The Terra Galleria Blog – QT Luong

“Landscape without wildlife is just scenery” is a quote used by Kris Tompkins, the subject of the inspirational Wild Life (2023) movie, to discuss the world’s largest rewilding project that she and Doug Tompkins initiated in Patagonia. It would appear that the ribbon of land along suburban Coyote Creek Trail isn’t doing too badly as a landscape. No rewilding has occured there, yet I have seen a varied array of wildlife along the trail, besides an incredible number of cats. While remaining within the city limits of San Jose, California, I have been able to have encounters with the Other in an unexpected place within walking distance from our home.

That is not to say that every trip to the trail resulted in a wildlife sighting beyond squirrels. Despite well over a hundred visits to the Coyote Creek Trail, I have seen a bobcat only twice. The protected red foxes are much easier to spot, as they like to stalk the Los Lagos Golf Course bisected by the trail. First appearing in the San Francisco Bay in the 1980s, they have been stealing sandwiches and phones from golf bags for two decades. In May of last year, I noticed a photographer carrying a telephoto lens, unlike me. As I came closer, he called me by my name. He was a friend from my years in Berkeley that I hadn’t seen for decades. Chris Gould had traveled from Marin County expressly to photograph those habituated red foxes. At sunrise the green is quiet and no golf balls are flying, but sunset is the time when pups come out of the den. I have seen wild pigs on four occasions. Confident in their strength, those dangerous animals are not skittish. Deer are more common, but given my self-imposed wide-angle lens for this project, I have not been able to get a close photograph as they tend to flee quickly. The namesake coyote has remained elusive. I’ve encountered quite a few in the hills. However, the riparian environment of the trail is not their preferred habitat. On the other hand, many birds make it their home, as detailed in the Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance guide. Photographing birds with a wide-angle lens is a bit of a challenge, which is why the isolated small bird on the ground is such an unlikely photograph. By the way, in America, it is easy to take squirrels for granted, but the first time I visited from France, I was astonished to see one on the lawn of the White House in Washington, DC. I didn’t remember having seen any in urban or suburban settings in France. As a child, it was a treat to spot one in the pine forest of Montalivet by the Atlantic Ocean where we went camping in the summer.

I’ve posted twelve of my wildlife images from the Coyote Creek Trail below. After you look through these, please use the form at the bottom of this post to list your five favorites (the numbers are below the photographs). Thank you for your input. Comments are welcome!

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

If you do not see the form below, click here.