Wednesday, September 29, 2010

September 29, 2010 Birding Last Mountain Lake area and Life and Death on the praires.

Spent a good part of the day birding Last Mountain Lake area. Overall lots of waterfowl and Sandhill Cranes and still a number of shorebirds, mainly Long-billed Dowitchers and a few American Avocet. The highlight of the outing was watching a long-tailed Weasel hunt down a Thirteen-lined Ground-Squirrel. This took place outside of the Last Mountain Lake headquarters. After having lunch we noticed a Long-tailed Weasel in the open checking an area where we saw a Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel eating. Check out the series of photos below.




















12 comments:

Nicole MacP said...

Wow, very interesting series of photos! Gotta say it tho... Poor squirrel! ;)

Anonymous said...

What a rare opportunity to both witness and document a successful hunt. Great photos Bruce! Adding 37 Whooping Cranes on top of that is just icing on the cake;)

Julie Zickefoose said...

Holy smokes! What an incredible sequence! How lucky to have this all pan out in open country where you could document it. This is every bit as thrilling as the Serengeti, just on a smaller scale. Well done!

NewtsMom said...

Amazing! Kudos to Julie Z. for pointing me in your direction:)

Endment said...

Right time - right place - great shots - thanks so much for sharing!

Mary said...

Julie Zickefoose sent me here to see this brilliant series of photos. Bravo!

Adam Jack said...

Absolutely amazing. Sad for the ground squirrel, but an amazing scene, and you captured it so well.

Anonymous said...

Fantastic series! Thanks for sharing!

Sara said...

Such interesting natural history and cool photos, I'm glad that Julie Z. pointed out your blog. Many thanks also for the posts on the wild, western Whooping Cranes. We don't hear much about the Aransas/Wood Buffalo flock during their months in Canada, so your pictures of a gathering for migration are really nice to see !

JB Wheatley said...

Yet another Zickefoosian. Great presence of mind to get such steady shots. Lots of folks would have "jerked the trigger." Thinking back, I have watched weasels chase E. Chipmunks--never seen a catch--I seem to recall they kept their tails straight up, which now looks like a pretty durn good idea.

Chris Bruce said...

What an amazing sequence of images! It sounds like you are having a great time out there in Saskatchewan. It's also nice to see and hear about your Whooper encounters.

Brandon Holden said...

WOW what an amazing set of photos!