Camera Critters #96

My landlord has had a visitor the past couple of weeks. It was her daughter-in-laws Cocker Spaniel.

Precious (that's her name) is one of the cutest dogs I have ever met...and one of the happiest. It took her a while to get used to me, but I won her over.

Meet Precious

Misty Dawn's Camera Critter Meme is a great way to see critters of all types. Go to the Meme homepage here and check out more entries. Then join the fun and let the world see your critter!

Camera Critter #94

Sometime in early December, a strange visitor arrived in a canyon near here. For weeks I had been hearing about the visitor. Finally, I got the chance to go see this visitor for myself.

A couple of days ago, a friend of mine and I took off for the Dry River Canyon, located about 15 miles east of Bend, Oregon. When we arrived, we scanned the north side of the canyon walls for the visitor and saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Thinking our position didn't offer a good vantage point, we were just starting to move to another spot when the visitor appeared. Yes, there was the Rocky Mountain Goat everyone had been talking about. He wandered about the rocky outcrops and cliffs sides of the canyon wall, sometimes taking his time, at other times, moving like he was glued to the ground on every step.

At one point, he approached a small drop-off, stopped for a second, then took the plunge.

After the landing, the goat continued its trek along a thin outcrop in the rocks

As the trek continued, the goat would stop, taste the local cuisine, then move on, until it finally hit the end of the path it was on.

It stopped and looked down. Then looked to the left, the right, up, up to the left, up to the right, then back down again. It continued looking in different directions and watching him from the opposite side, we could tell there was a decision process going on in the mind of the goat. So, we watched through the viewfinder of our cameras, waiting for the goat to take the great leap.

But in the end, it turned around and traveled back the way it came.

Overall, it was a good day. The nearest populations of Rocky Mountain Goats are in the Elkhorn Mountain area, 120 miles northwest and the Strawberry Mountains, 100 miles further east. This long ranging goat will probably move on soon, but it was really great to see a critter like this in the wild, in an area easily accessible.

Misty Dawn's Camera Critter Meme is a great way to see critters of all types. Go to the Meme homepage here and check out more entries. Then join the fun and let the world see your critters!

Camera Critter #93

The other day, a friend of mine stopped by and said, "Let's go shoot something." So I grabbed my camera and off we went. Since we both like photographing aircraft, our first stop was at the airport waiting for incoming and outgoing flights.

When the action died down, we decided to check a few other spots around town. At our next stop, Fireman's Pond, we got out of the car and every duck and goose in the area came running. Since they are accustomed to people feeding them, they surely thought my friend and I were going to do the same thing.

However, as the domestic goose led the pack towards me, they all stopped when I raised my camera and fired off a couple of shots. I guess the goose decided it was time to express its displeasure at me for not having any food and spread its wings, then honked rather loudly at me.

As it finished 'chewing' me out for not bringing food, it turned to the side, bared its teeth and I swear growled at me. I didn't know how much trouble I was really in until I looked at the photo of it later at home. 8v)


Those are some nasty looking teeth for a bird.

Misty Dawn's Camera Critter Meme is a great way to see critters of all types. Go to the Meme homepage here and check out more entries. Then join the fun and let the world see your critters!

Camera Critter #92

During the summer months I can generally be found walking around the High Desert, camera in hand, looking for anything and everything to photograph.

For years, I have wanted to image one High Desert critter, but it has always escaped me. It's not that I haven't seen any...I've seen three. But each time, they never stayed in front of me long enough for me to get a shot of them.

Well, those Houdini critters are rattlesnakes. There are two species located in my area -- the Northern Pacific Rattlesnake and Great Basin Rattlesnake.

My brother and his family live in Texas and at one time, had a house in the hill country of San Antonio. There, they came across rattlers on a regular basis. But that did little to eliminate my nephew's fear of snakes. While he and one of his sons were visiting me last August, we went to nearby Cline Falls State Park to check things out.

As my brother and I wandered around tree area looking for bird we could hear, my nephew let out a shriek and loudly announced, "Snake!"

My brother and I immediately ran to him and asked where the snake was. He pointed down in some weeds near the river and I saw movement. Happy I had camera in hand and in front of the critter, I squatted down to get a better look. I snapped off a few images before the snake disappeared in the brush. When I joined my family, I told them it was nothing more than a Wandering Garter Snake. It was the first I had seen in Oregon, and the first snake other than a rattler I crossed paths with, so the sighting wasn't a total loss.

