Stalking A Fox Squirrel

This is the little guy that caused all the trouble yesterday. He doesn't look very hidden anymore, does he? This little fox squirrel was quietly eating a snack while I stood there taking his picture from a distant hiding place. Just as he was so very hard to see for you yesterday, he couldn't see me very well either.

A camera with a good zoom lense can be a blessing and a curse for an everyday adventurer. My first camera made it necessary for me to get very close to every animal I featured here. It became an exciting game for me to see how well I could sneak up on any creature I targeted. That can also be a problem sometimes. Animals run away, and some bigger animals get angry.

With my present camera and its powerful zoom I am able to sometimes keep my distance. I still have to get the right position, but the game isn't quite the same anymore. My skills as a photographer get better while my skills as an animal stalker begin to stagnate a little. I'm still having fun though because I always have to keep my eyes open to new prey.

This is the part where I reveal where the squirrel was hiding in the picture. It was hiding right out in the open, but I did a mean thing to all of you. The picture quality just wasn't good enough to find this squirrel, and I knew that very well. The real game was for you to guess. It was a fun test of your deductive reasoning skills. All of you did well, and some of you even won the game. Let's find out who the winners were.

The Winners

Who guessed correctly?		Who gave the funniest guesses?
Poetic Shutterbug		Wiseacre
Ginnymo		Ann
Mike		Sparkle
Lin		VanillaSeven
John

I tried to get all the winners, but I'm not always perfect. Go visit their blogs. I know you haven't seen them all yet. These are each very good friends, and they can be your friends too if you give them the chance to know you.

Now we have a better look at where the squirrel was perched. He is right there to the right of that tree with the big hole in it. See him sitting on that fallen tree branch? Sharing these games gives you all a small sense of what it's like to be out there looking for animals like this. I do it every day, most of the time never knowing if there are any animals at all.

Most of the time I find nothing, but my searching eyes sometimes are able to spot a hidden little critter in the distant forest. My pictures are my prize for winning the game. My games are an effort to share my prize with you; to share the experience a little better. Then we can all find the animal, even if it might be so hidden that we can never see it at all. I hope you find this as fun as I do.


Nature Center Magazine - Emma is featuring a blog today for her Nature Site Of The Week that many of you know and love. Go and see for yourself who it is.