I caught Maya and a jackrabbit staring each other down through the front door this morning. I shot about a dozen photos, alternating focus between Maya and the jackrabbit. I finally settled on this one. I love that they are both looking right at each other and that their ears seem to mirror each other’s.
Another Great Basin Whiptail made an appearance today, this time in my front yard. These guys are extremely skittish (and fast!), so I had to go very slowly. Still, he let me get in pretty close! As a reminder, clicking on any photo will bring up a larger version. You may want to do that with this series.
He skittered under a shrub, so I slowly made my way around.
He kept an eye on me as I moved in . . .
Here’s a shot of him blinking his eye. Their eyelids are transparent and close from bottom to top. I highly recommend clicking on the photo to get a closer look. Better yet, click over to my Desert Creatures SmugMug gallery to see the original in all it’s reptilian glory.
Here’s a view of his full length. As I mentioned yesterday, their tails can be as long as 2/3 of their entire length. His tail is nearly complete, but it appears there is some new growth at the end. For scale, the leaf right behind his tail is nearly one inch long. This guy was about 7 inches or so. Other scale info: the rabbit pellet just to the right of his forearm is about a quarter of an inch or so across.
One last close-up.
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Same shots, different treatment. I took all of these this morning about 8:30.
This?
Or this?
This?
Or this?
Personally, I prefer the black and white landscape photo. I like where it takes my eye. On the other hand, I find myself going back and forth over the withered branch shot. I’m leaning to the black and white, but . . .
I spied this creature out in the undeveloped portion of our 5 acre lot. He was about six inches long, though he should have been longer. You can see that his tail is growing back, so it isn’t as long as it can be (up to two body lengths, according to this site).
I was able to work from home today and that meant that I didn’t have to leave the house early in the morning. Taking advantage of the extra time before my “work day” started, I headed out to photograph the backyard in the early morning light. Today was watering day and the flowers still held droplets of water from the sprinklers.
And then there is the purple sage . . .
The flowers are indeed lovely, but they also attract some six-legged creatures. I’ve given up trying to avoid them, and now seek them out.
After fighting with VPN and reports all day I slipped out into the backyard once again, and guess what I found hiding in the roses? Anyone know what this little guy is? And he was teeny. A grasshopper? Cricket? Locust?
This ladder is leaning against our house so I climbed it and got a higher view of the grape-vine than I usually do. Then I looked down and there was Buddy hanging out on the walk.
Lilacs in the yard.
I went out this evening to shoot the sunset, but the lichen-covered lava rock caught my eye instead.
Reno is an odd town. Within the city you can find patches of rural. Such is the case of the property directly across the street from where I work. I have photographed their property before, but I didn’t realize that these people also owned cattle. Who knew?
Carissa Snedeker Photography 