Sorry for the long delay between posts! I was feeling bad having given you so many consecutive bird posts and wanted to give you a break. Problem is.. to do that I have to find some topics that are … well, not more birds. That translates into finally digging into the backlog again and seeing what’s available. Figured the Yellowstone National Park trip back in 2013 was just the ticket. Technically, it was the ticket for a ton of posts, so the good news is I’m now set for all kinds of posts (Yellowstone trips have a habit of doing that). I should also mention I had an excellent opportunity to do some birding with my brother Ron over the weekend at Chain O’ Lakes. Let’s just say that day turned out awesome and looking forward to getting those processed. I’m likely to jump the queue a bit to keep those fresh. Eager to get those out, but right now, let’s enjoy today’s featured animal.
How cool is that! This is the first time I’ve ever encountered a Badger in the wild. If you recall I was able to witness one at Wildlife Prairie Park (link here and here), but that doesn’t really compare to the experience to seeing one out in it’s natural setting. I was actually scanning the fields looking for some birds (imagine that) while Linda was off taking pictures of a rather stunning sunset on a nearby pond – reminds me I need to check if she got around to processing those yet. For a better vantage point I was standing on a large boulder about 40 feet or so off the edge of the road scanning the field in hopes of seeing some ground birds (a serious hole in my birding life list). Unfortunately, not much was moving at all. Bummed I looked down to judge the jump off the rock when I noticed a rather large hole dug with some serious effort right next to the rock. Not sure how this escaped me when getting up there in the first place. Noting how thankful not to have broken a foot off in it, opted to exit on the other side only to find ANOTHER larger hole on that side as well. What the hell, I’ve walked directly into some devious rodent trap! Now curious, the fields were given a second viewing. That is when my eye caught this Badger meandering through the brush.
hit the jump to read the rest of the Badger post
I must say, this was a fine substitute for not finding any birds. Guessing the nerves were a little amped since only a few of the shots actually came out from 50+ that were taken. Oh well, that is what digital brings to the table. This dude or dudette – sorry, not exactly sure how to tell the two apart, was on a mission, moving from thicket to thicket, investigating each boulder and surveying the fields likely looking for its own supper. Eventually it ended up a little too close for comfort based completely on the fact I had no idea how fast these Badgers are (I checked in with our friends over at Wikipedia and the answer to that is 16-19 mph for short distances – not to shabby) and no idea what their disposition is to humans. The other posts pointed out the claws they possess and there was absolutely no desire to see them again absent of a protective barrier. Not to mention it eventually spotted The Beast pointed at it.
Yep, time to head back to the car – careful not to step in any of the holes that happened to be all over the place now that I was looking for them. An interesting story developed with likely this creature and a family of foxes we were able to shoot on a previous day. I’ll save that discussion for when that post comes out – ah, a little blog suspense!
That’s all I have for now – they are about to crown the Face Off winner so need to go take that in. Hope you enjoyed this break from the birds.
I’ve never seen any Badgers in the wild, either. This one looks awfully big. I suspect Badgers are pretty nasty all around, even to humans. One step in a hole and they’re probably all over you and Linda would never know where you disappeared to.
Chain O’ Lakes was great (except for when I failed to snap a picture of the Quail I flushed out), but feel free to delay posting any birds from that day while I inch up my bird count (by TEN from just that day). So tell us about that family of foxes!
Ron
Wow, caught me by surprise – not used to such immediate feedback on a post hehehe. I have heard the Honey Badger is particularly badass. I suspect Linda would get suspicious if she saw a large rodent walking around taking pictures with a 200-400 glass – question is whether she would stop taking the landscape pictures to bother to come help me out. I can hear her response now “Peter Lik would never pass up a perfect shot to go help some idiot who got too close to a badger!” I probably will not forget the expression on your face when that Quail took flight. It looked like a giant cannonball was shot at you … did you check to see if you got anything in a frame… even something like they infamous Turkey shot? I’ll get to the foxes soon enough – as you might have noticed I already worked up a +1 with the post from yesterday.
thanks for taking time to comment!
I forgot about the badass Honey Badger. Not sure I wanted to be reminded of that.
I responded to the blast out of the underbrush with perfect aplomb. However, I didn’t even get a shot off at the Quail at all because the CAMERA was not satisfied that the focus was perfectly locked in and refused to respond to my repeated shutter presses. Dumb camera. At least with the Wild Turkey it finally locked onto a tree trunk and responded to my frantic shutter presses, yielding a perfect shot of a tree trunk with a blob standing next to it.
I detect a certain amount of jealousy over a certain professional photographer. Wait ’til you make millions yourself with your bird pics and see who’s jealous of whom!
Ron
one word MANUAL in fact I’ll type it again MANUAL My camera shoots every single time I tell it to. Folks, I can verify, Ron did a great picture of a tree trunk with as succinctly stated … a blob next to it. It may even be worse than his Yellow-Rumped Warbler!
Jealous… nnnnnooooo – but word on the street he shops (just what I heard). Not that there is anything wrong with that if someone is willing to pay good money then I have no problems with people taking it. It is amazing just how much backlash he has been getting for that record setting sale. Seems like a lot of jealousy but in my opinion he just raised the value roof for ALL photographers. Those shots in your office… like $10 grand a piece now (ha)