Long-tailed Weasel at a burrow,Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, UtahA Long-tailed Weasel at a burrow – Nikon D810, f6.3, 1/2000, ISO 640, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

Life is hard for birds and animals around the globe and in my small patch of the planet too. Three days ago while photographing at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge I came across a Long-tailed Weasel and had hope to get some high quality images of it but it stayed on the road for the most part which didn’t give me nice, natural backgrounds. I liked this image of the weasel at a burrow in the gravel road though.

Portrait of an injured Long-tailed Weasel, something had injured its nose. Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in Box Elder County, UtahPortrait of the injured Long-tailed Weasel – Nikon D810, f6.3, 1/2500, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

And this one of the Long-tailed Weasel at the side of the road that shows its face, dark eyes and cute rounded ears but it also shows that the weasel appears to be injured on the left of its nose. The fleshy part of the nose just does not look right.

Close up of the Long-tailed Weasel's facial injury. Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in Box Elder County, UtahClose up of the Long-tailed Weasel’s facial injury – Nikon D810, f6.3, 1/1600, ISO 640, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

I only had a few long-distance, poor quality images of the weasel where I could crop in 100% to show the injury and in this close up I can see a healed gash to the left of the weasel’s nose along with being able to see some of its teeth. Long-tailed Weasels are extremely aggressive even with their own kind and it is likely that this weasel got into a fight with another weasel and lived to walk away. I have photographed a weasel carrying another dead weasel and I suspect the one killed the other.

Life is hard even if you are a weasel but I suspect that even with this injury the weasel will do just fine.

Snowy Egret with rope around its legA Snowy Egret with rope around its leg – Nikon D810, f6.3, 1/4000, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

While I was heading east on the south side of the auto tour loop I also photographed a Snowy Egret with rope entangled around its left leg. Fortunately the rope hasn’t yet constricted the leg and caused it to swell below the rope and the egret can fly which would make it very difficult to capture it and remove the rope at this point and the egret looks healthy. My concern at this point is if the rope gets entangled on vegetation, a stump or other object that the egret could possibly starve to death.

For me one of these images is harder to view than the others because in the first three the injury is naturally caused but the image of the Snowy Egret makes me cringe because its problem is purely man made.

Mia

Click here to see more of my Long-tailed Weasel photos plus facts and information about this species. Click here to see more of my Snowy Egret photos plus facts and information about this species.