Wild With Gabriel! - Photos & Blog

Bears, Birds and Bobcats, Oh MY!!

11/22/2016

Absolutely incredible day in Shenandoah National Park with my friend Denise Machado! 4 Black Bears getting close to entering their dens, 3 young Bobcats hanging out together, a large White-tailed Deer buck, a Barred Owl, a Ruffed Grouse and some very interesting park history.... wow wow wow.
Through the last 8.5 years of exploring SNP and its wildlife I've seen Bobcats several dozen times. Most sightings have been quick glimpses of animals running across the road. Only twice did I have prolonged views, and once it was too foggy to get good photos and once the light was too low to get good photos. I had only ever dreamed of getting a photo like the one above. Today that dream came true. An absolutely astonishing 15 minutes in the presence of this young Bobcat and what I believe were its two siblings. Middle of the day, plenty of light and at about a 40 yard distance.
Thank you Denise for such a wonderful day and thank you Bobcats for this incredible experience!

Bucks in the Rut: Rubs, Scrapes and Licking Branches

11/20/2016

I had heard tales of this magnificent buck, but it wasn't until the end of July this year that I was able to find him and photograph him for myself. This mighty warrior would soon shed his velvet and do battle to defend his territory in the upcoming mating season. It would be wonderful to see him in action!

While birds and bears are my number one passion, I love nature in all its many forms. I have spent hours wandering the woods watching mama deer with their newborn fawns in the spring and bucks during the rut in the fall. Below is a video that was made when I was ten years old, and even then I loved being a "Junior Ranger" sharing my nature findings. This video is about a tree I came across that told the story of a buck that had marked its territory during the rut in mating season.

Junior Ranger Gabriel Talks About the Rut

Cold and Windy Hawk Watch Day, with my Zeiss at the Ready!

11/11/2016

Conducting the Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch on a fairly cold and WINDY late fall day! Plenty warm thanks to all my winter gear! Hoping my new pair of awesome Zeiss Victory binoculars, with their wide field of view and incredible image help me spot a Golden Eagle today!

***End of Day Update: As one of the official counters at the Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch in Virginia I write up a daily report after I have kept the count. The hourly data and summary are submitted o Hawk Count a site that keeps records from all the hawk watches around the country. https://www.hawkcount.org/

Here is my report for today, and I am pleased to say I got that Golden Eagle I was in search of, along with some Bald Eagles a Northern Goshawk as well! Great day to be a Counter!!

Strong (39-49km/h) winds throughout the day, gradually shifting from WNW to NNW. 9.2-13.5C. A cloudless sky early but very nice varying 70-85% cloud cover after 10am. Haze in the distance to E & W until 2pm, then very clear visibility.Observation NotesThe strong NW winds made for a fun day of fast-flying raptors, sometimes a challenge to identify! Almost all the birds rose up over the ridge to the north, fought the winds and then gave up and headed south down the east side of the gap. Only a few birds remained steady and strong enough to fly down the west side of the gap. One of those birds was an immature Northern Goshawk (11:05am) which flew steadily and swiftly with very little flapping, fairly close by down the west side of the gap. Before continuing on to the south the NG paused to dive-bomb and then circle with three Common Ravens. Similar size of all four birds was noted.

A good Eagle day with four more BE (10:31 4th-YR, 11:36 unaged and 3:50 1st-YR x 2) as well as a gorgeous immature GE which sailed past at 3:13pm.

First Raptor: 8:35 RT, Last Raptor: 3:50 BE (x2).Non-Raptor Notes16 Ravens, 17 Horned Larks, 44 Robins, 1 American Pipit, 202 RW Blackbirds, 348 Grackles, 2 Pine Siskins.VisitorsJennifer Jowdy, Daniel MapelForecastChilly (upper-40s) and sunny with mild North Winds.

November 07th, 2016

11/7/2016

The Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival is a wrap! What a phenomenal week of birding and friendship building. Perfect grand finale tonight with an awesome walk with a couple of dear friends. We found my "lifer" Armadillo and got surrounded by singing Common Paraques! Last but certainly not least, I represented ZEISS at a festival for the first time. Although I wasn't officially here with ZEISS I did help out a little bit and got to spend some time with Stephen Ingraham of ZEISS who is a wealth of knowledge about optics! Truly a wonderful week on all levels and I'll miss all my friends dearly. See ya'll soon and for now good birding and much love...

YES! I saw the Amazon Kingfisher in Laredo, TX! What a way to start the festival!! On October 30, Raul Delgado found an ABA Code 5 Amazon Kingfisher at Zacata Creek in Laredo, Webb County, Texas. The bird was been present in this location the next day as well. Pending acceptance, this is a 3rd record for Texas and the 3rd record for the ABA Area.

