Golden-mantled ground squirrels often mistaken for chipmunks
Scampering among a rock pile on a high-alpine ridge, the golden-mantled ground squirrel stops to survey its surroundings from the highest rock. At first glance,…
Tag: Animal Diet
Toad warts not contagious, just toxic
Movement in the garden soil caught my eye as I was preparing to plant seeds. Larger than the spiders, grasshoppers and other insects I had…
Killdeer protect eggs by faking injury
The loud piercing “kill-dee” or “dee-dee-dee” call of the aptly named killdeer alerts all to the presence of predators or a disturbance. The noisy vocal…
Wandering painted turtles seeking place to lay eggs
Western painted turtles typically don’t wander far from their pond unless it is time to lay eggs. Finding two turtles on the West Side Road…
Crab spiders ambush prey
Stopping to smell a wildflower–particularly a yellow or white one–may bring you eye-to-eye with a crab spider. Perched motionless with legs outstretched like a miniature…
Busy as a bee no understatement
From the moment they pupate into an adult until they die, honeybees are constantly working. Truthfully, it is the females who work constantly. Three types…
Crane flies look like big mosquitoes
Mosquito eaters, skeeter eaters and mosquito hawks are a few names for the gangly crane fly that looks like an over-sized mosquito. However, these names…
We’re not the only ones looking for shed antlers
As I walk through the woods, I spot one–not a spring wildflower, grizzly bear or ruby-crowned kinglet, but an antler. I feel like I won…
Red-winged blackbirds: Only males true to their name
A bird true to its name is the red-winged blackbird. The descriptive name of the red-winged blackbird only applies to the male though. The female…
Who-Whoo is that calling in the dark?
A deep whoo, whoo, whoo-whooo, whooo-whooo resonates across the field as evening quickly fades away. The three to eight loud, deep hoots come from…
Room to roam: Home range fluctuates with food supply
Fences, stakes and lines on a map define my property from my neighbors’s property. Animal’s have property lines too but they define them differently. Some…
Masked bandit commonly strikes at night
Small, five-toed tracks in the snow that are suggestive of miniature bear tracks amble away from an empty dog food dish outside a door–the masked…
Toad warts not contagious, just toxic
Movement in the garden soil caught my eye as I was preparing to plant seeds. Larger than the spiders, grasshoppers and other insects I had…
Killdeer protect eggs by faking injury
The loud piercing “kill-dee” or “dee-dee-dee” call of the aptly named killdeer alerts all to the presence of predators or a disturbance. The noisy vocal…
Wandering painted turtles seeking place to lay eggs
Western painted turtles typically don’t wander far from their pond unless it is time to lay eggs. Finding two turtles on the West Side Road…
Crab spiders ambush prey
Stopping to smell a wildflower–particularly a yellow or white one–may bring you eye-to-eye with a crab spider. Perched motionless with legs outstretched like a miniature…
Busy as a bee no understatement
From the moment they pupate into an adult until they die, honeybees are constantly working. Truthfully, it is the females who work constantly. Three types…
Crane flies look like big mosquitoes
Mosquito eaters, skeeter eaters and mosquito hawks are a few names for the gangly crane fly that looks like an over-sized mosquito. However, these names…
We’re not the only ones looking for shed antlers
As I walk through the woods, I spot one–not a spring wildflower, grizzly bear or ruby-crowned kinglet, but an antler. I feel like I won…
Red-winged blackbirds: Only males true to their name
A bird true to its name is the red-winged blackbird. The descriptive name of the red-winged blackbird only applies to the male though. The female…
Who-Whoo is that calling in the dark?
A deep whoo, whoo, whoo-whooo, whooo-whooo resonates across the field as evening quickly fades away. The three to eight loud, deep hoots come from…
Room to roam: Home range fluctuates with food supply
Fences, stakes and lines on a map define my property from my neighbors’s property. Animal’s have property lines too but they define them differently. Some…
Masked bandit commonly strikes at night
Small, five-toed tracks in the snow that are suggestive of miniature bear tracks amble away from an empty dog food dish outside a door–the masked…