Sorry for banging on about black-footed ferrets, but here’s a bit on why this trip was so special to me: Forty years ago the black-footed ferret was a bit more like the Loch Ness Monster than it is today. You couldn’t see it. The species was extinct, a vanished part of the vanishing prairie — [...]

As lovely as the Sage Grouse were, our trip had another primary mission — to see the amazing, highly endangered black-footed ferret. Here’s a little sketch of what it’s like out there searching for one of North America’s rarest mammals: She looks like a cross between a Loch Ness Monster/kitten hybrid — a blunt fuzzy [...]

Editor’s Note: Though he is a very nice guy and a great blogger Clare Kines, the author of this blog post, might have lived in the far north for too long. Apparently the lack of birds and the abundance of cold has led to him thinking that writing a blog post about bunnies is an [...]

This post comes by way of an assignment. After seeing an albino squirrel in a Redgannet post, The Management wrote to me suggesting that they would like one of those. Now perhaps the word “suggesting” makes it sound like I have a choice and that would be true in the same way that I have [...]

Central Park, Manhattan, April 2010 I have spent many of my lunch hours over the last several months in Central Park.  As spring has sprung and the sun has come out and the weather warmed I have been in the park almost every day, scarfing up spring migrants like a starving man who finds himself [...]

As a native New Yorker, I’ve seen my share of squirrels. Our standard Sciuridae is the Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) and while most of these rambunctious rodents are indeed gray, they sometimes come in other flavors. The Bronx was beset by hordes of Black Squirrels, melanistic members of this common species. So black squirrels [...]

The first location I visited in the Atherton Tableland, on my way to the Kingfisher Lodge, was Granite Gorge. Near the town of Mareeba in the centre of the Tablelands, I didn’t visit it for birds, but instead to see a representative of that most Australian of animals, the kangaroo. Specifically a wallaby, the Mareeba Rock Wallaby. Mareeba Rock Wallaby (Petrogale [...]

Tanzania has an enormous variety of exquisite birds but unfortunately it has an equal number of distractions that can interrupt your birding experience. Take these pesky Lions for instance. While seeking out tiny brown birds in the drizzle, we came upon this amorous duo and for some reason everyone in the car decided that the [...]

Anyone who dares fill bird feeders in the hopes of actually, you know, feeding birds knows well the menace hungry squirrels present. Entire industries are built around preventing squirrels from completely devouring provisions intended for birds. The bird feeder arms race demands incessant innovation because of the utter fearlessness and abandon driving squirrels to plunder [...]

Many of you in the south are enjoying great sightings of Snowy Owls (Bubo scandiacus) this winter.  Most provinces and most northern states have had sightings, and the irruption has extended as far south as Oklahoma (so far).  Everywhere on Facebook I see friends and acquaintance posting photos of Snowy Owls, and or status updates [...]

What kid can resist the siren song of bunny rabbits frolicking in the grass?  No kid that I would want to pass the day with, that is for sure!  And Desi, being the offspring of two pretty cool people, if I do so say myself, loves chasing him some rabbits. Why wouldn’t he?  Rabbits practically [...]

The Olympic Peninsula is known for a host of endemic creatures, including some mammals like the Roosevelt Elk.  One creature that I almost overlooked as just another chipmunk is the Olympic Chipmunk, known to scientists and Latin enthusiasts as Tamias amoenus caurinus, a subspecies of the Yellow-pine Chipmunk Tamias amoenus. In Olympic National Park the Olympic [...]

A Black-tailed Deer!  How excited we were to see what was for us a new species as we drove up into Olympic National Park on the road to Hurricane Ridge.  The deer walked down the road, seemingly unconcerned with being so close to an open car window that revealed an excitedly babbling family and a [...]

Hoary Marmots, also called Whistle Pigs, inhabit rocky areas near the treeline in northwestern North America up into Alaska.  Their warning whistles when danger approach are one of the coolest noises one is likely to hear when exploring northwestern mountaintops.  And marmots, of course, are nothing but pretentious groundhogs, so the name Whistle Pig seems [...]

It is not uncommon to see Agile Wallabies Macropus agilis around the Broome area and everyone avoids driving on dusk or dawn as much as possible when they are most active.  We often see their footprints on the beaches around Roebuck Bay and we have on occasion seen them close to the sea. The male [...]

This past week, one of the lead stories in the local news was a mountain lion sighting by a group of kids waiting for a school bus at Miller Creek. That’s the first headlining feline we’ve had since I got here, but there’s been plenty of other predator action – it’s been a very active [...]

New York City’s subway stations are a great place to observe Rattus norvegicus, otherwise known as the Norway Rat, the Brown Rat, the Wharf Rat, the City Rat, the Alley Rat, the Hanover Rat, the House Rat, and the Sewer Rat, among other names.  And while New York City, like cities on every continent except [...]

Yet another lunch break outing to Central Park recently led to a nursery of Common Raccoons Procyon lotor searching for food both natural and human-supplied in the vicinity of Turtle Pond.  The four youngsters, seemingly without the benefit of adult supervision, were trying their best to get into trouble but were a little too scared [...]

One of the highlights of my recent trip to Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge was long, loving looks at the rodent most associated with the refuge, the Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus). The Main Pool at Montezuma is studded with muskrat lodges and the rats themselves, smaller than but similar to beavers, can usually be seen swimming at [...]

Everyone knows that squirrels, at least North American squirrels, are very greedy.  They scarf up all the food that kind-hearted people put out for the birds and will do almost anything if the reward involves something yummy.  But is it possible that a squirrel can be too ambitious when it comes to feeding its face?  [...]