Up there on the hillside we saw a few other critters that were fun to play with when the marmots weren’t out. One of the more common folks to be out are the Arctic Ground Squirrels. These little guys, like all squirrels are just goofy to watch. I mean the name says it all, they do funny things. This particular one had a burrow just south of the marmot burrow and would occasionally come out and watch us as we were photographing the marmots. But if we did anything wrong, like move, the alarms would go up and everyone on the slope would know. Nervous little buggers.
A rather interesting species that would frequent our rock pile was the Wheateater which is a Trans Siberian bird. These guys lay their eggs and hatch kids here in North America and then fly back across the sea. That’s one very long trip for a conception. They too are characters as this one patrols the top of the rock ledge back and forth. Fun to see and even better to photograph as it’s a new one for my files. Who else will we see i wonder?
Images captured with D3, 600f4, TC-14e, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film