Mean Alligator lizard, Deer Lake Emigrant Wilderness

A baby lemming

When hiking the JMT this summer we saw many "UL creatures" and my kids took many photos of deer, butterflies, bugs, lizards, etc. One amazing sight this year were the frogs hopping on the ice of Wanda Lake at 11,426 ft right below Muir Pass. My favorite photos is this one of two mating frogs in amplexus on the ice. They seem to be frozen in more than one sense of the word.

Manfred

Shy beasts. They stood stock still as we descended towards them, vanishing silently as we passed a boulder which obscured our view for a few seconds.

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They grow to about three feet long, 18" at the withers.

After a pass on the jmt.

~ 6:30pm last Friday in Castle Rock State Park. Walking down the trail alone with a rock face to my right; a rattler rattled directly in my ear. I flew 10 feet forward and landed in this guys lap (the rattle snake dropped off the rock where I'd been and slithered into the brush on the other side of the trail).

Edited by Feileung on 09/26/2011 23:55:34 MDT.

Not so UL as this bird was huge.



Sorry that I could not get a better quality pic... it was probably a snowy owl, which are considered "Critically endangered" in Finland. We saw this bird eating at least two lemmings within only 15 minutes last week so perhaps Sabine's "guy from Finland" got a date with a hot chick :-o

Jim, I believe that is a California Mountain Kingsnake, Lampropeltis zonata. If you don't stick the Mountain in there, people assume that you are talking about a Common Kingsnake which has no red.

If you like snakes, that one is a real beauty.

--B.G.--

From Costa Rica:

Blue Morphos Butterfly - all over the place in CR


Wandering Spider - biologist caught it while we were in the rain forest - venomous and one of only a few spiders that pose a threat to humans


Leaf cutter ants - a lot of fun to watch

Mountain goat in Alpine Lakes Wilderness near Lake Ingalls

Bob:

Whoops, that's what I meant! Honestly I thought it was a Coral Snake at first but the ranger I described it to set me straight. He said he'd only seen one.

Being from Oregon I'd never seen such a colorful snake in the wild (well, a Wagler's Pit Viper(?) once but that's still not as flashy as the Mountain King Snake).

Edited by Feileung on 09/28/2011 01:02:27 MDT.

"Honestly I thought it was a Coral Snake at first "

1. A coral snake is red and black and _yellow_.
2. Coral snakes do not exist within a thousand miles of California. I saw a lot of them in Louisiana.

I'm a little jumpy about snakes right now. I almost stepped on a rattlesnake today.

--B.G.--

Hey Ryan, Beautiful mountain goat pic. Don't know if you read the story here a few weeks ago about the fellow who was followed and then killed by one. The dude had complained about goats following him to the rangers before. I think it must have been really bad karma or he smelled all too much like a male goat!

Testing the macro function on my new acquisition - an olympus E-410 DSLR

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Taken in bright sunlight with the 17.5-45 kit lens I got with my bargain shooter.

Edited by tallbloke on 09/28/2011 07:20:03 MDT.

1. A coral snake is red and black and _yellow_.
2. Coral snakes do not exist within a thousand miles of California. I saw a lot of them in Louisiana.

not so fast.. they can also have yellow so pale, it appears white - but it isnt the colors that matter, its the fact that the body rings completely encircle the animal.
and, the Coral snakes around here prove that second statement untrue.
http://www.reptilesofaz.org/Snakes-Subpages/h-m-euryxanthus.html

Hoping Miguel might help identify this big boy. About 2" long.

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Edited by tallbloke on 10/10/2011 03:18:04 MDT.

Mt. Diablo with a gopher snake.

I'm starting to get the hang of the Olympus E-410. This was taken using shutter speed priority at 1/400 sec on an overcast day in the English Lake District.

Dall Sheep, Denali AK


Sea Lion, Valdez AK


Black Bear, Seward AK


Ptarmigan, Hope AK


Dragon Fly, BWCAW

Edited by BER on 11/19/2011 14:09:47 MST.

the Kea, the worlds only alpine parrot, at Mackinnon Pass, Milford Track, New Zealand

Edited by mrjones on 12/14/2011 23:03:27 MST.