{"id":89146,"date":"2020-09-02T05:25:37","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T11:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=89146"},"modified":"2020-09-02T12:19:24","modified_gmt":"2020-09-02T18:19:24","slug":"least-chipmunk-being-cuter-than-usual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/02\/least-chipmunk-being-cuter-than-usual\/","title":{"rendered":"Least Chipmunk Being Cuter Than Usual"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the first time I’ve ever found two separate optical illusions in the same photo.<\/p>\n

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Yesterday morning began with a shiver. After so many weeks with valley temps at or near 100\u00b0 and lows near 80\u00b0 it was only 37\u00b0 when I arrived at my first shooting destination in the mountains. In a short-sleeved shirt I wasn’t prepared to be shooting in the cold with my windows down so I was pretty uncomfortable for the\u00a0 first hour or so.<\/p>\n

Things went mostly downhill from there. Lady Luck had abandoned me so I missed several excellent opportunities because of obstructing vegetation, bad timing or not seeing the bird in time. More about that at the end of this post.<\/p>\n

But a cute little Least Chipmunk saved my bacon.<\/p>\n

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I’m only including this first shot because of how it deceived me, twice. I’m so used to seeing chipmunks with their tails stuck almost straight up in the air when I first looked at this photo just for a moment I thought ‘his’ tail was that thick branch seeming to emanate from his rear end and pointing upward. Then my visual confusion got worse.<\/p>\n

Next time I looked the chipmunk’s right rear foot seemed to be part of the same branch instead of belonging to the rodent. In fact, even when I study it carefully that foot still seems to be part of the branch and anchoring it to the larger, nearly horizontal branch below it.<\/p>\n

I dunno, maybe I’m easily amused after such a frustrating morning but that foot still<\/em> looks like it belongs to the tree..<\/p>\n

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Anyway, a different crop of the same photo reveals where his tail really is.<\/p>\n

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He’d been scurrying around on that branch for quite a while when he appeared to take a little rest by laying down for a few moments. He never closed his eyes so he wasn’t taking a quick cat nap but he definitely seemed to be relaxing.<\/p>\n

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And then the stretching began. First his right foot…<\/p>\n

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and then his left. But this was only the beginning.<\/p>\n

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In a slow, languid stretch he raised that foot higher…<\/p>\n

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and higher until…<\/p>\n

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he couldn’t get another millimeter out of that stretch. I actually have several more photos in the stretching series but I’ve left them out for fear of redundancy.<\/p>\n

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The stretch is no big deal of course but it amused me after such a frustrating morning. My biggest ‘miss’ of the morning was a bird that landed in the same thicket of branches where I photographed the chipmunk.<\/p>\n

It was a bird later confirmed as a Veery<\/a><\/span><\/span>, a species rare in Utah and one I’ve never even seen before. I’d estimate that it was on the branch for less than 3 seconds and when I tried to focus on it there was a branch in front of the bird that prevented my autofocus from locking on so I didn’t press the shutter button. And then it was gone.<\/p>\n

If I had a do-over I’d press my shutter button anyway. I’d much rather have a soft shot of a rare bird than no shot at all. But birds, being sticklers like they are, don’t allow do-overs.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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Notes:<\/em><\/p>\n