![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/long-tailed-weasel-0761-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"long-tailed-weasel-0761-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nMy extended weasel drought came to an end yesterday morning at Farmington Bay WMA. The photos aren’t stellar but I was sure happy to get this little guy in my viewfinder.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As usual for these hyperactive\u00a0and very small\u00a0mustelids\u00a0‘he’ was a damned tough subject. I spotted him crossing the road\u00a0in front of me while I was driving south.\u00a0When I found him again he\u00a0was on the east (left) side of the road and close to\u00a0Unit 1 so I was strongly\u00a0tempted to\u00a0drive straight into the\u00a0water to get decent light on him! But in the end I pulled up short of the water\u00a0and settled for strong sidelight. I’ve been stuck at\u00a0Farmington before and it isn’t any fun (thanks again to\u00a0Joe Ford for pulling me out).<\/p>\n
In the long grass he had to hop from place to place to get anywhere\u00a0so he was impossible to follow with my lens while he was moving and always partially hidden when he wasn’t.<\/p>\n
When I first pulled up on him I was using my 500mm lens and I was too close for that much focal length so I switched to my much smaller zoom lens. This was the only relatively\u00a0sharp\u00a0shot I got with\u00a0the zoom\u00a0where I had any light in the eye.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/long-tailed-weasel-8238-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"long-tailed-weasel-8238-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
This is one of the first photos I took with my big lens. It’s a little tight but it gives us an intimate look at him. His front legs are wet, probably from dew, and I’m wondering if\u00a0those few white? hairs\u00a0we see on his forehead might be the very beginning of\u00a0their seasonal color change to white. Those white hairs almost make both images appear over sharpened (crinkly) but I don’t believe they are.<\/p>\n
This species turns white\u00a0for the winter (except for the tip of the tail which is always black)\u00a0and I’m slightly surprised he’s not at\u00a0least partially\u00a0piebald by now. Weasel color change is triggered by length of day rather than temperature so even with the warm weather pattern we’re in I wondered just a couple of days ago if they might be beginning to turn color by now.<\/p>\n
Apparently not, at least not to any\u00a0obvious\u00a0degree.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My extended weasel drought came to an end yesterday morning at Farmington Bay WMA.<\/p>\n