I spent Sunday with my friends Michael Hilchey (photo) and Raymond Van Buskirk owners of BRANT Nature Tours, along with Ashli, Linda and a whole group of amazing people banding birds at the Quinta Mazatlan World Birding Center. It was truly awesome!!

I had the pleasure of helping Liz Gordon, board member of the American Birding Association, lead a family bird walk at the festival on Saturday morning. It is exciting to help the next generation of birders discover a passion for birds.

Nov. 1, 2016 Off to the Rio Grande Valley birding festival!! I can't wait to see many friends and many birds. There is a Northern Jacana and Amazon Kingfisher (hopefully) waiting for me!!

Proud to Join the Zeiss Pro Team!!

10/27/2016

I am THRILLED to announce that I am now a member of the Zeiss Pro Team representing FANTASTIC Zeiss Sports Optics! I am the proud owner of a new pair of phenomenal Zeiss Victory SF 8x42 binoculars which have incredible brightness, clarity and field of view. It is a true privilege to be able to use these incredible optics for my bird and nature observations. I can't wait to represent Zeiss at birding festivals throughout the country! Thanks so much to Rich Moncrief of Zeiss for giving me this fabulous opportunity!

October 25th, 2016

10/25/2016

Great day today! Spent the morning volunteering counting migrating raptors at the Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch and this afternoon in the woods with Black Bears in Shenandoah National Park!

Adult female Northern Harrier migrating over the Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch

Adult female Black Bear in the autumn woods of Shenandoah National Park.

Thank you for being my Furry Brother

10/5/2016

RIP Bukki... There are no words. Thank you for being my furry brother. I will always love you..

Leaving on a Bittersweet Adventure!

10/3/2016

My dad and I are off to Europe! In about an hour we will board a flight to Switzerland where we will spend about a week before going to Italy for a few days. Excited to see friends, explore new places and see new birds!
Meanwhile back at home our old dog Bukki is not doing so well. So very sad to say goodbye today knowing that when we return home in a couple weeks he may no longer be with us. Love you Bukki!! So happy to know he is in the loving care of my mom...

I was six years old when we first adopted Bukki. This is our first hug! He quickly became my best friend.

An Incredible Day at Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch!

9/22/2016

MY OH MY we just had quite an INCREDIBLE Broad-wing day! Our final count of 8,387 is a new fourth highest single day record in the history of Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch! An awesome morning liftoff was followed by a steady flow of Broad-wings down the west side of the gap for over an hour totaling nearly 4,000. Lots of low kettles, many close by, offering great views! A few hours midday were slower but still entertaining and then things picked back up from 1-3pm with over 1,300 birds in those two hours. However it was not until after 4pm EST when we realized exactly how PHENOMENAL the day was going to end up being! From 4-5 we witnessed 2,115 Broad-wings migrating south fairly low in the sky, most directly overhead. It was that spectacular late afternoon flight that put us over the 8,300 mark for the day and one for the record books.

Enjoy the video below by David Small, a local secondary school teacher filmed today for his class.

August 20th, 2016

8/20/2016

Opening Day at the Hawk Watch

8/15/2016

I had an awesome day at Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch, my first day of many volunteering there this fall! A group of 5 Broad-winged Hawks and close views of Bald Eagle and Osprey were certainly highlights though this close in resident, non-migrating Red-tailed Hawk was quite a photo opp!

Mid-Season Mama

8/2/2016

August has arrived and the Black Cherry Trees in Shenandoah National Park are loaded with cherries which will be ripe within a week. The onset of cherry season always signals the middle of the season for me. Black Bears will feast on cherries for only a month before transitioning to acorns and hickory nuts which will comprise 80-90% of their diet from early September through the end of November. This evening I got to catch up with one of my favorite mama bears and her two cubs. They are looking fantastic and it was great to see them around the midway point of this season. I first saw this sow with her 2016 cubs in April and it has been very special to watch them grow up for the last 3.5 months. I hope I get to see them regularly all through the fall too.

Clean Up Your Food Please

7/22/2016

This is a three year old female Shenandoah National Park Black Bear that I've known since she was just a cub. She's a really good bear but unfortunately has gotten into trouble this year in one of the park's campgrounds. The park service is now trying to relocate her to a remote area in the park away from people....where she will have to compete with other bears for food and territory. She will be having her first litter of cubs next year and it is sad that she may not get to raise them in HER home..... I took this photo the other day while out in the park with our out-of-town friends. It was very nice of her to cooperate for us and every time I see her I realize it may be the last time that I see her in her home...
When in Bear Country PLEASE keep all your food and trash secured in a LOCKED vehicle with windows ALL THE WAY up (at least two bears, likely including this one, got into trouble this year in that campground because people left food in an unlocked vehicle. Bears can break into that!) to avoid creating more "Good Bears Gone Bad" like this one! Thank you!!

