Black Bear from last spring
Another car gets a licking
Columbian Ground Squirrel
The sacrifice made by Meadow Voles
Gathering food for the winter
Young Yellow-bellied Marmot
Going for a swim
Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel
Such a cute little thing
Love those big ears and big feet
Mule Deer at dusk
Moose portrait
A young male Moose
Enjoying seeds and sunshine
Wild and cute
Licking salt off its lips
Happy Easter!
Love a Pika's ears
Young bull Moose
Curious Mule Deer
Moose, with a bad case of ticks
Jack Rabbit turning from white to brown
Pika, up close
Life in the cemetery
Young Richardson's Ground Squirrel
Coyote in a field of dandelions
Having fun with its reflection
Moose in the late evening sun
Moose kneeling to lick salt from the road
Peace and late evening sun
Very young Mule deer
Least Chipmunk / Tamias minimus
Grizzly Bear with last year's cub
I'm hiding - she can't see me
Mule Deer, Mom and baby
Three out of four ain't bad
Yesterday's highlight : )
Busy little Muskrat
Happy little muncher
Looking back with a smile
Freeze!
A rare sighting
Hungry little Muskrat
Changing colour ready for the winter
Resting in the meadow
Mule Deer buck
Time to rest awhile
Should I stay or should I go?
Elegant innocence
Resting near the Cattails
Happy Thanksgiving!
Soaking up the sun
Pronghorn
Cute as always
Creature of the forest
Licking the salt
At the end of the day
One of five White-tailed Deer
Hoping for food
Sweet little poser
Red Squirrel
Moose cow looking for salt
Northern Pygmy-owl, one year ago
The face of innocence
Little nut and seed eater of the forest
Such a fun Moose
Mule Deer on the prairies
Mountain Sheep
Time for another Pika shot
Coyote relaxing in the sun
Gentle and curious
One sweet, curious female
Red Fox in a mountain location
Every creature has to eat
No equipment needed - just a tongue
Snowshoe Hare in hiding
A few of the 25 Mule Deer seen
Time to rest
Free car wash, anyone?
A solitary Moose cow
Nibble ... nibble ... nibble
Just in time
Male Moose are judged by the size of their antler…
Moose in a winter wonderland
Stocking up on food for the winter
The Bison Paddock, Waterton Lakes National Park, A…
Pika storing food for the winter in its cave
White-tailed doe in late fall
Talk about a lucky shot
Young North American Beaver
Just a small mouthful
Yellow-bellied Marmot
Living in a rocky world
Nibble, nibble, nibble
Chipmunk with Foxtail
Young Yellow-bellied Marmot
A youngster having fun
A mighty beast
Just for the record
Curious, for a brief second
On golden pond
A moment to ponder
Great dexterity
Supper time for a hungry young Beaver
Listening
Filling up on berries before winter
Young Beavers at play
Quick march
A change from Marmots
Irresistable
Checking us out
Yesterday's treat
Yellow-bellied Marmot gathering grasses
Sometimes, all you get is a silhouette
Bison Paddock, Waterton Lakes National Park
A closer look
Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel hoping for food
Cleaning the BBQ
A glance over the shoulder
If it looks close, it's because it was!
Time to relax
Yellow-bellied Marmots
Pika, busily feeding
Cautious mother of twins
Oh, so cute
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A moment of closeness
![A moment of closeness A moment of closeness](https://cdn.ipernity.com/200/84/90/37198490.49616e38.640.jpg?r2)
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I took quite a few photos of two of these beautiful little Pikas - enough shots to keep me from feeling like going through them all straight away to find a few that were OK to post. So, every now and then, I will dip into the file of photos from that day. When this little animal ran over towards us and froze for a few moments, it gave us a wonderful chance for close images.
