{"id":40129,"date":"2016-06-16T05:07:07","date_gmt":"2016-06-16T11:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=40129"},"modified":"2016-06-16T05:07:07","modified_gmt":"2016-06-16T11:07:07","slug":"a-few-mammals-from-my-recent-camping-trip-to-montana-and-idaho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/a-few-mammals-from-my-recent-camping-trip-to-montana-and-idaho\/","title":{"rendered":"A Few Mammals From My Recent Camping Trip To Montana And Idaho"},"content":{"rendered":"

Birds are always my focus but I enjoy photographing critters of all types. Early\u00a0this 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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"uinta<\/p>\n

1\/800, f\/8, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/strong><\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This Uinta Ground Squirrel was chattering at me from atop a lichen-covered boulder in Montana’s Centennial Valley. Those fearsome-looking incisors are a major reason why some large raptors pay a painful price when they attempt to prey on ground squirrels. In my experience most of them prefer smaller rodents such as voles, probably for that very reason.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"red<\/p>\n

1\/640, f\/5.6, ISO 1000, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

One cloudy evening I spent some time with three Red Fox kits playing near their den. I couldn’t get very close to them and when the sun was out the light angle was bad so my images of them aren’t very good but they were sure fun to watch through my lens.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"red<\/p>\n

1\/1000, f\/5.6, ISO 1250, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em><\/strong> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Their playful antics were usually hidden behind sagebrush but when they would become airborne they were sometimes more visible.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"badger<\/p>\n

1\/4000, f\/5, ISO 500, Canon 7D,<\/strong><\/em> Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 200mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I had a special bond with this female badger because of a physical feature I share with her. My family is known for their prominent “Dudley ears” (which many of\u00a0us wear proudly) but a head-on look at the\u00a0badger reveals that her ears have mine beat. The large ears of badgers have always surprised me a little because it’s a feature that seems a little unusual in a burrowing mammal. They must need them to listen intently as they dig out their ground squirrel prey.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"pronghorn<\/p>\n

1\/1250, f\/8, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, <\/strong><\/em>Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Early June is fawning season in the Centennial Valley and I had several opportunities with does with their youngsters. Twins seemed common but this one had no siblings that I was aware of.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"pronghorn<\/p>\n

1\/1250, f\/9, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, <\/strong><\/em>Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The fawn was showing its developing independence as it romped and played near its mother but after a few minutes it would always return to the doe, often to nurse.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"elk<\/p>\n

1\/1000, f\/8, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II, <\/strong><\/em>Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In the early mornings I’m always on the lookout to photograph elk as they jump the fences in order to return to the relative safety of the nearby mountains after spending the night grazing in the valley. I was disappointed that this one was back-lit but I think the image still demonstrates the grace and strength of such a large animal as it effortlessly clears the fence.<\/p>\n

There isn’t a single feather in this entire collection of images but I suspect many of my readers enjoy seeing wild mammals as much as I do.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[818,334,1601,2195,1493,1148],"tags":[819,555,1510,404,2032,2988,220,258,262,2198],"class_list":["post-40129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-badgers","category-birds","category-elk-mammals","category-ground-squirrels-gophers","category-montana-favorite-locations","category-red-foxes","tag-badger","tag-centennial-valley","tag-elk","tag-fawn","tag-idaho","tag-kits","tag-montana-2","tag-pronghorn","tag-red-fox","tag-uinta-ground-squirrel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/elk-7574-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-arf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}