For millennia a variety of North American bird species used bison hair during nest construction but when the “buffalo” was brought to the brink of extinction by hunters in the late 1800’s that resource was essentially gone. Today there are relatively few places where bison hair is available to birds and Antelope Island is one of them.
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.
Two years ago Utah established the Mule Deer Protection Act which provided $500,000 to pay “hunters” $50 for every coyote they kill.
Two days ago I was able to spend enough time with these wild horses in the west desert of Utah to begin to get a feeling for their complex social life.
Yesterday we had an incredible morning with a herd of wild horses in the west desert of Utah.
It’s nice to see coyotes and other predators on Antelope Island hunting successfully for voles once again.
Coyotes really don’t like biting flies. In fact I believe I can safely say that they truly hate horse flies and deer flies in particular.
Three months ago I posted some shots of a coyote intrigued by its own reflection in the Great Salt Lake. I rejected one photo I liked because of what I thought was a metal wire that ruined the image. I should have paid more attention…
Life is far from a bowl of cherries for the Bison of Antelope Island and recently I’ve seen more evidence of that fact. Some of it is caused by natural behavior, some by unfortunate circumstance and some by the thoughtlessness and ignorance of humans.
Two days ago we found this coyote exploring along the Antelope Island causeway. We watched it gnaw on a duck or shorebird carcass (possibly falcon leftovers, based on past experience) and then it continued to look for something, almost anything, to eat. When it reached the end of a rocky spit jutting out into the Great Salt Lake it entertained us with some interesting behavior.
Many in the birding world don’t like Brown-headed Cowbirds much, for reasons that have been bandied about for years. But I have no problem with them, especially when one of them quite unexpectedly pops up into one of my images in a rather dramatic way.
One afternoon on our latest Montana trip we decided to do a little “sploring” (as we call it) and investigate some country new to us so we spent several hours cruising the back roads on the south side of the Centennial Mountains. We found a beautiful mountain valley very close to the continental divide that provided a variety of habitats but few birds.
But it did give me my best photographic opportunity ever with a Montana coyote.
