NATURE CLICKS #498 - BLACK-TAILED PRAIRIE DOG

Black-tailed Prairie Dog, Sage Creek Valley, Badlands NP

There is no visit in the Badlands without reporting about one of the funniest critters on the planet, the Prairie Dogs. It seems like their populations has multiplied since we visited the park for the first time in 2005. Since a few years one of the prairie dog towns is right in Sage Creek Campground, the primitive but more remote campground of the two in the Badlands. The mounds are between the tents and their tunnel system can be right under your tent. The burrows help these little rodents to control their body temperature in winter and during summer. Members of a family group interact through oral contact or "kissing" and grooming one another. They do not perform these behaviors with prairie dogs from other family groups. [source: Wikipedia}

The key for a good picture is getting low to the ground. Shooting from the car is sometimes not low enough. Whenever possible I try to get at least one of the black-tipped tails in the picture, the feature that gave this species of ground squirrels its name.

All images: Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S

NATURE CLICKS #497 - BURROWING OWL

Burrowing Owl, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

I was writing recently about the bison in Badlands National Park here in the blog but other species have been on my radar as well. The Burrowing Owl is always among them, and I can tell you, it’s not a bird you may find easily. It is a small, long legged owl that is active during the day, while most other owls are nocturnal. They nest in underground burrows, and in Badlands National Park it is most of the time a den in a prairie dog town. It took us more than ten years to find this owl in the wild and after our first encounter in 2018 I was very happy to find two new, but different locations during my visit a week ago. An abundant burrow isn’t easy to spot among all the active dens populated by thousands of prairie dogs but as soon I see a bird flying somewhere low to the ground, I have the binoculars up. The Burrowing Owl feeds on larger arthropods, but also on birds and small mammals, like mice, small rabbits, ground squirrels, and others.

PRAIRIE DOGS, HIGHLY SOCIAL

Black-tailed Prairie Dogs, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Prairie Dogs don’t know anything about today’s need for social distancing, and who want’s to blame them?. In fact, they are a highly social animal, fun to watch, and a great subject for any wildlife photographer. I like to point this out, because it is an animal ideal to work with for any camera owner, who likes to go into wildlife photography.

Since I was the first time in the Badlands about fifteen years ago we have seen a great increase in numbers of the Black-tailed Prairie Dogs. During our 2020 trip through South and North Dakota, and as well eastern Montana, we have seen quite a few prairie dog towns and most of them seem to be good locations for observation and photography. However, the easiest place on the planet for photographing prairie dogs is right at Sage Creek Campground in Badlands National Park, South Dakota. Sit in your camping chair next to your tent, maybe have an adult beverage nearby, but most importantly have the camera on eye level with the critters. Their dens are below your tent and the entrance mounds are all around your location.

At a place like that I shoot a lot of pictures, but the ones that make it to public have to tell the story about location and the typical behavior of the animal. At least one of the prairie dogs is always on the watch for predators (here the one on the left) and when they come out of the den, it doesn’t take too long before they feed or interact with each other. I always like to have the feature in my photos that gives a particular animal its name. Hence the three black-tipped tails in this photo…

NATURE CLICKS #302 - BLACK-TAILED PRAIRIE DOG

In almost every area we visited during our trip in South and North Dakota we found Black-tailed Prairie Dogs. Prairie dogs are highly social critters and just watching them in their large colonies can be fun and entertainment for many hours. I shot a lot of pictures and can promise you this will not be my last post about them. They have a system of using body language and sounds to warn and inform each other about a possible predator or whatever is approaching their so called prairie dog towns. Many of our photos were taken from the ”mobile blind”, our car, and that seemed to work very well quite often.