This spring I've been able to enjoy photographing a family of muskrats that live in a creek in the Wasatch Mountains and I expect I will also see them at least part way through the summer as well.
Last week while I was up in the Wasatch Mountains photographing birds I had a Least Chipmunk pop into my view while it ate a serviceberry.
I had a spectacular morning yesterday high up in the Wasatch Mountains and among the highlights of the day was a herd of cow Elk moving down a hillside just before 9 o'clock.
Last week I was able to photograph Weidemeyer's Admiral butterflies up in the Wasatch Mountains on two consecutive days and the butterflies had me all aflutter.
I'm always happy to photograph "other things with wings" when I am out in the field so last week when I spotted my first of year Monarch butterfly I had to take a few photos of it.
I'd forgotten about this Painted Lady butterfly I photographed in August of 2017 that I found while photographing hummingbirds on Antelope Island State Park.
Seeing the baby ground squirrels brought a smile to my face and I must admit that my heart skipped a beat. I really think that they are adorable.
Early this month I was able to create this golden background by having leafless willows that line the creek below the road behind the Uinta Ground Squirrel when I photographed it.
This Least Chipmunk was climbing in the shrubs and foraging on unopened flower buds when its right eye caught my eyes.
The first time I raised my lens yesterday morning in the Wasatch Mountains it was for three Elk I spotted on a hillside.
Two days ago I photographed something I had never seen or documented when I stopped to take photos of a Uinta Ground Squirrel and it started eating a big, fat earthworm.
This Least Chipmunk was running along the rails of an old wooden fence and when it stopped for a rest on a fence post I was ready.
I have taken thousands of images of Yellow-bellied Marmots where the marmots have been closer but very few of them that include as much habitat as this photo does.
Three days ago I saw and photographed my first of the year Yellow-bellied Marmot in East Canyon of the Wasatch Mountains.
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 enjoyed being able to take portraits of this Pronghorn buck in nice light as he nibbled on the leaves of the sagebrush that dots the island.
I photographed this Least Chipmunk last summer high up in a mountain canyon where it appeared to be sniffing the lichens that covered the top of a wooden fence post.
Even when I don't have any birds to view or photograph I am always looking for other subjects and yesterday my "other" subject was a turtle sunning itself on a log at one of my local ponds.
A soft blue sky, a juniper and a Rock Squirrel made me pretty happy two days ago because I don't have these squirrels in my viewfinder nearly as often as I'd like to.
The Long-tailed Weasel stood up, looked around and then made a mad dash back to the west side of the road before I lost sight of it in the vegetation.
Yesterday I photographed a muskrat I found eating green filamentous algae at Farmington Bay WMA which I thought was interesting because I had never seen one eating algae before.
Over the past week I have seen, felt and heard several signs of autumn in the high country of the Wasatch Mountains to as low as the Salt Lake Valley.
The Least Chipmunks had been chasing each other around on a low leafless shrub and then this happened, the tail of the upper chipmunk rested on the head of the other chippie for exactly two frames.
If I hadn't been looking for birds I wouldn't have spotted this coyote searching for prey yesterday near a creek in a canyon which made it my best subject of the day.
Last year I saw an abundance of Great Spangled Fritillary butterflies in the Wasatch Mountains, it seemed that I could easily spot them flitting about or nectaring on thistles but this year I noticed that these and the numbers of other species of butterflies are way down in numbers
I was excited to have been able to take a decent image of an American Mink when I found this one in the Wasatch Mountains yesterday morning.
In mid August I was attempting to get close up photos of a Rock Squirrel that was actively feeding on serviceberries in the Wasatch Mountains and two things happened that ruined my chances for better images.
I spent a few moments watching and photographing a Least Chipmunk yesterday in the Wasatch Mountains and tried to savor every second I had with it.
I had fun yesterday photographing a few chipmunks up in the Wasatch Mountains including this chippy performing acrobatics while trying to get to thistle seeds.
I researched Utah's grasshoppers and found out that this is a Two-striped Grasshopper (Melanoplus bivittatus) and even though I may have seen this species of grasshopper before it is a photographic lifer for me.