Kaufman Magic

7/20/2016

My parents and I had the honor of spending yesterday evening and today with our dear friends Kimberly and Kenn Kaufman as well as their wonderful 6 year old nephew Drew and 12 year old niece Macy here in Shenandoah National Park among our Black Bear friends. We had a very fun and special time and several bears cooperated! This morning Kim spotted this one, a two year old, climbing up a rocky hillside. Not a great photo by any means but a good memory of a wonderful week. Safe travels back home, friends!

from Kenn Kaufman, author of the Kaufman Field Guides
"The news can be depressing, but what keeps me feeling positive is the fact that birding and natural history pursuits give me a chance to interact with such outstanding young people. Kimberly and I (and our adventurous niece and nephew, Macy and Drew) just spent the last couple of days with our friend Gabriel Mapel, who, at the age of 17, already has phenomenal knowledge of the behavior of Black Bears. It was almost a supernatural experience to watch several bears with him and to hear his quiet commentary -- he knows these animals as individuals, and his understanding of the species is profound. We were also blessed to spend time with his parents, Mary Ivits Mapel and Daniel Mapel, who have supported Gabriel's research and who also have amazing knowledge of the bears and other wildlife. Gabriel and Mary and Daniel were also so kind and considerate to young Macy and Drew. This is the kind of experience that gives me faith in the potential goodness of humanity, despite what the daily headlines might suggest."

from my mama, Mary Mapel
"I sit quietly this morning reflecting on the past couple of days and the blessed time we had sharing our love for bears and wildlife with naturalists and authors Kenn and Kimberly Kaufman, and Macy and Drew, their niece and nephew.
When i was pregnant with Gabriel i used to love walking in the woods, quietly holding my belly and talking to my baby, and sharing my excitement about showing our beautiful wild world to him. The Earth has always been my home, the solitude of the woods, the ancient wisdom of the Redwoods, the calling of the mountains, the majesty of the oceanside, each in their own way healing, and giving me strength as i journey my way through life.
From his early days, Daniel and I would walk these special places with Gabriel and we have watched his wonder and curiosity about the stars, birds, deer, wolves, bears and all of wildlife blossom into this profound connection to nature that moves me so deeply and leaves me in awe as i witness them literally become friends, intimately knowing these wild ones as individual beings, each with a story of their own.
I feel such pride in my heart as I watch him share that connection with others, and see how his passion has burned a commitment in his heart to do all he can to protect and keep this planet safe for the four legged and winged ones that are family.
So these last few days it was nothing short of remarkable to see Gabriel walking in the woods with Kenn and Kim and being their guide as he shared his passion and knowledge of bears. I have such respect for Kenn and Kim for not only their vast knowledge of so many different aspects of nature, but also their passionate commitment to conservation and preservation of our natural world for future generations. So to see Gabriel walking alongside them as a peer, sharing and learning from each other, was truly remarkable. It leaves me feeling so very grateful and blessed to know that Gabriel has mentors who are there to support him in sharing his passion, and that his future is an ongoing mystery, unfolding in perfect time.
Kenn and Kim, thank you so much for sharing this sacred time with my boy in his woods, as well as sharing your time with Daniel and myself. I love the simple ease with which we shared our time, and treasure that our lives are blessed with your friendship. Have a safe journey home."

Black Cohosh Bear

7/17/2016

Yesterday in Shenandoah National Park, an adult female Black Bear that I know well posed for me next to Black Cohosh Wildflowers. I have known this particular bear for several years and have witnessed her raise several litters of cubs. I hadn't seen her for a few weeks so it was wonderful to find her yesterday. She is looking really good. A lot bears get to be pretty thin at this time of year but she is keeping a good amount of weight.

Apple Tree Cubbie

7/14/2016

I took my new to me, DSLR camera setup to Shenandoah National Park one afternoon last week and found a mama Black Bear and her two cubs feasting in a LARGE apple tree packed with apples. I ended up watching and photographing them for nearly two hours. They were very cooperative! This is my favorite shot from the outing.

