Sometimes with wildlife, it’s just all fun and games. Interactions that we often miss. Our amazing wildlife photographers are out there doing the hard work to provide these comical and, sometimes, curious exchanges. Our wildlife friends know how to play, jump, spin and dive. Happy to share the ongoing antics. Here are the winning images for March-April, and now contenders for the California Wildlife Photo of the Year 2024.
Great Blue Heron Juveniles
Oceanside Harbor
Photographer: Kathy McGaffigan
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Body Canon EF 100-400mm Canon R6,
100-500mm lens, f10, 1/1250, ISO 500 at 238mm
Kathy has observed these Great Blue Herons nesting in a tree at Oceanside Harbor for the past three years.
Coyote
Golden Gate Park
Photographer: Parham Pourahmad
Nikon D3500 and Sigma 150-600 Contemporary, f/6.3, 1/320
This coyote family are residents in the woods around a small pond in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
Forster’s Tern
Shoreline Lake
Photographer: Kevin Lohman
Nikon Z9 with Nikkor Z 600mm f/4 TC VR S lens at f/4.0, 1/6400 second, ISO 560
A Forster’s Tern twists its head around as it shakes off water after diving into a saltwater lake to try to catch a fish.
Northern River Otter
Lake Almanor
Photographer: Randy Robbins
Canon 7DMkII, Canon 100-400L lens @400mm
A river otter diving into Lake Almanor from an ice shelf seems to be coming right towards you.