Angry Chipmunks

His day started out iffy. 

A mourning dove came in way too low. A bit unnerving, but he held his ground.

I'm shooting from the studio window, laughing already.

He'd barely gotten his pouches half filled with sunflower hearts and corn when a challenger with a ratty tail arrived and pounced on him. Aaack!!

And the Chipmunk Rumble began.

The two animals became a roiling ball of fur and fury

with brief pauses for breath.  Our hero is the redder, smaller animal on the right. Rattytail is the grayer one on the left. Note open-mouth breathing. This is hard work.

I noticed a disconcerting pattern to their combat, and that was that they seemed to be going for each other's underbelly, particularly the groin. What that's about, I don't want to know, but I would emphatically not want an angry chipmunk going at my groin. Even though it would take 600 chipmunks in a burlap sack to equal the weight of one Zick. Could still do a lot of damage down there.

 And I was already terrified to handle a chipmunk. My childhood friend, when we were both maybe 8, ignored my warning and picked up an injured chipmunk with her bare hands. I was glad it was her bare hands and not mine. I remember an impressive amount of blood and a quick attempt to drop it as it hung on like a pitbull. I never could tell her anything; she had to do it her way. I bet she's never picked up another chipmunk though.

Redman's got Rattytail down and is biting a particularly tender place. Yoww!! Chipmunks play dirty.
My friend Harma, who knows a lot about animals and anatomy, being a physical therapist and dog trainer, commented,   Groin=Femoral artery=death. You know a dog is a true fighter vs. making a lot of noise when it goes for the inside of the thigh. Them chiptymunks are fierce!

No kidding, Harma! Ever wonder what an angry chipmunk looks like? Look at the ear position, the narrowed eyes. Another micro-breather.

And they're at it again. Biting...what?? Each other's spines? Ow!! Good Lord!

Now it's mano a mano, nose to nose. It's gotten personal.

And amazingly, Rattytail has had enough, and heads for the hills. Our hero has vanquished the challenger!

He follows up with another drubbing, just to make sure Rattytail gets the message.

Yep, you're gittin' gone, son. Redman drives his point home.

Winded, looking decidedly worse for wear, with rough fur and nicks in his neat stripes, Redman goes back to foraging.

It's a good thing chipmunks aren't the size of coyotes. As my friend Al Batt says of chickadees...It's a good thing they aren't the size of hawks. We'd never go outside. 

Gull-billed Terns and Audubon's Caracaras!

Rio Costero Ranch, near Laguna Atascosa NWR in south Texas, offered us killer looks at a bird little-known to me: the gull-billed tern Geochelidon nilotica.  It gives the impression of a very slender-winged gull. The heavy bill enhances its gull-like appearance. It's distributed worldwide, from both coasts of North America, the east coast of South America to southern Europe, temperate Asia, and even Australia!

Oh what a beautiful and welcome sight. I drank it in and took many souvenirs.

These birds were eating the bug du jour: dragonflies. More specifically, large green darners, perhaps Anax junius? Not sure. But they were big, and there were a lot of them. Anax is a migrant, and it travels in large flocks. I would imagine that our Ohio darners have been in Texas for some time by now. 

The gull-billed terns were dipping down and snagging the darners in flight. Which has to be tricky. Dragonflies are wicked fast and can change direction in a nanosecond. I admired the aerobatic skill of these beautiful birds as they made their meal on darners. And delighted in seeing the prey, revealed by the lens. Which is a Canon 70-300 IS L telephoto on a Canon 7D body. Oh, just get yourself one. Click on the link. 

Glider wings, sweeping up.

Other birds came by in perfect light, like these young white ibises. Ibii? I love this shot. Such harmony of pose and purpose.

But my favorite shot of the day was an Audubon's caracara, flaring overhead. Ahhh. After awhile, your photographer's eye just knows when you've nailed it without even looking at the result. Strong morning light, blue sky, AV central dot focus, go. And you've got every darn feather delineated. Oh, I love my new rig. Hard to believe I'll have had it a year in February. It's had a workout!

This odd tropical raptor takes carrion, insects, eggs, snakes, lizards, rodents...small prey, anything it can subdue with its short toes and long legs. They often walk around and hunt, sort of Dinornis style. In fact they remind me very much of dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs flying just overhead.

Bill Thompson III and Al Batt, who had them rolling in the aisles Friday night, puzzle over a pair of white-tailed hawks. It was a good morning's birding at Rio Costero Ranch and the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival.

Slot Canyon Magic

Every now and then I think about my favorite days ever. A few stand out in memory, like the day I took Phoebe, 17 mo. old and just walking, in a bike trailer along the coastal trail in Monterey, California. I remember every detail, every sparkle on the water from that day.

The Slot Canyon Adventure on our Missouri River canoe trip in Montana certainly ranks up with the Monterey day. We'd camped under some cottonwoods, and got up the next morning to go into the most magical of canyons. As its name suggests, a slot canyon narrows down until it's a squeeze to get through, making for a whole lot of fun. That's a whole 'nother post, seeing Bill of the Birds through that canyon.

The view across the river included some sheer cliffs and a prairie falcon nest!
Bill of the Birds had brought his spotting scope along, and we watched the falcons tend their young.

A bull snake greeted us at the campsite. Liam spotted it first!


Our guide Nick caught the placid snake and relocated it a short distance away. Bull snakes climb after birds' nests, as rat snakes do back home in Ohio.

What a gorgeous creature. He looked like someone tried to make him a T. Rex for Halloween.

This canyon had it all. Gorgeous wildflowers with extraneous minutiae (Nick and Liam).


There's a rock wren in this picture. Take my word for it.


Gumbo lilies, a kind of primrose, spread their huge white flowers along the cliffsides and tops. I scrambled up to this one and confirmed my suspicion that it would have a heavenly fragrance! Barely any leaves, any plant at all--just a huge flower that looked like someone had dropped a Kleenex on the scree.

Rock pigeons nested along the canyon walls, filling the space with their eerie moans. It was as if the rock walls were breathing, weeping.


We took turns shooting pictures of each other in the great arch atop the canyon.


Here's Bill of the Birds, posing.


I don't know why we feel we have to stand, face the camera and smile, but we do, again and again, even though it makes for some pretty prosaic shots.
To me, the rock looked like a big camel, or a wonderful turkey.
Al Batt, humorist, writer, exemplary human being, was along on our trip, by the grace of Mountain Bluebird Trails and the Great Falls Chamber of Commerce. Such a gift they gave us, letting us experience Montana's Russell Country in this way. Al barely fit in the arch.

Back at camp, Al and Bill muttered about needing some yaller mustard for these here hot dogs hmmmmmm
I don't think there was a pop culture, music or movie reference that Al didn't get and fire right back, and they flew thick and fast. Not to mention his wide-ranging knowledge of natural history, and the obvious mutual affection between Al and our kids. What a wonderful traveling companion!

Oh, thank you, Russell Country. I hope my readers are inspired by this post to book their own trip on the Missouri.