On Patrol



On Safari
On Patrol
by Steven T. Callan, SEPTEMBER 5, 2018



With camera in hand, Kathy and I have spent much of the last thirty years enjoying nature and searching for wildlife wherever we could find it. We’ve meandered through mountains, marshes, and meadows in seven states; we’ve trekked across deserts in California, Arizona, and Nevada; we’ve kayaked with great whales in Monterey Bay; and we’ve dived to the depths of...
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Saving a Place for Wildlife
On Patrol
by Steven T. Callan, MARCH 3, 2018



Late in November 1959, I was an eleven-year-old boy riding in the back seat of our family car as my father drove us north of Sacramento for the first time. I remember looking out the window and marveling at flocks of flying waterfowl and a vast landscape of wetlands, rice fields, grain fields, and open space -- all the way...
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Our Deer Friends
On Patrol
by Steven T. Callan, DECEMBER 1, 2017



During the thirty-plus years Kathy and I have lived in the foothills east of Redding, we’ve been treated to occasional visits from black-tailed deer. They generally don’t stay long -- a day or two -- then they move on. Sometimes they’ll pay us a visit at night while we’re sleeping. The next morning, a trail of partially eaten plants tells...
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Tiny Fish and Gentle Giants
On Patrol
by Steven T. Callan, SEPTEMBER 9, 2017

Monterey Bay

My wife, Kathy, and I are in Pacific Grove this week. While we’re here, I’d like to share one of my favorite outdoor columns, about a once-in-a-lifetime wildlife encounter we had here in September 2015. This piece was originally posted as my October 12, 2015 “On Patrol” column in My Outdoor Buddy. It was early September when Kathy and I arrived...
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Revisiting the Eastern Sierra
On Patrol
by Steven T. Callan, JULY 7, 2017



My first opportunity to visit California’s magnificent Eastern Sierra came in late April 1975, while I was a young Fish and Game warden stationed on the Colorado River. During the next three and a half years, I was sent to the Eastern Sierra six more times. My assignments included working the opening weekend of trout season at Crowley Lake, the...
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Stakeout at Battle Creek
On Patrol
by Steven T. Callan, JUNE 16, 2017



This is an excerpt from “Stakeout at Battle Creek,” a chapter in my recently released sequel, The Game Warden’s Son. I’m sometimes asked if I had any favorite places to work during my twenty-one years supervising the warden force in western Shasta County. Lower Battle Creek immediately comes to mind—from the mouth, where Battle Creek flows into the Sacramento River, to...
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