic mammal of Point Reyes' freshwater systems is the river otter.  A likely place to spot these charismatic members of the weasel family is Abbott's Lagoon.  

We spotted this smaller, presumably female otter first, and watched with delight as she swam through the reeds and vegetation before climbing out onto the sandy bank (which is really the back of a sand dune system that continues westward toward the ocean.)

While she enjoyed a nice long, leisurely roll in the sand, a considerably larger, presumably male otter swam up, intrigued.  He watched her for a minute before approaching.  

They approached, sniffed each other and vocalized a few times, no doubt exchanging a great deal of information before they parted ways.  After this encounter, both otters scent-marked the area.  It was a fascinating bit of river otter behavior to observe!

One of Point Reyes' claims to fame (it has many!) is that it is one of the best, most reliable places to see a bobcat in the wild in California - or so I've heard.  We spotted one sitting in a pasture along the side of the road, mid-morning, so it must be true!

Not our Point Reyes bobcat, but one I spotted locally just a few days after we got home!

Smaller than mountain lions (which also inhabit the area, though are far less common), bobcats are most common in coastal scrub and grassland habitats where they hunt small mammals.

Common across much of California and the West, mule deer are frequently seen in a number of habitats.  Here at Point Reyes, we spotted a few different groups of these graceful creatures in the coastal scrub of the Point.

Larger than mule deer and far less common (and, consequently, more interesting!), tule elk range across the remote northern corner of the National Seashore within the Tule Elk Reserve at Pierce Point Ranch, and in the areas around Limantour Beach and Drake's Beach.  

California's endemic subspecies of elk, tule elk were nearly wiped out in the 19th century by market hunting and loss of habitat to cattle ranches.  One small, remnant herd was discovered in the 1870's, and was subsequently protected.  Today, all of California's 5,700 tule elk are descendants of that last herd.  Across the state, there are now twenty-two herds of tule elk, and other locations to see these great ungulates include Carrizo Plain National Monument, the hills around San Luis Reservoir, and at San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, where a herd is carefully managed within a large enclosure.

In forested parts of Point Reyes and the surrounding areas, keep an eye out for Sonoma chipmunks, one of California's endemic species of chipmunk.  We saw lots of these little guys around our campsite in the redwoods!

Fun fact: California is home to 13 species of chipmunks, which represents the greatest chipmunk diversity found anywhere on earth!  So if you like chipmunks (as I do!), California is your place!

And to finish up, I suppose no wildlife safari would be complete without at least one herp sighting.  While hiking at Point Reyes, we came across no fewer than four coast garter snakes.  Four.  And each one was bigger than the last!  

This list of wildlife sightings is by no means exhaustive: I have only offered the smallest selection of a few of the animals that may be encountered in the wonderfully rich mosaic of habitats protected by the National Seashore.  Click here to view complete lists of all the animals that call Point Reyes home.