A Short Morning Walk

With wildlife all around us even a short walk down a country road may result in capturing some memorable images.  With a little time to kill well after sunrise I tossed the camera rig over my shoulder heading to see what I could find.

Locating this chipmunk sitting motionlessly in the roadside fence row I compensated the exposure slightly to bring out the detail in the chipmunk.  After processing I decided to crop leaving a strand of barbed wire in the photo to tell the story of finding the chipmunk using the fence row habitat as home.  Overgrown fence rows are important habitat for many farm land species but with modern clean farming practices they are becoming a thing of the past. 

Moving to the other side of the tree that the chipmunk was sitting near, at first I didn't think a photo would be possible.  Looking closer I found one small hole I was able to shoot through giving me this close-up photo of the alert little animal.

Walking on down the road I noticed a back lit bird silhouetted singing from a tree top.  Think that it was probably a mockingbird based upon its shape and the variety of bird songs it was imitating I was surprised when I passed around to its sunlit side to find that it was a brown thrasher.  Brown thrashers spend most of their time in heavy cover, however during the nesting seasons they can sometimes be found singing from the tree tops.

And last but not least were the chipping sparrows.  These little birds were creating quite a stir.  Whatever the cause, breeding activity or territorial dispute the sparrows were in quite a flutter.

Wildlife is particularly active during the spring and many species can be found on just a short jaunt.