Adult Yellow-bellied Marmot – Nikon D810, f10, 1/640, ISO 250, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
As a bird photographer I get very excited during spring migration because I start seeing birds I haven’t seen since fall and it is easy to get swept up in all that excitement but there are other signs of spring that I celebrate too like seeing the first forsythia in bloom, hearing spring peepers calling, the first violets blooming in the lawn and so much more.
I get excited to see and photograph my first Yellow-bellied Marmots of the years, sunning on rocks, scurrying along a hillside, nibbling on fresh spring grasses or calling out an alarm because a raptor is flying overhead. A few days ago I did hear and see a marmot on a hillside calling out when an immature Bald Eagle lifted off from a rock high on a mountain and flew over where the marmot had been keeping a lookout.
I haven’t yet been able to take any nice photos of the marmots I have seen this spring but I am delighted to see them again. I keep hoping to photograph a marmot in a snowy setting in early spring but so far that hasn’t happened and I doubt it will happen this spring.
I do miss seeing them from about September through March when they are hibernating in their burrows. These marmots are my furry, mammalian harbinger of spring and I am looking forward to photographing the adults and their pups this year.
Life is good.
Happy Easter.
Mia
Click here to see more of my Yellow-bellied Marmot photos plus facts and information about this species.
Just a super pic Mia. I don’t know much about marmots…but your photo and narrative was really interesting and enlightening. Thanks.
What an absolute cutie.
On the forsythia front? My partner’s sister (who is seriously winter averse) was watching and waiting for its blooms to tell her that spring was finally here. Her husband pruned it to within an inch of its life, and eliminated any prospect of flowering for the year. Family harmony took a hit.
EC, your story about your sister-in-law & how her husband trimmed back the forsythia to within an inch of its life reminded me of a story from when my boys were just little tykes and a gardenia bush.
We lived in North Carolina at the time and all winter long I was anxious for spring because there was a large gardenia just outside my kitchen door. I love the smell of gardenias and I could see loads of buds on the bush. I kept checking it and trying my best to be patient for the first bloom to open, I knew it wouldn’t be long.
Then one afternoon the boys rushed into the house with a shoe box and from the looks on their faces I could tell they were super excited to show me something and I was looking forward to seeing it. I thought they had caught a frog or a toad or something.
Then they opened the shoe box and to my dismay they had picked every single bud off the gardenia bush and presented them as a gift to me. Oh, it was so hard not to cry out “oh no, what did you do??” and to keep a smile on my face as I thanked them for their gift.
We were only in that house for less than a year so I never did get to see that gardenia bush actually bloom. But they were so proud of their gift to me.
That would have been heart-breaking. And even worse because unlike my partner’s sister you were totally unable to express your grief and rage. Your boys had obviously seen you watching the buds so it was indeed a generous gift. But…
Supposed to be curvy CUTIES..and was supposed to wish you Happpy Easter, but iPad had other ideas…NUTS!!!
These curvy curies are such solar sponges…they make sunbathing look so good!!! Especially when done on warm rocks!!
These curvy curies are such solar sponges…they make sunbathing look so good!!! Especially when done on warm rocks!!