Category: Badgers
Badger Preying On Some Of Its Close Relatives – Long-tailed Weasels
A Previously Unknown Badger Behavior
An American Badger here in Utah buried an entire cow carcass and they have it on “video” – (really time lapse photography, speeded up). It’s only a calf but it’s still hugely impressive and the behavior was previously unknown.
Up Close And Eye Level To A Badger
There’s something quite intimidating about being this close and eye level to a badger. Especially the “eye level” part.
A Few Mammals From My Recent Camping Trip To Montana And Idaho
Birds are always my focus but I enjoy photographing critters of all types. Early this month I spent a week camping near the Continental Divide between Montana and Idaho and during that time I was able to photograph a variety of mammals, large and small.
Burrowing Owls And Badger Holes
I’ve been aware for years that these owls sometimes take over badger holes but it’s something I’ve never been able to document without question until this week.
A Badger And Weasel Confrontation On Antelope Island
Yesterday morning we were witness to a tense drama involving a badger and Long-tailed Weasels on Antelope Island. American badgers feed primarily on rodents (ground squirrels, pocket gophers, rats, mice and voles) which they often capture by digging out their burrows – the digging skills of badgers are legendary.
But on this day a close relative was on the menu.
Miscellaneous Montana Moments
This post is a potpourri of photos from last week’s Montana trip. I’ll include shots of mammals and scenery so there will be no common theme that runs through all the images other than the trip itself. Travelogues are not my forte and some of these images aren’t of the highest quality but they illustrate some interesting behaviors that I wanted to share.
A Badger At Eye Level
We just returned a couple of hours ago from an 8 day photo/camping trip in western Montana so this will be a short post since I’m all tuckered out and still have lots to do to catch up on the backlog that built up while I was gone – aggravated by the fact that my laptop Wi-Fi died during the trip. Frustration! 1/1250, f/9, ISO 500, 500 f/4 Yesterday evening we were photographing a family of Swainson’s Hawks while parked next to a small hill. The hill was right next to my truck and the top of it was just about eye level. Suddenly a badger poked its head up out of the grasses, sage and rabbitbrush on top of the hill to check us out. He/she seemed just as curious about us as we were about it. 1/800, f/13, ISO 500, 500 f/4 The extremely low angle made it impossible to get the whole critter in the image but I really liked the eye-level portraits I was able to get anyway. For this shot the badger raised itself slightly and I lifted my lens as high as possible from inside the truck to get as much of the lower body in the image as I could. This was one of our most photographically successful trips to Montana and I hope to post quite a few images (raptors in particular) from our journey in the near future. Ron
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Badger Preying On Some Of Its Close Relatives – Long-tailed Weasels
A Previously Unknown Badger Behavior
An American Badger here in Utah buried an entire cow carcass and they have it on “video” – (really time lapse photography, speeded up). It’s only a calf but it’s still hugely impressive and the behavior was previously unknown.
Up Close And Eye Level To A Badger
There’s something quite intimidating about being this close and eye level to a badger. Especially the “eye level” part.
A Few Mammals From My Recent Camping Trip To Montana And Idaho
Birds are always my focus but I enjoy photographing critters of all types. Early this month I spent a week camping near the Continental Divide between Montana and Idaho and during that time I was able to photograph a variety of mammals, large and small.
Burrowing Owls And Badger Holes
I’ve been aware for years that these owls sometimes take over badger holes but it’s something I’ve never been able to document without question until this week.
A Badger And Weasel Confrontation On Antelope Island
Yesterday morning we were witness to a tense drama involving a badger and Long-tailed Weasels on Antelope Island. American badgers feed primarily on rodents (ground squirrels, pocket gophers, rats, mice and voles) which they often capture by digging out their burrows – the digging skills of badgers are legendary.
But on this day a close relative was on the menu.
Miscellaneous Montana Moments
This post is a potpourri of photos from last week’s Montana trip. I’ll include shots of mammals and scenery so there will be no common theme that runs through all the images other than the trip itself. Travelogues are not my forte and some of these images aren’t of the highest quality but they illustrate some interesting behaviors that I wanted to share.
A Badger At Eye Level
We just returned a couple of hours ago from an 8 day photo/camping trip in western Montana so this will be a short post since I’m all tuckered out and still have lots to do to catch up on the backlog that built up while I was gone – aggravated by the fact that my laptop Wi-Fi died during the trip. Frustration! 1/1250, f/9, ISO 500, 500 f/4 Yesterday evening we were photographing a family of Swainson’s Hawks while parked next to a small hill. The hill was right next to my truck and the top of it was just about eye level. Suddenly a badger poked its head up out of the grasses, sage and rabbitbrush on top of the hill to check us out. He/she seemed just as curious about us as we were about it. 1/800, f/13, ISO 500, 500 f/4 The extremely low angle made it impossible to get the whole critter in the image but I really liked the eye-level portraits I was able to get anyway. For this shot the badger raised itself slightly and I lifted my lens as high as possible from inside the truck to get as much of the lower body in the image as I could. This was one of our most photographically successful trips to Montana and I hope to post quite a few images (raptors in particular) from our journey in the near future. Ron