During my 2007 Thanksgiving Break, I visited my childhood home in Little Hot Springs Valley. I got into the woods a lot with my digital still camera. On the morning of November 23, I journeyed through the valley shooting whatever interesting wildlife I could find. I first drove to the middle part of the valley and saw a dark-eyed junco in an oak tree.

I also got some shots of Mount Shasta, which had recently acquired a dusting of late fall snow. Shasta’s eastern face (side visible from Little Hot Springs Valley) is white with snow most of the year, but from late summer to early fall, it’s mostly gray due to summer snowmelt exposing rock.

Soon, I spotted a hawk chase a group of meadowlarks into an oak tree. Unfortunately, the hawk was too fast and distant for me to get decent, focused shots, but I did get a few shots of the meadowlarks.

Later in the morning, I traveled southward to zones where peninsulas of lava rock meet with Little Hot Springs Valley’s meadows. I found a group of deer there.

While photographing a group of does, I spotted a large-antlered buck journeying through the brush. With wonder and excitement, I began to pursue the buck, which generally remained well-hidden behind vegetation. Still, I got some shots of him jumping a barbed wire fence.

Eventually, the big buck moved into the open to chase does.

Soon, the buck jumped more barbed wire fences and eventually disappeared across a distant field.

More deer jumped the barbed wire fences.

I followed the deer across a field and into a different patch of forest, but I never caught up with the buck.

Later in the day, I roamed over to one of my favorite lava rock ponds and found a dead great blue heron frozen in ice. Herons and other ardeids are common in certain ponds in Little Hot Springs Valley in late summer because that’s a time when water is drying up and meals like frogs and fish are easier to catch. I’m not sure when or how this heron died.

I also saw a bullfrog on top of ice. I originally assumed all bullfrogs would be in hibernation by the time cold temperatures arrived, but apparently some frogs are tougher than I thought. I’m not sure why this frog was on the ice, but if the weather is warm enough, bullfrogs in Little Hot Springs Valley can be active as late in the year as December.

By evening, a glowing moon rose above the Big Valley Mountains, marking an end to my November 23, 2007 photography expedition.