River Otters:
Recently had a friend tell me, “They were big! Really big.” She was referring to a pair of river otters she spotted. I agree. With a full grown male weighing in 20 to 30 pounds, and averaging four feet in length they are large aquatic mammals. Over the years I’ve enjoyed several opportunities to observe river otters in their natural habitat. One of those sightings included watching a female otter teaching two pups how to fish. A search on the Washington Department of Fish& Wildlife (WDFW) web-site states, “although seldom seen, river otters are relatively common throughout Washington in ponds, lakes, rivers, sloughs, estuaries, bays, and in open waters along the coast.”
A pair of river otter keeping a weary eye on the shoreside photographer. J. Foster Fanning, photography |
Playtime for part of a family of river otter on the Kettle River in north Ferry County. J. Foster Fanning, photography |
Velvet Buck...Caught up with this mule deer buck as he sheltered from the hot summer sun browsing under this shrub in Ferry County, WA. There is a dusting of pollen sprinkled across the fine hairs of his snout.
While wildlife officials report The long-term population trend for white-tailed deer continues to be on the downside due to the changing demographics and loss of acreage in cereal grain and alfalfa hay farm production. These deer along with their Whitetail cousins are still frequent in the Ferry County.
While wildlife officials report The long-term population trend for white-tailed deer continues to be on the downside due to the changing demographics and loss of acreage in cereal grain and alfalfa hay farm production. These deer along with their Whitetail cousins are still frequent in the Ferry County.
Whitetail fawn - J. Foster Fanning, photography |
Mulie Buck in velvet - J. Foster Fanning, photography |
Young female Bobcat - J. Foster Fanning, Photography |
This young female bobcat is following the daily use trail of a small flock of wild turkey. A tasty treat for this cat if it manages to bring one of the big birds down.
Young bull moose on the shoreline of Lake Roosevelt, J. Foster Fanning |
I observed this young bull moose on Lake Roosevelt one morning. It wandered the shoreline, stepped into the water, took a big drink and several deep breaths while looking across a mile wide portion of the lake. The moose walked forward until it was swimming, gave a big snort and headed across the lake. It took 23 minutes for it to swim that span.
Cow moose and two calves - J. Foster Fanning, photography |
The Kettle River Range is set between the Rocky Mountains to the east and the Cascade Mountains to the west. This stretch of landscape is a unique geographic area of the inland Pacific Northwest. Part of pronounced diversity of wildlife within this region is bighorn sheep which were here long before European explorers. In Ferry County the bighorns are typically found in two differing locations, the Kettle River Breaks, an escarpment of steep, rocky cliffs above the upper reaches of the river once it enters the U.S. and at the southernmost reach of the range, just above where the mountains plunge into the Columbia River drainage on the shores of Lake Roosevelt.
When author Jack Nisbet researched early explorer David
Thompson and botanist David Douglas , he noted that Thompson wintered with
bighorn sheep on the Clark Fork around Thompson Falls, Montana, in 1809-10 and
1811-12. He also saw them on the Columbia River just below the mouth of the
Methow River in July 1811. Douglas mentions bighorn sheep in this area in 1826
noting that Jaco Finlay was planning to take a specimen of Mouton gris or
bighorn sheep. In June of the same year Douglas was part of group ascending the
Kettle River in hunt of bighorns. Later he mentions returning to Fort Colville
where mounts of bighorn sheep were being prepared for a Hudson’s Bay governor.
Research shows that within recent history bighorn sheep herds
all across the Okanogan Highlands had been decimated by a combination of over
hunting, livestock borne diseases and normal predation. In a recent discussion with Washington
Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW) I gathered that local herds of bighorn
sheep are now considered stable but still closely monitored.
mule deer (odocoileus hemiohus)
white-tailed deer (odocoileus virginianus)
black bear (ursus americanus)
moose (alces alces)
elk (cervus elaphus)
mountain lion (felis concolor)
coyote (canis latrans)
wolverine (gulo gulo)
bob cat (lynx rufus)
lynx (lynx canadensis)
fisher (martes pennanti)
ermine (mustela erminea)
long-tailed weasel (mustela frenata)
mink (mustela vison)
porcupine (erethizon dorsatum)
snowshoe hare (lepus americanus)
striped skunk (mephitis mephitis)
yellow-bellied marmot (marmota flaviventris)
northern flying squirrel (glaucomys sabrinus)
red squirrel (tamiasciurus hudsonicus)
golden-mantled ground squirrel (spermophilus lateralis)
columbian ground squirrel (spermophilus columbianus)
yellow-pine chipmuck (tamius amoenus)
hoary bat (lasiurus cinereus)
silver-haired bat (lasionyeteris noctivagons)
townsend's big-eared bat (plecotus townsendii)
long-eared myotis (myotis evotis)
little brown myotis (myotis lucifugus)
fringed myotis (myotis thysanodes)
long-legged myotis (myotis volans)
gapper's red-backed vole (clethrionomys gapperi)
long-tailed vole (microtus longicaudus)
montane vole (microtus montanus)
meadow vole (microtus pennsylvanicus)
bushy-tailed woodrat (neoloma cinerea)
deer mouse (peromyscus maniculatus)
western jumping mouse (zapus princeps)
masked shrew (sorex cinereus)
montane shrew (sorex monticolus)
water shrew (sorex palustris)
vagrant shrew (sorex vagrans)
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