Nature clicks #242 - Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel

 

What was the key for making this photo? Well, leave Cooper, our dog, in the car! If you don’t know what I’m talking about please read the blog post I wrote two days ago. Here is the link if you missed this one.

The Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel was out again today and it allowed me to get really close with my tripod and camera after a very slow and careful approach. Their original habitat was short grass prairies but these days they are mostly found wherever grass is mowed, like in this matter right beside the observation parking lot at the Dubuque airport.

This ground squirrel is especially active on warm days and this is why I was hoping to see it again today. In late summer the squirrel puts on a heavy layer of fat and stores some food in its burrow. They enter their nest in October, or even earlier, roll into a stiff ball, and decrease their respiration from 100-200 breath per minute to one breath about every five minutes. (source: Audubon Guide App., mammals). I think this is really amazing...

Guard of the hole

 

This was supposed to be a photo of a 13-lines Ground Squirrel but instead our dog Cooper took the center stage. We were at the observation parking lot at the airport again this evening. There is a burrow in the slope of the hill where I have photographed these little critters before. While waiting for an airplane to land one of the ground squirrels stuck its head out of the hole. The instinct of the Rat Terrier in Cooper (he is probably a mix of Rat Terrier and Blue Healer) took over and he started chasing the little squirrel immediately. The squirrel disappeared rapidly with a loud squeal. For the next forty-five minutes the dog guarded the hole with utmost attention but I guess the squirrel had better things to do than messing with Cooper… ;-)

2012 – Looking back, part 10

 

I have posted several times this fall about our visit in the Rocky Mountains. I still have images that haven't been shown in either of my galleries. Can't resist to show you the American Pika again today because I just watched a documentary about the effects the warming of the earth has on this little critter. It is not easy to get really close to the pika but this photo shows their natural habitat, the boulder-covered hillsides above 8,000 feet altitude.

The other animal is a Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel. It was on the watch, not far from the trail on a grassy hillside. It almost seemed to pose for us... ;-)

The background in the pika picture has natural lens blur that separates the animal from the background nicely. Not as good as with a fast and much more expensive f/2.8 or f/4 lens, but the Sigma 50-500 f/4-6.3 still delivers a decent result here. The grassy background in the squirrel picture was much more distracting and so I used a blur filter in Photoshop to improve the result in the upper part of the photo. Still not perfect but I believe it is a feasible solution to work around the limitations of this lens.

Nature clicks #47 - Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel

Nikon D200, Sigma 50-500 mm f/4.0-6.3, 420 mm (630 mm FX), 1/640s, f/6.3, -1 EV, ISO 200

There is probably no chance that we will ever see the Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel around our house. We live on top of a rocky ridge along the Little Maquoketa River near the Mississippi River Valley. These little ground squirrels live in burrows that are 4.5 - 6 m (15 - 20 feet) long and about 30 - 60 cm (1 -2 feet) deep. No way they can dig deep and long enough in the rocks here.

Nikon D200, Sigma 50-500 mm f/4.0-6.3, 420 mm (630 mm FX), 1/320s, f/6.3, -1 EV, ISO 100

I found them out in the open land and spent quite some time last weekend to watch these little critters and try to shoot some images. Their diet ranges from grass and weed seeds to caterpillars and grasshoppers, and even mice and bird flesh are on their menu (source: Field Guide to Mammals, National Audubon Society). This one here was chewing on dandelion blooms.

Nikon D200, Sigma 50-500 mm f/4.0-6.3, 420 mm (630 mm FX), 1/640s, f/6.3, -1 EV, ISO 200

The Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrels remind me a little bit of prairie dogs, because they often stand upright and survey the surrounding area for any sign of danger. Ones I came a little too close and the squirrel dived down into its burrow and warned the rest of the family with its bird-like trill.

These little critters are ideal to practice shooting with a long lens, like the SIGMA 50-500, f/4-6.3 DG HSM. I like the last image the best, not only because of the pose of the animal but mainly because how the ground squirrel  is separated from the background