Bobcats amongst us

I know there are bobcats around here, but I’ve never seen one. So I’m relying on friends like Lou Cordero, a freelance photographer who lives in Sumerduck. He sent me this photo he shot at  C.F. Phelps Wildlife Management Area in Fauquier. Here’s his description of the  elusive feline predator: “The bobcat had black rings around his legs and tail.  The back of his feet and tips of his ears and  tail were black.  I have seen bigger bobcats at Graves Mountain Lodge” in Madison County in past years.  He shot the pictures with a point-and-shoot, low-resolution camera late in the evening. According to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, these are not anything like your ordinary house cat—up to 40 inches long and 10 to 25 pounds, with a short tail and relatively long legs. They tend to be reddish-brown, spotted and streaked with black. The department website says they’re most common in the western part of the state, but can be found throughout Virginia. So next time you put out the cat food….

Photographer Lou Cordero got this shot of an elusive bobcat at Phelps Wildlife Management Area.

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