Sierra alpine badger sighting
Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 11:27 pm
As a person with decades of ramblings, saw my first ever badger in the Sierra Nevada this weekend. Was at the west end of Dana Meadows not far from the highway where I stopped to cook some lunch under a lodgepole. Tried to get into position to take a picture with my G10 but it was on the move and as I tried to follow, it seemed to speed up and then disappeared into a pile of decaying logs with lots of dug holes. Was about 100 feet away at closest and there was absolutely no doubt it was a taxidea taxus since their body shape is so distinctive plus the distinctive white stripe down the back to the face.
The last few years I've come across several uncommon mammals I'd never spotted before. Just a few years ago that I saw my first pine marten just 20 feet away on the Agnew Meadows trail and not long after that a friend and I were just feet from two large mountain lions along McGee Creek. And early this decade, the first day Tioga Pass opened one year, saw a female bighorn sheep on a ledge just above the road on a section below Elery Lake at the steepest part of SR-120 highway .
The last few years I've come across several uncommon mammals I'd never spotted before. Just a few years ago that I saw my first pine marten just 20 feet away on the Agnew Meadows trail and not long after that a friend and I were just feet from two large mountain lions along McGee Creek. And early this decade, the first day Tioga Pass opened one year, saw a female bighorn sheep on a ledge just above the road on a section below Elery Lake at the steepest part of SR-120 highway .