Checking out the Baker Creek Marmots

Hello, yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaventris)! I was hoping this species, so I piled some kids in the van and we headed up the Baker Creek road. Even though it was an overcast afternoon, we easily found a marmot in the middle of the road.

He lifted his head to sniff, but then went back to digging his hole in the road.

We kept going closer in the vehicle, and eventually he decided he should depart. He waddled over a few feet to the side of the road. They can weigh up to 11 pounds, and this one has certainly been eating well. The most amazing thing (to me) is that marmots hibernate for eight months of the year. He's only been out a month or two and has already found enough greens, insects, and eggs to eat to pork him up.

They burrow in colonies, with a dominant male for the group. They live in the western U.S. and Canada.

Although some marmots whistle to warn each other of predators, I've never heard them whistle in Great Basin National Park.

They can live up to fifteen years, although the ones that dig holes in the road usually get hit by cars.

Marmots spend about 80% of their life in their burrow. Look at the dirt on this one's nose!

I did manage to photograph more than marmots. Here's a snow buttercup, one of the first flowers to appear after the snow melts.

I enticed the kids for a short walk. Just to the second bridge! Then the boys turned back.

But Desert Girl was ready for more, so we went on to the fifth bridge.

It started raining and even hailing. We enjoyed it.

It's so nice to be exploring further up the mountain! The snow is rapidly melting now.

Pronghorn Photo Shoot

 I was driving back from photographing birds at the lake and literally had my camera with the telephoto lens on my lap when some pronghorn were right next to the road. What an opportunity! So I stopped, rolled down my window, and started snapping away.

The pronghorn are such interesting animals, North America's fastest land mammals. (There are invertebrates that are apparently even faster.) They used to have several relatives, but they died out at the end of the Pleistocene due to warmer climates (roughly about 10,000 years ago).

The pronghorn were definitely keeping an eye on me, and they moved a little further away.

But there were still close enough I could see them pooping.

They often have a characteristic when they poop called SPUD--scratch, paw, urinate, defecate. If you see little cleared areas near some pellets, they were probably made by pronghorn.

Another cool thing about pronghorn is that they don't jump over fences, instead they go underneath them. And if you ever have one running alongside your vehicle, slow down. They often will make a 90 degree turn and run right in front of you.

I felt so lucky to get to spend some time with them. And in fact, my photos of them were probably the best photos of the day!

Oh, what eyelashes! About the only thing cuter are baby pronghorn, which are generally born the end of May.

You can learn more about pronghorns here.

2016 Centennial Bird BioBlitz at Great Basin National Park

 May 20-22, 2016 was the Centennial Bird BioBlitz at Great Basin National Park. Over the course of three days, 150 people gathered to learn about and help document the birds in the park. The BioBlitz started off Friday with an afternoon of workshops.

Joe Doucette from the Nevada Department of Wildlife brought Hedwig the owl. He was a big hit.

Later, Ranger Mark showed the audience how to whistle and make various bird songs. It was really cool. Every time I hear a nighthawk now, I think of his "Beans" imitation.

Past artists-in-residence for Great Basin National Park, Miki Herder and Kristin Gjerdset, attended and led bird illustration workshops.

About 35 school kids attended and did their best to draw an owl. Some of them had amazing drawings.

It wasn't all birds--we also had a talk about bird food, aka reptiles. The kids (and adults) loved seeing specimens up close.

The next morning there were nine different bird walks to choose from. I joined one near the visitor center. I didn't think we would see that much in the pinyon juniper.

Boy, was I wrong. We found 17 species, including this green-tailed towhee.

Then I joined a walk up South Fork Baker Creek. It was a much bigger crowd, as it started later in the day.

We saw beautiful scenery, but not quite as many birds. However, a goshawk flew over the group, so that was super exciting.

You can tell that people are into their hobby when their license plate reflects it!

The afternoon included more talks and demonstrations. Martin Tyner from Southwest Wildlife Foundation showed several birds, including this falcon

The golden eagle was really big.

The second bird illustration workshop was a little smaller, allowing each attendee to get some personalized attention.

The kids enjoyed drawing more.

On Sunday morning I joined another bird walk. As you can see by the clothing, it was a little cool.

I happened to be taking a photo of the group when a bird was spotted behind me. I couldn't resist snapping a photo of the birders!

I did photograph a few birds, like this mountain bluebird.

This Say's phoebe was taking some lunch to the nest.

The BioBlitz concluded with a lunch sponsored by the Great Basin National Park Foundation.

Following the lunch, we learned the preliminary results from Kelly Colegrove of Great Basin Bird Observatory. Over 70 species had been tallied, with data still needing to be entered.


Then it was time for some raffle prizes donated by the Western National Parks Association.

One last thing--a group photo! 

It was a very fun event, and now the park knows more about what birds live or visit there in May.

A Little After School Exploration

 The kids are almost done with school, which means we'll have time for lengthier adventures soon! Right now we have to be content with shorter ones, so after school we went to explore this gully. It has lots of side canyons that are lots of fun. I told the kids to watch out for snakes, and we happened upon this nice gopher snake. I really like these snakes, they eat lots of rodents.

The canyon walls are very crumbly, but they also contain some pretty cool patterns.

It was cloudy, and at one point the sun emerged to light up the mountain tops. They are still covered with snow, so it made them glow.

On our return wander, we saw this eared grebe. It dove under the water a couple times and disappeared, then would pop back up.

Down the way we saw a brown blob on the shore. Upon closer inspection, we found it was a muskrat.

It took to the water when we got a little too close.

Next we went down the road a little ways to a place where we found lots of arches. This was a tiny one, about the size of the nearby globemallow.

The distant Wheeler and Jeff Davis Peaks looked rugged from our vantage point.

Desert Boy climbed up to explore an opening.

Desert Girl was busy taking photos on the other side of another arch.

We had fun taking photos.

Desert Girl wants to enter photos in this year's County Fair, so she's getting an early start!