Black Tailed Prairie Dog

Up and down the Prairie Hole

admin Blog, The Teasers

It must be April, i know this cause i find myself yet again traveling down I-90 towards a small but fun Prairie Dog town. It always amazed me that this town was saved. It’s scrunched between farm land and a highway, one of the smallest state parks one would think of and yet it persists. Wasn’t sure if it was even worth going to with the thunder storm in Bozeman. I know, why didn’t i stay and shoot the storm? No vantage point i could find, and the storm blew east. Well these little guys always crack me up. You step out of your car and they start squeaking. I starting working with one and noticed six kids over on another mound, i had to go try them out. Nope… They ducked down faster than i could blink. This one was the only curious little guy. Like the gopher from Caddyshack, what is it plotting? Where is Carl? Anyways, the clouds rolled in and the light left so i did likewise, another day i shall return.

Images captured with Nikon D3, AF-S 600f4, TC-14e, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

Old friends in a new town

admin Blog, Wildlife , ,

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Another day and another 5 am wake up call. I truly can’t complain because Dad does most of the driving and i really just sleep in the car. We headed to Mt. Rushmore one of those places you just have to go to at some point. For me it was my fifth or sixth time there. The other reason, the more important one, is that the Mountain Goats hang out on the rocks and forest area around the monument and we were hopeful that they would show up for us to photograph. They didn’t, kinda sucks, but on to more fun. In this case, Breakfast! Can’t complain with a warm meal in the morning. After a good meal is of course the best part going to a Prairie Dog town. These guys are a joy to photograph mostly because they have so many gestures to try and capture. You can’t help to smile while shooting them, potentially gonna go deaf from the alarm calls they make, but smiling.

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We continued down the road from the Prairie Dog Town and searched for the Big Boy Bison males that can be found in the grasslands of the area. We found them, wasn’t too hard they stick out. They sky unfortunately kinda sucked. The light was great a soft overcast kinda light but the clouds could have been better. Of course if the clouds were better than most loikely the light would have sucked making for another issue, so for the seneraio at the end of the lens barrel it was a afternoon. An interesting going from photographing critters that are 8lbs to critters that are 800lbs. Too much fun, unfortunately all good things most come to an end thus tomorrow is the last day of Base Camp and i can’t wait to see what’s gonna happen!

Images captures with D2Hs, 600f4, TC-14E, 70-300AF-S VR(Bison)on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

Prairie Dog Town

admin Blog, Wildlife

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Well it’s spring again and that means all those lovely little critters are coming out. One of the few critters that can be found not too far from Bozeman are these guys, the Black Tailed Prairie Dogs. It is a rather small state park right nest to the highway but it has a large number of Prairie dogs in it, which make for some fun. The trick with these guys is you have to wait to approach them. They talk to one another a lot and until they stop talking you can’t get close to them. Once they stop you can slowly move forward while watching them, if they go back to their burrows most likely cuz they saw you.

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Fortunately once they stop talking, they go back to eating and being cute which is really the point in photographing them is because of those cute antics that they do, like the wave. This particular youngster was quite cooperative as i inched my way closer and closer to him.

Images captures with D2Hs, 600f4, TC-14E, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

Good start to April

admin Blog, Wildlife

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Well what do you know, there happened to be a Black-tailed Prairie Dog town just down the road. In fact it was only an hour away and very busy. Of course it is the off season for the park but you are aloud to walk in. A rather large community of Prairie Dogs live in the park. Unfortunately part of it was closed off so I couldn’t get to far into the site. But that wasn’t a problem, the part that was open was enjoyable.

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