Mountain Fauna

We are growing familiar with the local fauna at our new house. There are also many rodents in the neighborhood including squirrels, chipmunks, porcupines and mice. Lots of mice. We catch a couple per week in our house and we recently noticed that the window wells in the basement are full of them. We also often noticed them running around the yard and even in the road.
IMG_1859
There are also snakes – rattlesnakes are sighted often enough to be of concern, and while riding home one night Chris almost ran over a great basin gopher snake on Emigration Canyon Road. Everett seems fascinated by snakes, and the babies don’t seem to mind them either, at least judging from the way they handle their snake bath toy. However, the presence of snakes is a good incentive for Chris to thin the mouse population.

Among larger animals, deer are such a common occurrence that we don’t even have photos of them. There is a doe and two babies that we see often making their rounds through the backyard and sometimes nesting down for the night. Today Chris and Everett were launching rockets in the backyard when we found an antler in the snow at the back edge of our property.
DSC_2481
We have also noticed droppings from larger animals, most likely elk, which we haven’t seen but they are known to pass through this area twice a year. Lastly, Chris saw a moose while driving home a couple weeks ago. He managed to get a couple pictures with his phone before it disappeared into the trees. Coincidentally, soon after this one of our neighbors found a moose in her backyard that appeared to die from natural causes.
IMG_1860
IMG_1863
IMG_1864
There is a rabbit who has been showing up to eat breakfast on our front steps for several weeks now. Teddy and Gwen seem to really enjoy seeing him.
IMG_1870
Lastly, over the holidays Chris and Everett built a snow fort in the backyard. Chris joked with Trinity and Everett to be careful when they go out there because a family of porcupines moved in. They weren’t sure if they should believe this or not, but they eventually decided that Chris was kidding. However, we have noticed that there is some kind of animal who moved in: there is a pile of mud and straw on top of the snow on the floor of the fort, big enough for a large rodent to nestle in. We aren’t aware of any animals who nest this way, and we haven’t seen who it is, so it’s a bit of a mystery at the moment. Speaking of mysteries, the next blog entry is on the Mystery Lights…

Comments (1)

One thought on “Mountain Fauna

  1. So happy to see the moose picture; not so excited about the snake! As far as I know, no mice were spotted by any of us over the holidays…but we were sorry to have missed the porcupine nest. What an adventure you all are having in your Utah life. Great mystery solving with the lights.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Powered by WordPress
Natural World RapidWeaver theme by ThemeFlood