The Cookie Possum

6/29/2016

Back in April I was staying with my bear watching friend Denise and her husband Rick's place for a couple nights. One evening we got home and Rick noticed that their motion-light out back went on. Denise and I went on to the deck to see if some wildlife set off the motion light and sure enough, we spotted this Opossum climbing up a tree! We noticed something in its mouth so got a flashlight .. and it was a nearly whole cookie in its mouth! Rick ended up telling us that he had tried a cookie and didn't like it, so threw it outside. Denise and I took turns holding the flashlight while the other one of us took photos.
We eventually went inside to let the possum eat his cookie. About 20 minutes later we saw him climbing down the tree, having consumed the cookie. It was a pretty cool experience photographing a possum for my first time! :)

A Course of Nature

6/27/2016

I had the honor of being interviewed by a local Charlottesville, VA news magazine and i thought i would share the article with you. Enjoy!

photographer, Êzé Amos C'ville Magazine

C'ville Family Magazine article by Susan Sorenson
During a visit to Shenandoah National Park when he was 9 years old, Gabriel Mapel saw a mother black bear with her three cubs, and “from that moment on, my life would fully revolve around nature,” says the now-16-year-old. Not only did the bears get him “hooked,” Mapel says they also turned him into an advocate, and he now makes it his mission to spread the message that black bears “are 99 percent of the time mellow, docile and more scared of you than you are of them—if you give them their space.”

A year later, Mapel noticed another mother bear with her cubs in one of the park’s seven picnic areas. On that day, he also met Rodney Cammauf, a Shenandoah National Park volunteer and a professional nature photographer, who had been documenting the four bears. Cammauf told Mapel that Gertrude (the name he’d given the mom) had gotten into some trouble thanks to a group of picnickers that left their food out when they went on a hike.
“Gertrude had gotten ahold of it,” Mapel recalls. And “when bears get human food, they become habituated and are considered nuisance animals by wildlife officials...generally they have to be relocated, which means they have their lives put at risk because they have to fight for new territory or be destroyed.” The thought of humans putting Gertrude in danger “saddened and angered” Mapel, but he says he also realized the picnickers didn’t know they’d done anything wrong. His solution? He wrote Oh No, Gertrude!, a children’s book that features Cammauf’s photographs.
Bears, however, aren’t Mapel’s only passion. Around the time he finished Oh No, Gertrude!, he fell in love with birding, and when his godmother asked him why he never birded with people his age, he said he didn’t know any other young birders. To remedy this, he co-founded the Blue Ridge Young Birders Club (blueridgeyoungbirders.org), which now has 30 members, ranging in age from 7 to 17.
“I enjoy mentoring the younger birders,” Mapel says, adding that he also leads field trips, supervises the monitoring of bluebird trails and participates in other bird-related projects such as the Audubon Christmas Bird Count and breeding bird surveys. And then there was that time in 2011 when Mapel, who is homeschooled, did a junior Big Year, during which he found 437 species of birds.

“I visited many of the birding hot spots throughout the country,” he says, including South Florida, the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, the Pacific Coast of California, the Lake Erie shore of Ohio and Alaska. Nowadays, Mapel spends much of his free time closer to home, volunteering for Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch and at Shenandoah National Park, as well as working as the field trip chairperson for the Monticello Bird Club. When asked about his dream job, Mapel says he’d like to be a Shenandoah National Park ranger.
“Nature is under-appreciated and, sadly, often abused,” he says. “I want to make a difference, and the best way to do that is to educate people and wake them up to how awesome nature is—and how it needs to be respected.”

When Gabriel Mapel and Rodney Cammauf decided to collaborate on the children’s book Oh No, Gertrude!, their goal was simple: “We wanted to help educate people about how to behave in bear country” and keep bears safe, says Mapel. The book, which was published in 2010 and features then-10-year-old Mapel’s words and Cammauf’s photography, tells the true story of Gertrude, a black bear who found herself in big trouble thanks to some clueless people.
When Mapel met Cammauf, he learned the photographer had been taking pictures of Gertrude and her cubs for a while, and had “captured [their] entire story through the lens of his camera,” Mapel says. Reaction to the pair’s book version of the bears’ Shenandoah National Park adventures “was more than anything we could have imagined in our wildest dreams,” he says, adding that Oh No, Gertrude! has sold more than 7,000 copies. It is available online and at several national parks, including Shenandoah, Great Smoky Mountains, Yellowstone and Big Bend.—S.S.

Mama Bear

6/15/2016

I generally do not heavily edit my photos but do often tweak them in iPhoto's editing tools. I decided to do a little extra retouching on this one and ended up liking this result.
This is a female Shenandoah National Park Black Bear that I photographed this morning. She had a single cub last year and I saw her mating with a large male last week. She is a wonderful Bear. Looking forward to seeing her with more cubs next year. She is beautiful! :)

Peek-a-Boo Cubbies

6/11/2016

I just got back from a wonderful 5 days in Shenandoah National Park and ended up seeing a lot of my Black Bear friends. Bear activity is very high in SNP country so far this year, so please be careful , drive slow, keep your distance and secure your food and trash!

