We reached record temperatures today (98 degrees), so I headed out at 7:00 am for Nisqually, having just read that birds tend to be more active in the morning in hot days. If so, I certainly didn’t find them. I saw very few birds, except for swallows and starlings.
The first shot of the day turned out to be the highlight of the day:
Although this Long-Tailed Weasel seemed more than willing to pose for the camera, he disappeared when two other groups walked by. They probably wondered why I was standing around taking pictures of an empty bench.
On the other hand, this rather large bullfrog looked like he was wondering where his pond had gone:
I hope he found something more soothing than mud before the temperatures really soared.
I didn’t manage a single picture of the real highlight of the day, though. A mink came running directly at me so fast that by the time I pointed my lens at him he was nothing but a blur. After I backed up a few feet, he again came dashing out of the underbrush, nearly brushing my left foot. If I’d had pants instead of shorts on, I swear he would have run up my pant leg.
Despite drinking constantly on the walk out of my Camel Pack, I downed two lime sodas with my Torta at lunch time.
Still I find it hard not to sing the praises of sunshine:
Damn fine weasel picture.
How’s the humidity with that heat?
The humidity was around 65%, which seemed considerably less than when I was stationed in Alabama for a month but considerably higher than when I was station at Camp Irwin in the Mojave Desert.
It’s 45C here which is somewhere around 113F – you got it easy 🙂
Our heat wave broke today – it was beautiful weather after several days of hot, hazy humid weather followed by violent thunderstorms.
Fantastic pictures, as always.