Bobolink in the warm dawn sun. This morning I went to a remnant tallgrass prairie patch and found a small group of Bobolinks. Males have lost their bold black-and-white breeding plumage, and share the same warm brown plumage as the females now. Rather than post as simply the “photo of the day”, thought today we’d take it one step further to my first ever “Photo / Haiku of the day”.
A Prairie Rattlesnake, curled up in a weedy spot right next to the burrow of a prairie dog.
I had never seen a rattlesnake before until 4 years ago. I knew Prairie Rattlesnakes were found in much of South Dakota, but not in the eastern part of the state where I live. A fellow birder posted something that fall, about not only finding some nice birds on a prairie dog town (e.g., Sprague’s Pipits and Burrowing Owls), but also noted that after a cool fall night, there were rattlesnakes out sunning on that warm fall day.
Rattlesnakes! An 8-year old son! What better father-son bonding activity than going “rattlesnakin’!!” I am SUCH a good father! First actually, we went fishing in the morning on the Missouri River, below Oahe Dam by Pierre. However by noon, with a nice warm sun starting to heat things up, we grabbed lunch and headed for that same prairie dog town. It didn’t take long to find sunning rattlesnakes. They hang out in prairie dog burrows (presumably abandoned ones), coming out to sun during warm fall days. On one prairie dog mound were 4 rattlesnakes, 3 quite large ones, and one very small one that couldn’t have been more than 12 inches long. Great fun had by all! Photos! A son that, well…wasn’t quite enamored as I was in seeing poisonous snakes up close and personal.
Funny…my wife and sister also both gave me a bit of grief for PURPOSELY taking our son out to see poisonous snakes. Silly family…they don’t know good clean fun when they see it!
Another Prairie Rattlesnake, and this guy was a big boy. Probably the biggest I’ve seen.
I hadn’t been back out “rattlesnakin” again until this past week. No, I didn’t bring my son this time, but I did the same thing…fish during the cool morning hours, and then look for rattlesnakes as the sun warmed the ground at the prairie dog town. Rattlesnakes weren’t out in force like they were on that fall day of four years ago, but there were still a handful to be found, including probably the largest rattlesnake I’ve seen.
So, if you’re sitting at home on a warm fall day, wondering where to have some good clean family fun, don’t forget! Rattlesnakin’….a family activity you ALL can enjoy!!
A young white-tailed deer fawn. He clearly wanted mom, given how he kept looking around and bleating for her.
Ever since I got my first SLR camera 15 years ago, I’d say 98% of the photos I’ve taken have been of birds. When I go birding, as I did this afternoon, I have binoculars and camera in hand, and birds on my mind. On rare occasions, I’ll note some spectacular landscape and take a photo, but it has to be pretty spectacular! After all, if I want to shoot a landscape, I have to change lenses…WAY too much trouble for a bird photographer! One of the fringe benefits of going out birding though IS running into unexpected sights, be it a beautiful landscape or some creature that happens to cross your path. If I get a good opportunity to shoot an animal other than a bird, I will generally do it, unless it’s something really common. I usually don’t give a second thought to all the deer I run across, given how common they are. But today was something different.
As I turned on a gravel road, there on the side of the road in front of me was a tiny, spotted White-tailed Deer fawn. With all the deer I’ve seen, it’s not often I see young fawns, and I had absolutely no photos of them until today. When I turned the corner, he looked at me and gave a little bleat. I got the camera in hand, fully expecting him to run before I could get a photo, but…he just stood there, and gave another bleat. I took a number of photos while he looked around, occasionally bleating, but he didn’t move more than a few steps.
I’m sure he was calling for mom, but despite watching the little guy/gal for 15 minutes or so, I never saw the mother deer. He slowly meandered off into a grassy area before laying down, although I could still occasionally hear him bleating from his now hidden location.
It’s tough out there for a little guy! As I drove away I couldn’t help but feel a little worried about him, hoping his mom came back soon.
Lego bird kit! The perfect gift for mother’s day! Well, maybe if your wife is also a bird nut…
For Mother’s Day, my son and I went old school for my wife. We bought a very big outdoor flower/plant arrangement to put by the front door. I also bought a beef tenderloin (definitely not an every day item, given the cost!), which I’ll make for dinner.
Alas, now I see I made a mistake. The PERFECT Mother’s Day gift clearly is a lego kit where you can build your own Blue Jay, or Hummingbird, or Robin.
OK, maybe not. Something tells me that wouldn’t have gone over well, given that my (very wonderful!) wife doesn’t quite appreciate (or understand) my obsession with birds and bird photography.