Specialty is Bay Area wildlife in  Northern California. From the Sacramento valley to the coast of California and everywhere in between. Here there is diversity in terrain, weather and wildlife in areas relatively close to each other.  I have always been intrigued by identifying and reading about raptors. The curiosity soon spread to all animals in the wild. I have spent much time working out doors in about every area of Contra Costa. Later, perhaps in respect and appeciation of wild animals I became inspired by readings from many Native American books especially from the horse culture years when a great appreciation was displayed toward the environment and wildlife. The Native Americans seem to have accomplished all things environmentally that we are currently striving for today.   

 

                                                             Local Wilderness

                        All photos from my collection are of bay area local wildlife. A specialty is burrowing owls. I have monitored / photographed them for several years.  Also raptors, perching birds, water and shore birds and land mammals . The golden eagle, bald eagles and osprey's have solid numbers here in the bay area and I have a few photos.  Please E mail with any particular species request.

     Black tail deer, bobcats and coyotes are common here as well and I have some of them featured on this site. Please look though the grid photo pages of this site and click on photos for a closer view. I will  change them periodically as the inventory is large.

 

                                                                                                                                                                               See Daves local golden eagle story on page 6.

 

Also see Dave Harpers blog site @

 

http://davidharper-wildlife.blogspot.com/

 

Use the top right guide to see grid photos and slide show.

 

                                                    

                                      

                          

 

 

 

                                                                                 The Wilderness

                                 It’s inside many of us, its wild. It is the wild. Not a lawyer with a monetary agenda, not in asphalt or concrete. It is in the eye of the timber wolf, the scream of the red tailed hawk. It is in the fierce crystal clear streams actively carving the way through pristine canyons and mountain ranges. A crimson sunset over a purple ridgeline covered with oaks and pines. Not in a metal detector or a shiny new car but out there, out in the wilderness.  In the rear legs of a jack rabbit who makes a cut so severe two coyotes collide as he hurdles the sage brush and is long gone. In the supreme confidence of a golden eagle whose  phenomenal vision scans endless panoramic beauty that has no boundaries. It is in the wind blown manes of thousands of wild running horses with dark eyes that seem to penetrate human souls. It knows little of a material world, logic or physics. For no one human knows what the howl of the wolf is truly expressing, cry of the blue whale or the meadow larks song.

                        The wilderness comes with remarkable strength, survives catastrophic storms, earthquakes, fire and disease, then clears and cleanses with resilient ability. It will have no prejudice, cannot be found in a metal detector or a mandatory drug test, or in the long lines of rush hour traffic. It cares not how much you have or own. It thrives in the desire for survival. Selfless hell bent salmon relentlessly pushing upstream only to reproduce and die. In the heart and attitude of a three legged coyote who refuses to show a tear. The migration of wildebeests and caribou. The strength of the grizzly and the innocence of their young. Roosevelt elk on a snow covered hill breathing out frost on a cool winter morning. The great bison in good numbers crossing through a grass covered valley for remember they were once near gone. Standing and closing your eyes on a mountain top or high ridge in the wilderness feeling the wind push against you and hearing only the sounds of nature…