Cub mortality seems higher this year than in previous years. More than half the moms that I have seen with cubs this year have lost at least one of their cubs. I first found these guys in late April and saw them several times in May. I saw them for my first time in June this week and sometime since Memorial Day Weekend they have lost their third sibling :(
I hope that these two survivors will live long, healthy lives...

Missing in Action

5/31/2016

These beautiful Bears, a mama and a single cub were some of my Bear Friends that I saw a lot in Shenandoah National Park last year and as late as mid-November. No sightings yet this year. I am hoping they turn up soon...

**June 2, 2016 Update** Well thanks everyone for the well wishes for these guys....I guess they worked....my friend Denise found them yesterday evening...mama and yearling, both looking great! I am very relieved....

Pissed Off Mama

5/26/2016

My Godmother Eve and I spent yesterday afternoon in Shenandoah National Park with our Bear Friends. This adult sow is now on her own.....for the next week or so. She has recently kicked out her yearlings so that she can prepare to mate again this June-July. She will court and mate with several boars and will have new cubs again next winter.
Eve and I were really ticked off with some......inappropriate tourists that got WAY too close to this beautiful Bear! Just because she doesn't have cubs with her right now by no means makes her a Bear you can just WALK. UP. TO! Bears are WILD animals and they all must be respected .... the rule is 50 yards in Shenandoah and many other national parks. Several people were 10 FEET away from her!!
Eve and I remained a good distance away but the 600mm zoom on my camera was able to get a good photo and captured this one as she...BLUFF CHARGED the idiots! Eve and I were happy to iwatch her defend herself against such clueless people. Of course they did what they shouldn't which was run (Rule #1: NEVER RUN FROM A BEAR!) but it was good to see that she hadn't lost all her fear of people and bluff charged, huffed and popped her jaws at them.
My dad and I head out tomorrow for a Memorial Weekend camping trip....I'll be volunteering in the park. Oh the adventures we'll have with the wildlife and the MANY tourists that will be coming to the park to celebrate the holiday weekend.

A Memorial

5/23/2016

I took this photo two years ago of a Shenandoah National Park Black Bear, female yearling. I had first met her the previous spring with her mother, sister and brother and I spent a lot of time with them over the course of that 12 months. The day I took this photo was one of the last times I saw the family intact before mom "booted" the yearlings a couple weeks later so that she could mate again and have new cubs.
This female remained in her natal territory for the following two years and I was able to watch her grow up. Females usually have their first cubs at either three or four years of age, so being three I was hopeful she would have cubs this year. When she was first sighted without cubs, I knew she would be having them next year instead.
Just a week later this precious being with a life ahead of her unfairly had her time here on Planet Earth end. A couple of weeks ago my friend and fellow SNP Bear Enthusiast/Advocate Denise found her dead on the side of Skyline Drive. She was hit by a car overnight and we can only assume it was a speeder.
She was a very special Bear and will be missed...... On the bright side, her sister did have cubs at three years old and is raising her first two cubbies this year! We can only hope that they live long, happy lives, and they will......if people PLEASE SLOW DOWN!
RIP...

Wildflower Bear

5/21/2016

I had a wonderful time camping with my mom in Shenandoah National Park earlier this week. We had ample opportunities to spend a lot of time with our Black Bear friends.

One afternoon we got lucky finding this two year old male in a patch of wildflowers (Wild Yarrow, I believe) in good lighting conditions. He was right along the side of the road so we pulled over and I got this shot right from the car. He is a handsome Bear!

Although this guy won't be mating for a few more years we are now entering the 2+ month period of Black Bear mating season in this area. 400 pound males are out and about marking their territory! If you will be in Bear country at this time of year, please remember to give those big boys room as they will defend their territory and mates.

The Biggest Week

5/16/2016

I'm with my mom at the Biggest Week In American Birding, and I'm wearing my Gold Cap! Oh My, It's been a fun BIG week!

Just back from The Biggest Week in American Birding festival in Northwest Ohio!! What an incredible week and a half leading trips, spending time with dear friends and making new ones, and seeing amazing birds (I picked up an UNEXPECTED life bird, Curlew Sandpiper, from Eurasia and my second ever Kirtland's Warbler, an endangered species!). Already can't wait for next year! Tomorrow I leave for six days volunteering and reuniting with my Bear Friends in the Shenandoah National Park with my friend for a few days and then my mom!

Gabriel Mapel

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