a collection of close encounters of another kind from NCKA.ORG

Mountain lion kill near Uvas

Water dogs at Lexington with their perfect camo

Those are newts not a water dog. Just to let you know they are among the most poisonous newts which can cause paralysis or even death if you ingest its poison. So if you touch them wash your hands. The scientific name is taricha torosa or the  common name is California newt.

California newts...such pretty little guys. I've handled them many times, but I guess I'll be more careful in the future. I've seen many of them marching in the same direction in the fall, migrating I assume. Fun thing is, you can pick them up, spin them around, point them in any random direction, and they find their way back to the direction they were heading, every time. How do they know?  It doesn't seem to be the direction of the sun, because they behave the same under overcast skies, or forest canopy. Magnetic field? Built in compass?

reelfish

You are right. And all this time I have been thinking they were waterdogs. 

A king snake came to say  hello

I'm 99% sure that's a Gopher snake

But your deer post did indeed show a deer

Scott

A king snake came to say  hello

I'm 99% sure that's a Gopher snake

But your deer post did indeed show a deer

Scott

I am striking out here. Thing is I did not say it was a deer.   

So are those the same guys I've always found in very cold water, (all over in Oregon, and in cold sierra lakes?)  or are those actually water dogs?  They look similar.

A very rare and close encounter with the famous "Blue Kayak" 

Mooch and a snake 

The complete story:
http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php/topic,11418.0.html

A bobcat hunting by the shoreline

This ones for real http://cbs13.com/local/local_story_194000223.html

I missed this one before.  Let me get this straight. They tried to touch a wild river otter with pups and when they got bitten and scratched the otter was hunted down and killed, "just to be safe"?  Um...

On a lighter note, this seagull had some evil designs on my sandwich and just hovered in the wind like this for a few minutes:

Turtle at Lake Merced - 2010 - I named him "Wolverine"...

  I will add the extra 1 percent to the that is not a king snake post!  By the way king snakes are amongst the most docile of all but gophers can be down right mean!