Watch wild Lake Natoma video: Eagles, rattlesnakes mating dance, a ‘pet’ coyote
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Retired photographer Carl Wilson films eagles, owls and goslings around Lake Natoma area.
- Wilson filmed rattlesnake mating dance on north side; calm coyote near his home.
- Veteran spends 3–5 days weekly filming wildlife around local parks and Nimbus basin.
Sacramento County resident Carl Wilson set out with his camera Sunday and Monday above Lake Natoma when he spotted bald eagles working the shoreline, capturing close-up video of the raptors in action on the lake’s north side.
More wildlife footage followed on Tuesday, along the north side of Lake Natoma, as Wilson roamed the area by electric bike — a routine he says now takes up much of his retirement.
Among the most striking of his recent clips: male rattlesnakes performing a combat dance for dominance just off the bike trail on the north side of the lake.
Lake Natoma is a reservoir and recreation area about 15 miles east of downtown Sacramento.
Wilson recorded video Sunday of a coyote that appeared unusually calm, walking alongside him “like it’s my pet dog,” he said in a text message to The Sacramento Bee. That encounter happened near his home on the south side of the American River.
Downstream near Nimbus Dam, Wilson filmed “little yellow” baby geese below the dam near the fish ladder. He also documented a pair of owls — including footage shot from far across the river — at a nest tucked into a hole on a cliff. Wilson said he plans to shoot more videos showing the owlet as it grows and becomes more active at the nest.
Before his wildlife work, Wilson built a career behind the lens in a very different setting: motorsports. He started his own business in 2007 traveling race circuits up and down California, filming dirt and track motorcycle racing, go-karts and sprint cars. By 2010, he said, knee problems forced him to stop shooting video regularly, and he shifted to photography for race families — capturing portraits and images of trailers and newly built cars and motorcycles before they ever hit the track.
A U.S. Army veteran, Wilson served with the 82nd Airborne Division out of Fort Bragg in North Carolina, stationed alongside special forces units. With his parents’ permission, he enlisted at 17 in 1977 and served eight years, leaving the military in 1984.
Now, he spends three to five days a week photographing and filming wildlife, sometimes for a few hours at dawn or dusk and occasionally all day.
His favorite local stretches include areas around Cordova Park and the Ancil Hoffman Golf Course, as well as Lake Natoma and Folsom. Recently, he’s focused much of his time around the Nimbus Dam basin near the fish hatchery and spillway — an easy ride from home that, he said, can pay off with “pretty nice stuff” when the light and wildlife cooperate.
This story was originally published March 31, 2026 at 2:10 PM.
