Friday, July 08, 2011

Spying a Woodchuck

Glover Woodchuck (Marmota monax)-3.jpg

I am risking a pile of irate comments about the evils of woodchucks here. They steal from hard worked gardens, they cause livestock in pastures to break legs. They probably do other bad things, too. But I love them. They are cute. We were driving back from Glover when Eagle-eyed John spied this woodchuck in a Barton River meadow. It was just a size of a leaf to me, but John knew what it was. We stopped and made a bit of noise, John whistled a woodchuck whistle a couple of times, and I got the shots. The critter was still too far away for good shots, but we got his attention.

Glover Woodchuck (Marmota monax)-4.jpg

Glover Woodchuck (Marmota monax)-1.jpg

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6 comments:

  1. I'm in the mountains this weekend, and this morning as my husband and I took a walk, we saw several of these. At least I think that's what they must have been! (I wish I'd taken my camera on our walk.)

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  2. Alison: Every time I fail to take my camera, something good shows up. We used to have woodchucks living under the barn. It was so much fun when the babies poked out their tiny heads in the spring! But they have all moved on. Thank you for visiting!

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  3. Hi, Mary! I wish I had J's eyes and then I'd see a lot more. But he's my seeing eye person. Thank goodness! I'm glad you stopped in.

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  4. I haven't gotten a good photo, but I've seen a regular on a piece of lawn near some big buildings near me, on my walk to Broadway.

    And then last week, after a funeral a few miles north of the city, we were chatting in the parking lot and a huge one ambled across the lawn above our cars... That's more woodchuck than I usually see in this region in a whole season.

    Jonathan

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  5. Hi, JD! They do pop up in the oddest places. I think maybe they are like raccoons and skunks: they can coexist with humans and become sort of urban. You have to carry that camera all the time! I'm glad you stopped by.

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