More wildlife!  Continuing on last week’s, “I’m not a wildlife photographer but here’s some wildlife images” theme (honestly I don’t know why I feel the need for the disclaimer), this week I’m sharing some of the fun photos I’ve captured of the groundhogs that live on our property.  Let me start by saying that I know some of you probably hate these things – Holly’s uncle used to tell us we needed to shoot them.  No doubt they can be destructive little boogers, but so far we’ve managed to cohabitate on this land we now call our home.  So far.  Anyway, since we’ve lived here these groundhogs have provided lots of entertainment, and while I can’t say they’ve gotten comfortable with me taking their pictures yet, I have managed to get lucky a few times.

Well, this past spring the mother (which we have named Pearl) emerged from her den with three little babies!  One of the babies in particular stuck pretty close to mom, while the others tended to wander off.  Eventually one disappeared, then another, until it was just the mom and the one baby hanging around (at least at the same time… we’re never quite sure which one we’re looking at unless they’re all in the yard together).  One morning I happened to notice they were hanging out just outside our garage, and so I was able to photograph them through the window, just a few feet away.  Similarly I was able to capture just Pearl in the backyard from our bedroom window (see images below). 

For now the other groundhogs have all disappeared and I think only one of the babies remains, based on it’s really light coat color and size (it seems bigger than Pearl now), but again, it’s really hard to tell.’

More next week!

–Dan Thompson