I wonder if this gorgeous bobcat knew how much I miss Bandit, my kitty daughter, and decided to take a before dawn stroll through the upper gardens at Casa de Enchanted Seashells.
I have a new wildlife camera; one that has audio as well as video, but no sounds emanated from my nocturnal visitor.
It’s been a long, long while since my coyotes stopped by but I’m hopeful they’ll pass through very soon.
I placed my older camera in the lawn area and I’ve been enlightened as to what goes on while I sleep. There are a lot of RATS seemingly coming out of nowhere, more than I had suspected. I placed white mesh bags around every grape cluster on the vines and that seems to be working to protect them from being totally destroyed by those rodents. I’ll try the bags next year when the apple tree bears fruit again. At this point, I’ll try almost anything.
I can’t tell if this is a male or female, so I’ll need to find a name that works for either gender. Any suggestions?
Enchanted Seashells by Princess Rosebud 
We had a bobcat and her kittens living in my tepee right before I had to take it down. All the poles — after 10 years in all seasons (and in New England, that’s a LOT of season) — were rotted. Even the canvas had pretty much had it. In the end, no matter what you do, it’s just a canvas tent on wooden poles. If we’d taken it down in the winter, it might have lived a bit longer but it was the most fun in the winter.
The bobcat had her kittens in the next door neighbor’s storage shack before she found the tepee. I don’t think you can tell male from female. You’d have to look it up. There may be a size difference, but I’m not even sure of that.
You never see two bobcats together unless one if the kitten of the other mommy bobcat. They are solitary creatures, coming together to mate. Mom raises the kittens alone and dad moves on. They are truly mighty hunters. Before they arrived we had chipmunks, rabbits, grouse, and woodchucks. After they’d been here for a couple of years, we had NO chipmunks, rabbits, grouse, or woodchucks. Only now, about 5 years later, we have a few chipmunks back and a couple of woodchucks. Recently, I saw a pair of grouse — first time in 6 years! I still haven’t seen a rabbit.
We had a wildlife camera. It ad no sound either and it took stills. MANY MANY stills! that’s how we discovered we have a huge number of flying squirrels and raccoons that visit us at night. The bobcats were twilight and dawn visitors.
How about Bobby? That works either way.
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Interesting! I learned the main difference is in appearance of tracks/foot size/shape and in general, a male bobcat is larger. I turned off the photo mode and only use video. I know I have raccoons/possums/bunnies/skunks but I only care about coyotes and bobcats. Every so often a mountain lion comes around and s/he has been seen at the park a couple blocks away, but I haven’t so far had a visit. And thanks for the suggestion, but s/he doesn’t seem like a Bobby to me. More like a Natasha or a Romeo (cause bobcats roam haha) Knowing how solitary they are, I’m honored by his regular appearances. PS I forgot to add that having a teepee is super cool, now i wish I had one! Or a yurt. I always wanted a yurt.
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I can’t think of a single name. But that video looks like it belongs in some thriller movie.
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The pic makes the bobcat look bigger than he actually is, he’s probably less than 40-50 pounds. In color, they are gorgeous!
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Wow! It’s amazing what can pass through your back yard. X
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It’s one of the reasons I love it so much!
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