Found a new little buddy out there in the desert. Based on the best available data, I’m calling this a Common side-blotched lizard.
One last dance with the Milky Way before it disappears from our skies until next summer. From last night’s campsite on Owyhee Reservoir.
Nutria were introduced in the early 1900s as a potential food source.
I was taking a photo of junior ROUS here, and I didn’t notice mom until she tackled junior into the canal. I just happened to be mashing the shutter button the whole time.
Adult ravens will steal the eggs from off the nests and they have been known to kill Sage grouse chicks to feed to their young ravens.
We have Corvus corax or common raven in Oregon. We were tracking her movements to help us understand raven predation on Sage grouse.
Not sure I’ve ever seen a better prompt than Corvids who have seen some shit, but this lady Raven from NE Oregon definitely has. We helped outfit her with a GPS backpack so we could monitor her movements in Sage grouse country. Had to put it on twice. She’s got some stories to tell.
My youngest kiddo is heading to Peru this week, and I’m trying to stuff her head so full of Peruvian bird descriptions so she can tell me exactly what she saw. No more of these “Dad, I saw a cool bird yesterday and thought of you” kinds of trips.
Once my body adapted to tea, the whole experience was really easy. Of course, I’m Ukrainian, and when I was last in Ukraine, we’d drink black tea at 10 pm and I’d still fall asleep by midnight.