Pine Martens, Snowshoe Hares, Sunsets, and Marmots
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We have had a suite of wildlife sightings recently, including a Yellow-bellied Marmot, a Pine Marten, and the Snowshoe Hare affectionately named “Dirty Harry”. We also had a wonderful sunset two nights ago. It was absolutely stunning. I have managed to get pictures of all of the wildlife and the sunset, providing a number of photos to post. We saw the marmot on a road near Camp Hale, the Snowshoe Hare at the cabin, and the Pine Marten at the cabin.
After a failed attempt to photograph the marmot while biking, we saw it exposed on this rock in the car and I managed to get some photos.
Marmots commonly emit a high-pitched hard chirp, which first alerted us to its presence.
On reviewing my photos, I noticed that you are actually able to see the marmot’s buck-teeth, most visible in this photo.
In this photo you can clearly see the Snowshoe Hare’s “snowshoes”: huge back feet that allow it to almost float on snow.
The hare was exceedingly calm around the house, even when we opened the window to allow me a clear photograph.
We saw the hare wash itself, and it frequently bent around to lick its fur, yet kept its front legs in place rather stiffly.
After seeing the hare several times we truly believe that the hair on the ears is getting browner, and losing its winter white.
This is the only photo of the Pine Marten that I spotted from the kitchen; it ran away soon after, and even though we sprinted down the road to look for it we were unsuccessful.
Even though no sun was visible, the clouds clearly put on an incredible display of color, with dark purple, pink, and orange.
Viewed through the trees, the sunset becomes even more incredible.
The soft purpley-red light was a perfect background to the branches of the trees.
In other areas of the trees, the light was brighter orange, and created another background for me to photograph.
Gram says:
Great composition on all the sunset shots and love your wildlife closeups w a special fondness for sweet “Dirty Harry”.
AEOC says:
Thanks! I am getting to be able to assemble a whole album of just pine needle sunset shots, and I hope you can see Dirty Harry sometime!🐇🐰