Young Uinta Ground Squirrel in spring grasses – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/2000, ISO 640, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
Yesterday I practically danced in my desk chair because I saw my Facebook friend Margaret Sloan who lives high up in the Wasatch Mountains post the first photos of Uinta Ground Squirrels that I have seen this year. Seeing her photo of the Uinta Ground Squirrel got me excited because I adore the squirrels and enjoy taking photos of them.
Uinta Ground Squirrels spend much of their lives under ground and they start to emerge about this time of the year. The males emerge from their winter burrows first, the females and young emerge later.
Margaret’s Uinta Ground Squirrel image shows the squirrel standing upright in the snow and I drooled over her photo. Why? Because I have never photographed these squirrels in the snow and now I feel a sense of urgency to go up where the squirrels are to do just that before the warmth of spring melts all the snow.
I have taken thousands of photos of Uinta Ground Squirrels in green grasses, on rocks, climbing stumps, at their burrows, and in sagebrush but not a single image of them in the snow.
I need to get up into the mountains. Soon!
Life is good.
Mia
Click here to view more of my Uinta Ground Squirrel photos plus facts and information about this species.
Hope you’ll soon find some of these charmers in your viewfinder! Oh, that face! 💕
Woo Hoo. And happy dances.
I bet they are out on the sunny sides of the hills. How’s your Jeep in slush and mud?
A cute little guy, indeed. Thanks for the photo.
Probably big pests but look very cute from here.