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What It Feels Like For a Ferret Watcher

10,000 Birds

If we get close enough we might see a pink maw and slivers of white teeth, ready to take a prairie dog by the throat and choke the life out but also rather perversely adorable. Ferret 492 — a black-footed ferret, Mustela nigripes — raises her head from a black-tailed prairie dog’s burrow, sniffs the April night.

Ferrets 183
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Introducing the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge

10,000 Birds

Russell National Wildlife Refuge , more than a million acres of prairie, badlands, coulees, and the massive Fort Peck Reservoir on the Missouri River. The soil is heavy with clay, great for holding prairie dog burrows but not so wonderful for making unsurfaced roads that stand up to the weather.

Ferrets 208
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Forgotten Prairies

10,000 Birds

Ferruginous Hawks are native to our western short-grass prairies and their diet comprises almost completely of prairie dogs. Well, the ongoing issues of land development, sport shooting, and the rancher’s war on these animals keeps prairie dog populations from ever booming. Not too bad eatin’, huh?

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The “Birds” in the Brush

10,000 Birds

Ground squirrels, to those who are not used to them, are more curious beasts, caught in a taxonomic middle ground between the larger marmots and prairie dogs and their smaller chipmunk cousins. The chipmunks, well, they all are fairly chipmunk-esque: small, stripey, and shrill.

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Cavity Nesting Birds of North America and Their Babies!

10,000 Birds

Even though they naturally nest in burrows mainly created by ground squirrels, badgers and prairie dogs, Burrowing Owls ( Athene cunicularia ) also use artificial burrows. I may be stretching it here but I am going to include my all time favorite raptor here as a cavity nesting bird.

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Quote of the Week

Critter News

"I watched prairie dogs every day, rise before the sun, stand with their paws pressed together facing the rising sun in total stillness for up to 30 minutes," says Williams.

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Winter Wanderland

10,000 Birds

We also saw Prairie Dogs , Bison , Mule Deer , Abert’s Squirrel and Coyote. Although careful preparation, sophisticated intel from real ornithologists and a lot of planning had been derailed by half a meter of snow, we ended up scoring 63 species over the weekend. I ticked off 9 lifers.

Denver 186