Readers’ wildlife photos

April 12, 2019 • 7:30 am

Stephen Barnard is back with some general photos from Idaho. His IDs (such as they are!) are indented.

The American Mink (Neovison vison). It’s a sneaky, vicious little bastard. 🙂

Some recent photos from Aubrey Spring Ranch: Sandhill Cranes, Red-winged Blackbird, cow Moose with twin calves, Green-winged Teal, Brown Trout, and Downy Woodpecker.
The scientific binomials are left as an exercise for the reader. 🙂

 

28 thoughts on “Readers’ wildlife photos”

  1. “The American Mink (Neovison vison). It’s a sneaky, vicious little bastard”

    WHOA! Why all the hostility? I’m thinking someone here has an unpleasant history with minks

    1. It’s a joke. Jerry loves mallards, and the mink is one of the many predators that threaten ground-nesting birds.

      1. Phew! Was about to leap to the defence of predators doin’ what predators gotta do . . . 🙂

  2. Mr. Barnard’s photos continue to be amazing and I continue to be jealous of where he lives 🙂

  3. Mr. Barnard does Idaho proud! I’ve only visited his state a few times, but on each of those visits I was astounded at the proximity of stunning wildlife/wilderness to human excess.

      1. Besides, WA produces more potatoes than Idaho! The last time I was through, I paired the road trip with a read-aloud of Tim Egan’s The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt & the Fire that Saved America. Would highly recommend.

        1. WA is smarter. It touts itself as “The Evergreen State” even though most of it is brown. Only the coastal strip on the west side of the Cascade mountains is evergreen.

    2. Among people who don’t know anything else about Idaho it’s known for two things: potatoes and white supremacists.

    1. I have two ponds with some amazing trout — browns and rainbows up to 26″ (66 cm). That one was 21″ (53 cm), and about at the limit of what I can hold with one hand for a decent photo. The streams are closed to fishing until late May during rainbow spawning season, but fishing stillwater is permitted.

      I’m a big Apple fan and customer since the original Mac, but I won’t use a watch that I have to charge up every night.

    1. That American mink seems to have an unusually light coat. Most of them are very rich, dark brown, almost black under some light conditions.

  14. Always a treat to visit S. Barnards Idaho. I have a question: discounting hunting, is the moose we see here subject to predation?

    1. Wolves are known to prey on moose, and it’s a pretty brutal affair, requiring a pack. But the wolves around here stay up in the mountains except for an occasional lone one. There are plenty of coyotes and mountain lions, but I doubt they’d tackle a moose. Maybe a young calf.

      1. Thanks Stephen for the reply. That is a fair few animals to look out for that could do one some damage. The landscape shots will never be the same… lol.

  15. Mustelids are all ‘sneaky vicious little bastards’ which could be formulated as ‘fearless, courageous little warriors’
    They often take on prey way out of their league. Weasels and Stoats are reputed to take on and kill even herons, although I saw a video where the stoat came second best and a heron’s meal.

  16. And two of the largest -still small- mustelids, Wolverines and Honey badgers (ratels) are reputed to be the most ‘badass’, courageous and persistent predators on this planet.
    Honeybadgers do not just take on cobras and puffadders, they even take on leopards and lions, albeit sometimes – but far from always- with deadly results (for the ratel).

  17. Your work never disappoints, Stephen.

    All the contributors to RWP bring much brightness to my day. Thanks to all of you, I often learn something new.

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