Today we have photos from two regulars, showing animals in their backyards—that is, if you consider Stephen Barnard’s backyard to be a huge swatch of Idaho. Here are Stephen’s photos:
Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus):
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) I spooked while walking my d*g.
Trumpeter Swans (Cygnus buccinator) are gathering into flocks, preparing for migration.
Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon):
Common Raven (Corvus corax), unhappy with my company.
These Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) were having a furious battle in my back yard:
Nature: red in wing and claw:
And Diane MacPherson sent two common animals that we really should look at more closely:
Here are a couple of today’s animals. I finally get to see the chipmunk again (I think this is the one that lives in my back garden—and the one who destroyed my moon flower deciding to live there). A very cautious chipmunk today—I suspect there is some disorientation after such a long torpor.Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus) Awakes from Torpor in Spring:
Small birds also enjoyed the left out seeds intended mostly for the chippy. Here is a pensive house sparrow (Passer domesticus):
This chipmunk just looks so cute—all muddy and suspicious! It’s as if it’s thinking, “Be still. She won’t know I’ve just been taking those seeds and burying them.”
I can see the weather is breaking in Utah. Sunshine being required for Stephen’s sharp action shots. Great.
Love Diana’s chip mounkeh too. Curious ear lobes.
Stephen lives in Idaho.
Yes, I know. I must have statelexia.
I find chipmunks have weird noses. You notice when they sniff stuff.
Those red winged black birds are really going at it! They seem like little velociraptors.
I read somewhere that the red epaulettes are not so much to attract females, but for advertizing fitness to other males.
Epaulets work the same way in humans.
😎
Yeah, one guy is really taking a pounding!
Yeah, violent- will they go so far as to kill one another?
Those mule deer certainly don’t respect fences!
Thank you for all the photos, but especially for the red winged black birds which bring back memories from the part of my childhood spent in Idaho (New Plymouth) to be exact. Perhaps even then my sins were manifold!)
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All good pictures.
But I especially like the series of the Hawk. Very nice Stephen. Or should I be praising the Hawk for posing for you?
Nice, crisp photos of the Chippy, Diana.
Thanks. I was pretty close to him & I think he saw me. He very slowly clasped his little hands at one point.
Thanks for the nice photos today.
Spectacular hawk on the wing.
That muddy ‘munk is adorable.
Fabulous pics guys, all of them. So impressive.