NFR Got any mammal pictures
- Thread starter Cabezon
- Start date
Non-fishing related
These are all over the Prescott, AZ. area where we live. Never tire of seeing them.
Gyrfalcon22
Legend
Roosevelt elk shaking up a wintery monsoon day. Their presence always brightens the darkest and rainiest of days.
See you again in the high country this summer !
See you again in the high country this summer !
I took this photo through one of the windows at our office which was located at Shasta Valley Wildlife Area in Northern California. We had an "office bobcat" and she brought her kittens around from time to time. We watched her and her litters for 4 or 5 years before I retired.
This bat gave us a show Friday night while camping. It circled the small creek pool next to camp, picking off bugs for about 15 minutes or so. Truly impressive aerial maneuvering while on the hunt. I believe it may be a Western Long-eared Myotis or a Western Short Footed Myotis. Pics snipped from cell phone video footage.
Ok maybe not a mammal pic but as I was google mapping tonight was fortunate to find what I think was some pics from what I think is a recent big spring minus tide, spring because the trees and grass are green. These are screengrabs from google maps, you can see a aerial overlap stamp in the bottom of this grab, Normally the eelgrass verge is the darkest line just off the beach, so not typically out of water unless you're dealing with a big minus....
So you look a little closer and there are linear patterns in the sand, almost like some WWI map of trench lines on the Western Front with maybe some shell craters in between...
With what looks little hillocks of disturbed sand labelled H and deeper pits with water in them labelled p and then more normal seabed labelled n
Here's a grab of a zone of deeper faster moving water with expected ridges of sand where the minus tide didn't expose, and just above it, the last of the feeding troughs.
but even in that faster water you can see some pits still, though under the water this time, and presumably recent, like within a tide cycle and not yet covered over in faster moving sand....
I say feeding troughs because I think these are all marks of gray whale ghost shrimp forage sites on Puget Sound....
So here's a hypothesis for you North Sound cutthroat fisherman (@Cabezon, @Stonedfish, @jasmillo. (List isn't exclusive, I know there's more folks who love speculating ....). Maybe the reason that March and April aren't great for catching Nth Sound searuns isn't because they are still upstream still lurking on their breeding run, but instead, they're working the tailings of these pits, chomping down the ghost shrimp the whales missed. And/or alternatively the superabundant partially digested ghost shrimp whale crap that ends up being churned out all over the place (you will see these pinkish ghost shrimp carcasses along high tide lines on eastern sandy shores)
I mean you think about it there must be a veritable caravan of other creatures feeding behind these whales, starry flounder, perch, surf smolts etc etc
So you look a little closer and there are linear patterns in the sand, almost like some WWI map of trench lines on the Western Front with maybe some shell craters in between...
With what looks little hillocks of disturbed sand labelled H and deeper pits with water in them labelled p and then more normal seabed labelled n
Here's a grab of a zone of deeper faster moving water with expected ridges of sand where the minus tide didn't expose, and just above it, the last of the feeding troughs.
but even in that faster water you can see some pits still, though under the water this time, and presumably recent, like within a tide cycle and not yet covered over in faster moving sand....
I say feeding troughs because I think these are all marks of gray whale ghost shrimp forage sites on Puget Sound....
So here's a hypothesis for you North Sound cutthroat fisherman (@Cabezon, @Stonedfish, @jasmillo. (List isn't exclusive, I know there's more folks who love speculating ....). Maybe the reason that March and April aren't great for catching Nth Sound searuns isn't because they are still upstream still lurking on their breeding run, but instead, they're working the tailings of these pits, chomping down the ghost shrimp the whales missed. And/or alternatively the superabundant partially digested ghost shrimp whale crap that ends up being churned out all over the place (you will see these pinkish ghost shrimp carcasses along high tide lines on eastern sandy shores)
I mean you think about it there must be a veritable caravan of other creatures feeding behind these whales, starry flounder, perch, surf smolts etc etc
Last edited:
Great ideas, WB. I fully agree that they look like the feeding pits that are produced by gray whales when they are feeding on ghost shrimp or amphipods. I'm not sure about the limited March/April window because these whales are present through the early fall and the escapees / dribbles from the whales would be a great food source through the summer.
Steve
SilverFly
Legend
Bats are cool. For a brief second though, I thought, with this in the mammal pic thread, that it was a flying squirrel.
Got me thinking I've never seen one, and wondering if anyone here has (queue the Rocky/Bullwinkle memes).
Anyway, the only person I know that has seen one is my Dad. He said they saw them occasionally in the woods on the farm outside Bellingham. This was also a very long time ago (Great Depression). Just seems like a cool critter.
Last edited:
We used to see them on our bird feeder in Woodinville.. at night.