Yellow-bellied Marmot raspberryYellow-bellied Marmot raspberry – Nikon D300, f8, 1/640, ISO 640, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light

While processing some of the images I had taken this past summer to register with the U.S. Copyright Office I happened to come across a series of Yellow-belied Marmot photos I had taken in June while on a camping/photography trip to Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Montana. The Yellow-bellied Marmot was very close to the edge of the road so I took a few full body images but there were out of focus grasses in the foreground that obscured some of the fur on the belly of the marmot. Looking at this file closer I saw the marmot’s tongue sticking out so I cropped this file a bit more than I would normally to have a portrait of this furry critter. I know the marmot wasn’t giving us the raspberry but it sure looks like it was.

The Yellow-bellied Marmots are already in their burrows for the winter but with any luck I will see more this coming spring.

Mia