leslie_s's Favorites

The graduated tail feathers make it look a bit like COHA, but some SSHA don’t have the classic squared rectrices. This bird was literally Merlin sized, and initially mistaken for such when it flew in, partially obscured. Not even close to the size of the daintiest male COHA . Head/bill/eye proportions are also in line with SSHA.

This ferret popped out of a hole that the prairie dog seemed to be trying to cover up. The two animals seemed to be aware of each other, but they did not interact. Eventually the prairie dog wandered off.

When I take photographs I concentrate on getting the subject in the frame, focus, light, and frame speed. Often when I get home and look at my photos on the monitor I see something very obvious that I did not see when taking the photo. This is a great example of that. When shooting this fox as it ran down the Lefthand Canyon Drive I saw something in its mouth and thought it was a small mammal. Now I can see it is 3 hot dogs! This means that either this fox has figured out how to hunt and capture hot dogs in the wild, or someone near Lefthand Canyon Drive and Lee Hill Drive is feeding foxes.

Two bullsnakes. One held the other’s head in a firm bite. They moved off the trail together while generally remaining as shown. I can find mention of wrestling (two males) and males ‘nipping’ the back of female’s head (mating), but no mention of behavior associated with a fixed bite.

not sure whether Cooper's or Sharp-shinned. seemed small, but my size estimation skills of birds in the sky is rather poor. this is right by where i've seen a confirmed sharp-shinned, but i'm not sure if this is the same bird.

Still dont know why it happened but while out birding this Sharpie landed on my head! Scared me at first and then amazingly it let me take selfies with it! Had no idea what it was until I started taking pics I was expecting a magpie not a hawk!