Snake and Rat (Cat and Mouse)

I am still trying to catch up on all of the images I created this last summer and fall, and just yesterday I was working on images of ord's kangaroo rats that I photographed in the Painted Hills Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. This is a spectacular place to visit, and I really enjoyed my little hike into the desert to photograph these kangaroo rats (they aren't really rats, but that is a story for another day).

I actually need to get better images of these little guys, but I do find this image interesting since it is a good example of their bi-pedal method of locomotion.



One evening, after I had just finished setting up for the kangaroo rats, Just a few yards away I ran into this patient rattlesnake, apparently just waiting for evening to fall and the hunt to begin.



Kangaroo rats are charismatic and generally easy going members of the rodent family. I occasionally forget that, for them, death could be just around the next shrub.