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Christmas in Railroad Creek Valley, North Cascades

Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2013 8:25 pm
by oldranger
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Happy New Year! Go Ducks!

Mike

Re: Christmas in Railroad Creek Valley, North Cascades

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 6:02 am
by Vaca Russ
Mike,

Wow, I wish I could get great wildlife shots like that! Great Job! Thanks for sharing.

Oh yeah...and GO DUCKS!!! Too.

-Russ

Re: Christmas in Railroad Creek Valley, North Cascades

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 10:20 am
by oldranger
Russ

The secret to getting these shots of the marten is that just to the right of the photo is the composting facility for Holden Village. There is a whole family of martens living in the area due to the concentration of food scraps and all kinds of little critters attracted to them. There are electric fences around the facility in the summer to keep the bears away. Anyhow it was great fun watching this particular marten pop out of a bunch of holes in the snow. He/she appeared to be as interested in me as I was in him/her (I have no idea how to distinguish between males and females at a distance and since they are nasty little creatures have no desire to get really close.)

Cheers!

Mike

Re: Christmas in Railroad Creek Valley, North Cascades

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 3:30 pm
by Troutdog 59
Very cool Mike! Ive never seen one in the SIerra, but they were all around our camps many years ago on a trip to the Ruby Mtns in NE Nevada. They indeed were curious little guys, scampering about in the brush, then poping straight up to check on our whereabouts. We didnt understand they would want our food. There was a group leaving shortly after we arrived at our lake on day one and they very geneorusly gave us a very nice slab of smoked rainbow trout they had packed in. We enjoyed some for lunch, but left the rest on the top of a large rock by our camp as we explored the lake shore for brookies. It was gone when we got back, with only the bag left and a small ragged hole in the bag. We thought coyotes had gotten it as their tracks were all over our camp on our return. We marveled that the yotes had been able to get up on the rock to get it, but figured they are resourceful little guys. Our little hypothesis was dashed as we were cooking dinner and we observed one very interested martin sniffing about on the rock looking for leftovers.