The Kern Preserve

The Kern preserve is where I work. Except I don't have any pictures of work, since they wouldn't be all that exciting. Picture me blundering through a jungle of stinking nettle and impregnable bracken with a wood-chete, in 1 metre of water. Memories I would not intentionaly relish unless to brighten a less gloomy circumstance in a comparative fashion. Therefore, this space will be dedicated to kickass wildlife sightings while working.

First, a long tailed weasel, the only time I've ever found one.

A bobcat

Vermillion flycatcher


One time, me and Nick were in the yard at night looking at the barn owls, and this bird flushed from a bush. Then it got stuck in the courtyard, and tried to escape by going through the sliding door, which was closed, unfortunately for it. It was a fledged Kestrel.


This other time, there was a huge red snake in the yard with half its body down a hole, so I went up and grabbed it and pulled it out. It was a coachwhip! This was really fortunate because normally these are almost impossible to catch (plus they bite like mothers). Turned out it was hunting lizards on our bricks, which it happened to be the same colour as. Earlier there was also a jumbo rattlesnake in the yard, which I could not wrangle since there was no stick, still no pictures of one!



Once I saw this coyote, so I hid in the grass and made some squeaky noises.

Then, it sprinted to me so it could taste me, but then I made it run away.

Barn owls average once per day

A shrike flew into our cowbird trap

It left a bloody stump in its path