Wild Memories Photography Tours

Yesterday afternoon, after a morning of hiking in the national forest and picking Chanterelle mushrooms in the constant drizzle of rain, I decided to take a ride up to the Beartooth.

As I thought, the season was too cold for the enormous bounty of wildflowers that were blooming last year.  In fact, some bluebells were just now blooming so spring never really got under way and there was still some snow left from last winter.

I went looking for Pikas because they are just so darned cute I can’t help myself.

Pikas are a member of the Ochotonidae family, which also includes rabbits.  Indeed, as I sit and watch them they remind me of rabbits from time to time but most often I was wondering if they were some big mouse and was relieved to find out that they are not part of the mouse family because they are about my least favorite critter right now.

Pikas are small mammals with no visible tail that live in cold climates. The pikas in the Beartooth are rock dwellers and from what I have seen they have a whole underground/rock system of pathways, enabling them to run under a rock in one spot and come up across the field, 20 yards away without being seen.  The pikas that I have watched on numerous occasions seem to have several food stashing places under large boulders.  These tiny animals, 6-9″ and 4 to 12 oz, do not hibernate during the winter so they typically spend most of their summer gathering grasses to store for winter.

I remember last summer, watching the pikas as they continually gathered mouthfuls of grass and ran them to their stash places.  But, it seems odd this summer because they seem to be spending more time eating than stashing.  In my three visits I have not seen the flurry of stashing activity of last year and so I am wondering if they were already able to put together a good store despite the cool summer.

Yesterday, as I watched, the fog settled in, partially obscuring my view, and the snow began to fall.  I had plans to go elsewhere but decided to go on home and make plans for leaving today.

And, so, this morning I drove up the Beartooth once again.  A beautiful layer of fresh white snow covered the landscape and the road was plenty slick in the last two switchbacks.  I decided to go straight to the pikas and see if I could capture them in snow, and wait for the plows to clear the road.  I had also hoped the fog would lift so I could find the goats but it never did get clear at the top.

I waited and watched for 5 hours, hoping to get some close shots of a pika in that snow and all I got was close glimpses and faraway instances.  The pika was not very active and was running and hiding for the most part.  Except once, right after I moved, thinking that the critter had snuck past, it came out and sat on a rock.  But, not close!  Guess it was just not ready for cold.

Here are a number of images from yesterday and one from today.  More coming up about the Beartooth.  Despite the snow and the long wait for the Pika I was able to do some quality exploring in the Beartooth and to capture some nice images and video.  Out of town right now, keeping my cold away from people and having a new adventure.  Stay tuned.