Yesterday, I posted about some animals whose visits I did not enjoy, but there have been other animal visitors I remember fondly. Overall, I enjoy watching animals and their behavior. Here are some of my favorites:
- One of my favorite campgrounds is at Willow Beach Marina. This place is part of Lake Mead National Recreation Area, but on the Arizona side of the Colorado River about 13 miles south of Hoover Dam. It is very dry there, but amazingly beautiful with the mountains on all sides and the blue of the Colorado River as it heads toward Lake Mohave, about 30 miles south. The campground here is relatively new, and when it was built in this very dry area, they planted a lot of desert plants and clumps of grasses, each plant with its own drip irrigation connection. The result is a LOT of desert cottontails have taken up residence under the bushes and grass clumps. The number of bunnies and their friendliness is also increased by the fact that the long-term camp host feeds them, as do a few campers like me. Check out these adorable "pests" with their big ears on this post: https://grandmajjb.blogspot.com/2021/01/111-willow-beach-campground-critters.html. Note: Before you feed these little guys, make sure it is OK with the park and you know what they should and should not eat. For example, carrot top greens are better for them than carrots, and they should never be fed gas-producing vegetables like cabbage. MOST IMPORTANTLY, NO WILD ANIMAL, EVEN DUCKS AND GEESE, SHOULD EVER BE FED BREAD, NO MATTER WHERE THEY LIVE OR HOW HUNGRY THEY LOOK!!!
- Also, if you scroll down on the above post, past all the bunnies, check out the Gambel's Quail. These little guys do more running than they do flying. They stick together in large family groups, or coveys, searching for seeds. What makes them fun to watch is their running around on little legs at top speed, making sure they keep up with the group, and cheeping constantly to make sure they do not get lost. If a bird does get separated, it will panic and run even faster after the cheeps of the other birds. This also makes them very hard to photograph, although I have discovered that a tiny bit of bird seed will briefly slow them down.
- I also like to watch chipmunks and ground squirrels. They are very similar looking animals, with stripes on their bodies. However, generally, but not always, chipmunks have stripes on their faces and bodies, while ground squirrels have stripes only on their bodies. I once spent most of a day while I was grading college student papers, looking out my window and watching a chipmunk steal dry dog food from a nearby RV patio. It was a state park in Oregon, and a family with a large dog had left a 50 lb bag of dog food outside while they were gone. The little ambitious chipmunk made dozens and dozens of trips with full cheeks, crossing the park road to add the kibble to his winter larder! (I know it was a chipmunk because it was in a wooded area, and because ground squirrels do not store food for the winter.) Here is a good article describing the difference: https://www.reconnectwithnature.org/news-events/the-buzz/what-the-difference-chipmunk-vs-ground-squirrel/
- I once shared my campsite with a gopher tortoise. I have seen these in several campgrounds in Florida and Georgia, but this one had apparently dug his burrow right at the edge of my patio area in my campsite in a state park in Georgia. I suspect he did this over the winter, not realizing how busy the area would get during the summer. His burrow was about 6' from the side door of my motorhome, and every time I went outside and walked past him, he would hiss at me. Gopher tortoises live in wooded areas, and dig homes in sandy soil. They can live up to 70 years in the wild, and are federally protected because their burrows provide homes for a lot of other animals including snakes, foxes, and other animals. I did not post about him, but I did take photos of several other gopher tortoises this past November in St. Lucie Lock and Dam Campground. Scroll down about halfway: https://grandmajjb.blogspot.com/2023/11/1121-st-lucie-south-lock-dam-campground.html
- If you have ever visited the south rim of the Grand Canyon, you have probably seen elk wandering around the visitor areas. The CG website says, "Because elk are not native to northern Arizona, they are not well adapted to the dry climate. As a result, they are often dependent on human sources of water, and will drink from puddles underneath bottle-filling stations and graze on watered vegetation around homes and buildings." What this notice misses is that elk were introduced to the area by the original park superintendent in 1926. Not only will they drink from puddles underneath water fill stations, but many of them know how to turn the handles on the water fill stations in order to get a drink. In addition, they know how to turn on the water faucets in the campground. Check out the first photo on this blog page: https://grandmajjb.blogspot.com/2020/10/1024-grand-canyon-trailer-village-to.html (Unfortunately, the elk do a very poor job of turning off the faucets when they are finished, so if you see a faucet running, please turn it off for them.) Elk will also beg for water in the main full-hookup Trailer Village campground, as I learned as a female surprised me once by coming up next to me while I will filling up my fresh water tank at my campsite. Her nose was about 4" from my hand holding the hose, and her back was almost as tall as I am!! I held very still so as not to scare her, and when I was finished, she followed me to the opposite side of my rig where I gave her a drink. Elk are huge and can be dangerous, so I moved slowly and carefully. Next time I am there, I will leave out a very large dog bowl at the rear of my rig.
- Another animal I enjoy are bighorn sheep. There are always some of the males hanging around the campground at Valley of Fire State Park, about an hour northeast of Las Vegas. The males/rams mostly stay in the valley, while the females or ewes stay up in the mountains with their lambs where they are safer. A few years ago, I had a fun experience watching a small bachelor herd try to take advantage of a leading water faucet at Site in the campground. I missed the head butting contest during which the oldest ram won ownership of the faucet. I arrived just as he was guarding it, but this did not last very long, as the park maintenance man arrived to fix it. Check out the saga and the results at this location: https://grandmajjb.blogspot.com/2021/01/14-valley-of-fire-bighorn-sheep.html There are a couple of photos of ewes and almost grown lambs higher up towards the end of this blog posting. Notice their thinner and shorter horns. https://grandmajjb.blogspot.com/2022/11/1111-more-valley-of-fire.html
No comments:
Post a Comment