My What Big Feet You Have

Apparently I crossed some kind of red line in the sand from some of my loyal readers. It appears having the audacity to have 8 … count them … 8 posts on the topic of birding is enough to bring out the claws! It is quite surprising that these people are able to be so verbose in their email angst having to tap away on the keyboard with those pointy talons. So kudos to being able to pull that off, but now my email provider is sending me warnings that I’ve exceeded my quota and threatening to down me faster than a Twinkie 10 feet from Michael Moore. I even tried to defend myself with the argument that one of the posts was technically just a book report that happened to have some birds on the cover – nope, no appeasing the spurned. Well, we cannot have an unhappy fan base so in an attempt to rectify my wrongs I bring you ….

Hare taken at Rocky Mountain National Park in May 2014

Hoping this cute and cuddly bunny will put everyone in a better mood.  This little doe was taken at a trail head in the Rocky Mountain National Park back in May of 2014. (let’s go with “doe” this time because in truth I have absolutely no clue at this point and none of my shots reveal any clues – probably for the best).  We had just come off a trail with a healthy collection of snow covering it.  The Rocky Mountain May is a lot colder than our Midwest Mays – a lesson learned the first time we went out to Yellowstone at a similar point in the year – burrrrrr.  On the return I spotted a Junco hanging out on a fence post and hopped over there to get some shots in the tin.  Based on the number of shots I took of that Junco, the birding on the trail must not have been that good.   After wearing out my shutter finger I headed back to the vehicle to warm up (guessing this was also at the encouragement of Linda who was likely getting frustrated at my long attention to a single bird).  On the way back, this cute fur ball caught my attention hanging out in a small opening under a tree.

Hit the jump to see a few more shots of this bundle of fur and find out why it is so intriguing to me.

Hare taken at Rocky Mountain National Park in May 2014

At first look something seemed a bit different than all the other bunnies I’ve amassed over the years.  Definitely a different color tone to it and the fur seemed interspersed with longer hairs vs the more uniform patterns that usually come with my other sightings.  Guessing deliberately, but this doe was not about to give me a good shooting angle putting herself in front of anything that would grab the Beast’s focus.  At the time I didn’t think much of it and took a couple of shots fulfilling my golden rule of shooting anything that moves (and now to coin my brother’s term … and let Google sort ’em out hehehe).  After a few minutes she decided this stupid human was not worth her time and headed back into the safety of the forest.  I did get a final shot that answered the burning question on what was different.

Hare taken at Rocky Mountain National Park in May 2014

Assuming you spotted the size of those feet!  Wow, was not expecting that and clearly the little detail that my subconscious had already picked up on.  This prompted a quick trip to the library to figure out what this was (and by library I mean Google).  From my hours and hours of research (not the first lie I have made in this blog), I’ve decided this is a Snowshoe Hare.  Yes, I am now kicking myself I was unable to get a crisp shot of this cutie.  At least I am able to add it to my Hare species list!  Check out my other bunny posts (link here, and here).

Now to start deleting some hate mail hehehe.

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5 comments on “My What Big Feet You Have

  1. SkidMarks71

    Wow… Nice shot! That’s one of the animals out here that we would love to see but never have.   Thanks for sharing!

  2. admin

    Hey Skids, how’s it going out there? I can’t believe you have not put one of these in your tin yet. Now that I know what to look for I hope to be more aware of them while out in the field – fingers crossed I’ll be able to get a better picture of one! Had any more trips out to Yellowstone lately? We need to get out there soon – missing me some wolves!

    Thanks for commenting – didn’t even know you were still reading my posts anymore.

  3. SkidMarks71

    Oh yes, I am still here and read every one. I just can’t add much to the bird posts – definitely not an expert like you and your brother are. “It’s a yellow bird… and there’s a white one!” is pushing it for my identification skills. Hehe 🙂

    We haven’t been out to Yellowstone since closing weekend 2016, but hoping to get out there sometime this year once things settle down a bit. I think our oldest would love it, and maybe the youngest would sleep while we drove. Of course, the opposite will probably happen with both just screaming from the back seat.

    Oh, and I do read most of your posts via Feedly / Nexgen Reader on Windows – not sure if that messes up your stats or page view counts.

  4. admin

    That would be a Yellow Warbler and possibly a Clark’s Nutcracker hehehe. I don’t look at my stats much so alternative reading mediums doesn’t bother me – more the merrier at this point! I can see the hits on my gallery sites since I link all the pictures from there so I can tell when people are at least loading my pages.

    Hmmmm maybe a good hit of cough syrup before taking your trip to Yellowstone (ha).

    Thanks for commenting!

  5. admin

    Hey, real quick, does your reader show you the whole story, or just the intro I keep on the front page?

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