Al Larson Photography

I often find a rodent nest in a nestbox I’ve set up for Bluebirds. In most cases these critters scamper away when I open the box for observation. This time I found a mother mouse with four suckling infants firmly attached to her teats. When she made her get-a-way the youngsters were still attached being dragged along like a cluster of grapes. I was reminded of some marsupials where the newly born babies climb into the mother’s pouch for further developement. Possums carry young on their back clinging to the parent with their prehensile tail.

This family was photographed in Owyhee county near Jordan Valley, OR. I am wondering as to the species of this animal?

I just had to share this photo with you. It is a Northern Flying Squirrel.

Every once in a while one of these little critters decides to use one of my nest boxes for its home. They pack in fine grasses and other vegetation until they have enough to cover themselves. They burrow into this ball of vegetation, to give birth and nurse their young to fledging.

Notice the large bulbous eyes. Eyes like this indicate the critter is nocturnal. This explains why we seldom see them. Most of their activity is at night.

These little guys seem to be everywhere in the wild. They may be found in forests, deserts and farm lands. They have found my bird feeders and sometimes there are as many as a dozen of them gleaning the seeds that have fallen to the ground. They get quite tame at their feeding areas. It is not unusual to find a nest of them in a box I’ve set out for bluebirds.  

Like all rodents they are predators.  One revolting sight I witnessed was a chipmunk dining on a hummingbird. I assume that the bird was caught while it was still in its nightly torpor.

There are probably many species of them but they essentially all look the same. They are small little critters with a body perhaps three and a half inches long and a fuzzy looking tail. The striped cheeks and back are the main identification features.

Here is another shot from the Kitchen Window. Oh, how I enjoy eating my breakfast with scenes like this in front of me! Cottontails seldom make themselves visible here at the ranch. I took this picture several years ago in the dead of winter. Some of our excess Christmas decorations (pyracantha) were placed in the snow beside the woodshed and adds a bit of color. Each year after Christmas I set our tree outside near the feeders. Just press the trunk into the snow and it will stand and stay green until the spring melt. This gives the birds added protection from marauding predators.

Our house makes a wonderful blind. Here is a scene from the bedroom window this forenoon. It had a pardner in the field across the creek.  This guy wandered slowly around stopping, watching and listening. I never saw it pounce on any prey. There are plenty of gophers around here and this hunter is welcome to help himself.

Imagine my surprise this morning when I glanced out the kitchen window and saw this little guy. It was making itself at home near the area where I feed birds. It seemed to be interested in the nearby Steller’s Jay and juncos but never made a pass at any of them while I was watching. The white coat of the ermine is the winter dress for weasels. Weasels sometime raid my bluebird boxes during nesting season, kill and eat adult birds, nestlings and eggs. “All around the chicken coop the monkey chased the weasel.”

Here is a night photo, shot in my backyard. The spotlight highlights the bridge, oak tree and the ornamental windmill. No filters were used. The warm sepia hue is probably due to the incandescent  spotlight. If you look closely you will see animal tracks all through the new fallen snow. Several elk had been carousing around the yard a short time earlier.

This is one of a dozen or more chipmunks present in our yard. This seems to have been a good year for the little guys. Everywhere I go on the ranch they scurry out of my way. There are so many of them that they have almost become pests. I call them “little ratlets.”

I shouldn’t blame them for the numbers in my yard , however, since I feed birds and food is available for them. Rodents have a trait of gathering, and cache food for later use. The problem is they haul off the food before the birds have had their fill. OH WELL, they’re cute little guys and provide us with a lot of entertainment.

Those ears are what gave mule deer their name. It’s no wonder we don’t see these critters more often. They hear us coming and seek a place of concealment. Look closely and you can see the spots on this fawn.

Checking my “bluebird trails” on a regular basis gets me out in the country often. It seems that there is always something of interest to view if you keep your eyes open. A glance out of the car window produced this spectacular view. Bitterbrush and sagebrush amid mounds of ancient lava near the village of Prairie proved to be a perfect setting for this male mule deer. The rack of velvet-covered antlers may still grow a little since this photo was taken on July 3rd. After posing a short while he scampered away a short distance and hid behind a small pine tree.  There are cabins and ranch buildings throughout the area so the wild animals are used to seeing humans. This guy didn’t seem to be too concerned about our presence until he realized this photographer was lingering too long.