A well-fed cat...

Here, kitty, kitty...

Is this visitor a bobcat or a lynx?  It's walking down the driveway of my house at Trout Lake as if it owns the place... which I guess it does, 90% of the year.

I contacted Telluride native Jack Pera, who has done lots of nature photography around San Miguel County, with this question.

Here's his answer:

The photo of the 'cat is indeed that of a lynx. I can tell by the color. There are other identification marks but the photo isn't good enough to point those out. (Extremely large feet, black tip on the tail, longer ear tufts, etc.) The main food source is snowshoe rabbits (hares.) Their survival depends almost entirely on the population of this species of rabbit. Deb sees lynx tracks on occasion when she snowshoes above the cabin but hasn't seen one yet and neither have I. It's a treat to get to see one.

Donna Nichols reports:

I didn't see it but my nephews did. Tom showed them pix of both.  They said lynx. !  I've seen lynx in that area before a few years back closer to Rico though. [Over Thanksgiving] I saw its tracks in the snow go under the porch of a cabin for sale.  I saw little tracks too...cub?

My neighbor Heather noted:

I actually have only ever seen a cat in our driveway once. I think it was a lynx. But it was like this, broad daylight, and I was out walking [my dog] Maggie. She had a fit and it sauntered off down toward Sue's.

From now on, I'm keeping a log of sightings!  

A few moose have shown up in the last few years, hiking over from Ophir.  Deer, weasels, rabbits, and porcupines are frequent visitors.

Note: Jack is my second cousin.  He used to produce a slideshow of his photos called Mountain Splendor.