Shared Moment: Chill Cat

An unexpected sighting leads to a magical moment.

Photograph by Peter Brannon
PhotoZone
Feb 01, 2020

SOMETIMES MAGICAL MOMENTS happen when least expected. That was true one November evening as Peter Brannon headed back to his car after what had been a fruitless day of nature photography in central Florida’s Circle B Bar Reserve. “It had been slim pickings for photos,” he recalls, “then all of a sudden I saw this young bobcat snuggled in the nook of a live oak, which was covered in Spanish moss.” Quick to focus his lens, Brannon photographed the cat until the sun went down.

“It was very chill, almost like it was waking up for a night of hunting,” he says. Eventually, momma arrived, climbed the tree, and the two descended together and wandered off into the marshland. “It was a remarkable thing to see,” says Brannon, who normally photographs birds. “Here was this beautiful bobcat in a storybook setting.” The image now hangs in his office, a reminder of nature’s magic.