On December 18th, 2024, a neighbor posted (with pics) in our Facebook group about seeing
a Bobcat by his house. I have seen plenty of wildlife locally such as
coyote's,
foxes,
raccoons,
hawks (Coopers and Red-Tailed),
Owls,
hummingbirds,
and even birds nesting on my front door, but I have never seen a Bobcat ...
despite having LOTS of "Bobcat snacks" (aka bunnies!) in my front/back yard.
Here's how it played out in rough chronological order.
My favorite picture - Bobcat "playing" with a mouse on January 3rd, 2025
A day after my neighbor posted on Facebook, my webcam captured the Bobcat
The next day, the webcam again saw the Bobcat ... and a few days later, I got my first viewing of a Bobcat as seen in this phone video of my backyard.
So dusted off my Canon 7DM2, put on the "big gun" 70-200/F2.8 lens, charged up the battery, and had it ready to go. Then nothing for two weeks.
But then my next door neighbor texts me on January 3rd, 2025 - "you have a guest in your yard"
So now the "hunt" is on ... as I grab the camera, and walk (not run - no rapid movements) out the front door. No sign of the Bobcat as I walk to the sidewalk and look both ways ... but I see some neighbors (with dogs) to the East that are clearly "standing there" as if they are looking for something. They see me with camera, so as I ask "did you see the Bobcat", they are already answering "we saw the Bobcat - it went around your house 'that' way." So I walk to the backyard - still NOTHING ... but I "chill" for a bit ... and then BOOM, Bobcat emerges from a tree in my backyard - we got action! ;-)
Bobcat just "chilling" underneath a tree in my backyard
Some close-ups of Bobcat
Two Stop-action sequences of the Bobcat "playing" with a mouse
Use the controls to play, step, pause, slow-down, and/or speed-up the animation.
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While my wife and son were watching from inside the house, I was outside on the back deck - less than 50' away. There's no doubt Bobcat knew I was there, but I just sat on the firepit and took (a couple of hundred) pictures. I then went back inside the house and took some more pictures (and video since I could more easily brace the camera) from there ... but the sun on the window caused some haze, so I wasn't happy with those.
This video was taken from inside the house ~10 minutes later ... Bobcat is still "playing" with the mouse!
So I went back outside (via the front door) The sun was coming from the back-right ... so not ideal ... and I eventually (when Bobcat went into the tree) walked to the SW corner of the backyard to try to improve that angle ... but Bobcat must have done deeper into the tree, because I lost them. I decided to call it quits and walked back to the front yard and in through the front door. My wife said Bobcat is out again and (basically) taking the same path I just did ... so I went back out the front door and said on my concrete flowerpots ... as Bobcat sauntered by less than 20' away.
Stop-action sequence of the Bobcat walking on my driveway while watching me
Use the controls to play, step, pause, slow-down, and/or speed-up the animation.
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Closeup - check out the "points" on top of Bobcat's ears!
So a pretty outstanding Bobcat sighting that will be hard to top!
But I'll be keeping an eye out ... as those "Bobcat Snacks" (aka bunnies) are still around ... ;-)
P.S. The Bobcat played with the mouse for over 15 (!) minutes - you can even see in the video how it uses a "soft" mouth to grab it ... and then puts it back down for more "paw play" ... and even swiped it if it wasn't moving. We didn't see the "end result" ... but I assume the mouse ended up as a "light snack" for the Bobcat.
PPS. LOL that because the mouse looks like it is "boxing" in a couple of pics, it was suggested I call it "Mousehammed Ali" ;-)