Hi Bob! This bobcat photo is the highlight of the trip so far! More bobcat photos and story at the end of this post.
[Carrabelle Day #22 2025-03-19 (Wed)] I’ve been planning another visit, at sunrise, to St Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge. Today was the day, dawning cold and clear with calm wind. Left the campground a little over an hour before sunrise, leaving Lyn and Tucker behind sleeping. Driving east there was beautiful pre-dawn light and mist over the calm ocean along the coastal highway on the way to St. Mark’s.
Arrived at St. Mark’s just as the sun was rising, and the drive along the road that goes through the refuge was beautifully lit. Couldn’t have been prettier, but there was almost no wildlife to be seen yet as I drove to the end of the 10 mile park road ending at St. Mark’s Lighthouse.
St. Mark’s Lighthouse lit by the rising sun.
My plan was to position myself to the east of the lighthouse with the rising sun at my back lighting up the lighthouse and the attached structure. The only problem, as I knew ahead of time, was that that required hiking through dense brush into a wet, muddy, swampy area. St. Mark’s Lighthouse is a popular photo site, but because of the “challenging” conditions this perspective is rare (I haven’t seen it, except old drone photos). It was worth the muddy boots and I’m very happy with the results.
Bird life as seen through an 800mm lens.
Gator with a swollen snout. Something must have fought back 🙂
On the drive back up the park road there was some nice bird life to photograph, including even a cardinal which Lyn liked a lot. I even found an alligator floating in a pond by a boat ramp. But the best photos by far came at the end of the drive …
Bobcat sighting!!!
And finally, this is epic! My last stop on the way out starts at a parking area with several trailheads. Before even getting on a trail I saw a gray animal with pointed ears at a distance. It appeared to look at me then bounded across the park road and disappeared into the brush. At first I thought it might be some kind of gray fox or maybe a marten. Also I thought there was less than a 1 in 100 chance I might spot it if I headed over to where I saw it disappear. But that’s how wildlife photography works sometimes, so I did. There was a stream/water filled ditch with brush on either side side so I pushed into the brush a little ways and looked across the steam. After a minute or two I spotted something gray slowly moving through the brush on the other side of the water. I kept changing my position trying to get an angle through the brush to see it as it moved. Finally it was visible in a small opening about 20-30 yards from me and it stopped and looked right at me. Holy shit it was a bobcat!!! I took over 50 photos while it just sat and looked at me and I tried to get unobstructed shots of it. It sat there for about 5 minutes watching me carefully, giving me a great opportunity. It was alert but didn’t seem spooked. I think with the distance, water, and brush in between us it didn’t feel too threaded. When it finally left it just nonchalantly walked off into the brush.
Wow wow wow! This was by far the best wildlife encounter I’ve ever had with a camera, just magical, and the photos turned out to be just incredible too to top it all off!!