Rounding out my series of posts from the Merced National Wildlife Refuge, we have for you today, a serving of mammals and landscape photos. Warning! Some of these photos also contain birds. It was pretty hard to avoid them. :)
This is the spot where I decided I'd better turn around.
I think I made a wise decision there. Haha! But, as I mentioned, I did have fun finding little birdies and hawks to photograph on the back roads when I had basically given up all hope of making it to the Refuge.
Even though that looks cloudy, it's really a fairly low-lying marine layer with some clouds mixed in. And it did burn off later in the day. But it was pretty cool (no pun intended!).
I really like this landscape with the rickety, leaning fence.
It was shortly after this that I had my epiphany and realized there was another way to the reserve. Thank goodness!
By the time I made it in, the marine layer was pretty much gone, leaving only the clouds which made the sky amazing.
And the water reflected the sky's brilliance amongst the bare trees.
Love this next photo.
After leaving the marsh area, the ground came alive with jackrabbits, ground squirrels, and riparian brush rabbits.
The jackrabbits were very speedy! Even when one was running straight towards me, I couldn't focus fast enough to get a clear picture!
This one ran into the cropped field and then froze. It was pretty camouflaged!
The ground squirrels are way bigger than regular squirrels. They looked more like their cousin, the groundhog, than what you first think of when you hear squirrel.
But they LOVE to dart in front of your car on the road, just like tree squirrels do. Damn them!
After passing through the grassland and fields, I came up to a creek and saw my first riparian brush rabbit. Much smaller with more compact bodies and shorter legs then their jackrabbit cousin, they are A-Dor-A-Ble.
Not that the jackrabbits aren't, but these guys sit very still on the side of the road as if they hope you don't notice them, while the jackrabbits are gone in a blur. So you don't have as much time to notice their cuteness.
And that bunny tail!
Well, just like this little guy, it's time for me to hop away! Hope you enjoyed seeing the Merced National Wildlife Refuge through the lens of my Nikon D3000!
xoxo