On 19 August 2014, I was lucky enough to have the chance to try and photograph a couple of these absolutely adorable little creatures : ) After a while, I was beginning to despair of ever getting any decent shots at all. These tiny Pikas, also known as Rock Rabbits, hardly ever remain still and they are extremely fast! Imagine a mountain hillside covered in sharp, jagged rocks of all sizes and then try to picture how difficult it is to find in the viewfinder the single rock on which one of these Pikas might happen to sit for a second or two, lol! As time passed, I managed to take quite a few photos, though many needed to be deleted. A couple of times, this Pika came bounding over the rocks near to where we were standing and just sat there, long enough to get a few very close shots. They are about 15 to 23 centimetres (5.9 to 9.1 in) in body length, so really are pretty small, especially when off in the distance.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pika
I found this excellent and amusing YouTube video, 3:30 minutes long, It is The American Pika in the BBC's Life of Mammals series.
youtu.be/Sifk9uphr2Q
The weather forecast was not good for that day, but we were so lucky that, apart from a few raindrops, the rain stayed away. The sun actually came out at two locations we stopped at for a short while. Our 18-hour day (from 6;00 a.m. till midnight!) started off with the thrill of seeing these Pikas and ended with a brief sighting of a black Wolf crossing the road ahead of us in the dark. It disappeared into the blackness, but shortly afterwards, we heard three (possibly four) separate Wolves howling way off in the distance. We just stood there, in total awe, listening to this amazing sound. The only wild Wolf I had ever seen before was when I was in Yellowstone National Park two years ago. Friends and I saw two Wolves feeding on a Bison carcass across a huge valley - so they were just distant specks, that became slightly larger specks when my camera was in full zoom.
In between these two highlights, we saw several Deer, a small group of Mountain Sheep on the road, a tiny Chipmunk, a few Cedar Waxwings, Columbian Ground Squirrels, a beautiful Red-tailed Hawk that sat on a branch out in the open for a long time, and two tiny Bats that flew very close over our heads when it was getting dark. We also saw an adult Spruce Grouse with two young ones.
Then, of course, there is the scenery! Blue sky to go with the splendour of the mountains would have been wonderful, but we had been having cold and gloomy weather for a while before this day out. Highway 40 and the Smith-Dorrien/Spray Lakes Trail both run through such spectacular scenery, so it was a real treat for me, especially as I won't drive to those areas myself.
On 19 August 2014, I was lucky enough to have the chance to try and photograph a couple of these absolutely adorable little creatures : ) After a while, I was beginning to despair of ever getting any decent shots at all. These tiny Pikas, also known as Rock Rabbits, hardly ever remain still and they are extremely fast! Imagine a mountain hillside covered in sharp, jagged rocks of all sizes and then try to picture how difficult it is to find in the viewfinder the single rock on which one of these Pikas might happen to sit for a second or two, lol! As time passed, I managed to take quite a few photos, though many needed to be deleted. A couple of times, this Pika came bounding over the rocks near to where we were standing and just sat there, long enough to get a few very close shots. They are about 15 to 23 centimetres (5.9 to 9.1 in) in body length, so really are pretty small, especially when off in the distance.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pika
I found this excellent and amusing YouTube video, 3:30 minutes long, It is The American Pika in the BBC's Life of Mammals series.
youtu.be/Sifk9uphr2Q
The weather forecast was not good for that day, but we were so lucky that, apart from a few raindrops, the rain stayed away. The sun actually came out at two locations we stopped at for a short while. Our 18-hour day (from 6;00 a.m. till midnight!) started off with the thrill of seeing these Pikas and ended with a brief sighting of a black Wolf crossing the road ahead of us in the dark. It disappeared into the blackness, but shortly afterwards, we heard three (possibly four) separate Wolves howling way off in the distance. We just stood there, in total awe, listening to this amazing sound. The only wild Wolf I had ever seen before was when I was in Yellowstone National Park two years ago. Friends and I saw two Wolves feeding on a Bison carcass across a huge valley - so they were just distant specks, that became slightly larger specks when my camera was in full zoom.
In between these two highlights, we saw several Deer, a small group of Mountain Sheep on the road, a tiny Chipmunk, a few Cedar Waxwings, Columbian Ground Squirrels, a beautiful Red-tailed Hawk that sat on a branch out in the open for a long time, and two tiny Bats that flew very close over our heads when it was getting dark. We also saw an adult Spruce Grouse with two young ones.
Then, of course, there is the scenery! Blue sky to go with the splendour of the mountains would have been wonderful, but we had been having cold and gloomy weather for a while before this day out. Highway 40 and the Smith-Dorrien/Spray Lakes Trail both run through such spectacular scenery, so it was a real treat for me, especially as I won't drive to those areas myself.
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