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!