Wandering Garter Snake

Misty Dawn's Camera Critter Meme is a great way to see critters of all types. Go to the Meme homepage here and check out more entries. Then join the fun and let the world see your critters!

Camera Critter #91

Well, first of all, I hope everyone had a wonderful new year, and the holidays were kind to you.

New Year's Day was a decent day on the high desert, only if you weren't fan of the University of Oregon Ducks. So, in honor of the Ohio State Buckeyes, 26-17 Rose Bowl victory over the Oregon Ducks, I present my shots of Texas found Buckeyes.




Congratulations, Misty. You called it 8v)

Misty Dawn's Camera Critter Meme is a great way to see critters of all types. Go to the Meme homepage here and check out more entries. Then join the fun and let the world see your critters!

Camera Critter #89

When I was a kid, I loved going to the Field Museum in Chicago. When a person walked through the doors, the first thing seen would be a skeleton of a dinosaur...Tyrannosaurus Rex to be exact.

It was the only T-rex skeleton I had ever seen...until December 2001. I had gone to Portland, Oregon with a friend. After picking up another friend, we headed for Oregon Museum of Science and Industry where the largest known T-rex skeleton was on temporary display.

Sue

Name "Sue" after the person who discovered the bones, the skeleton stands 13 feet tall at the hips, is 42 feet long and has a skull five feet in length.

Sue's skull

"Sue" was found in South Dakota on Aug. 12 1990. Not long after the discovery, "Sue" became a legal matter and was seized by the government. The bones were later put up for auction and when the hammer fell, the Field Museum of Natural History had the highest bid.

When "Sue" was alive, her kind lived in western North America. They were meat eaters and their jaws contained 58 teeth ranging from 7 to 12 inches in length (19.05 to 30.5 centimeters).

The first T-rex discovered was found Barnum Brown in 1902 in Hell Creek, Montana. He gave the fossil the name, Tyrannosaurus Rex, or "Tyrant Lizard King."

"Sue" is now on permanent display at the entrance of Stanley Hall at the Field Museum in Chicago. It replaces the original, incomplete skeleton I remember as a child and adds a more realistic pose to the bones.

Sue's mouth

I do like taking photos of lizards, but this would have been one lizard I would use a LARGE telescope to photograph.

Sometime in the next month or two, myself and the same friend will again head to Portland to pick up the same friend who lives there. And again, we will head to OMSI and view the bones of another Tyrannosaurus Rex. Smaller than "Sue," this one is called "Sampson" and is the most complete skeleton ever found.

Misty Dawn's Camera Critter Meme is a great way to see critters of all types. Go to the Meme homepage here and check out more entries. Then join the fun and let the world see your critters!

Camera Critter #88

Ten years ago, I went back to Illinois and reunited with some old friends.

My sister and her husband were raising Rhodesian Ridgebacks They are large animals, originally bred in Africa to hunt lions...LIONS!?! When I first met their dogs a couple of years earlier, they had two, a male with a long line of champs in his blood named Jacobi and Moxi...a young female. Both animals took to me right away and we became fast buddies.

Jacobi

The next time I visited, they had two more ridgebacks, a female named Safari and another male named Bo. Bo never really took to me and when I showed up, would peak around the corner, roll his eyes and go back to doing whatever it was he was doing before I caused all the excitement. The rest would mob me when I came in and generally, Moxi would wait for me to pet her, then she would go off to her own world somewhere. Even when I confronted the newbies for the first time, they noticed Jacobi and Moxi had no problem with me, so they didn't either.

However, Safari loved being around me. From the moment I arrived, to the moment I left she was right by my side. And I loved having her around. She would growl when any of the other dogs came by me, including the big guy, Jacobi, who would growl right back at her, then look at me with those sad, puppy eyes for moment and sulk away.

The Ridgebacks

In the photo above, Jacobi is the dog standing on the left, and Bo on the right. I was feeding them treats at the time. The one lying down to my left is Moxi and tough, little Safari is at my feet, sniffing the bag of treats.

The dogs were large, but a lot of fun to be around once you got to know them. And I for one, was glad to have had the chance to make them a part of my life.

Misty Dawn's Camera Critter Meme is a great way to see critters of all types. Go to the Meme homepage here and check out more entries. Then join the fun and let the world see your critters!