Bushy-Tailed Woodrat (Neotoma cinerea)

It doesn't take long for animals to re-purpose human-made structures for their own benefit. In a long abandoned shack, I photographed this bushy-tailed woodrat scurrying along a shelf, past an old can of turpentine, and out the window. He seemed quite at home. 



bushy-tailed woodrat (Neotoma cinerea) in an abandoned shack



abandoned shack

Oregon's Painted Hills

My wife and 12 year old daughter accompanied me out to Central Oregon on assignment, and we used the opportunity to visit Painted Hills – part of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Unusually mild winter weather made the visit extra pleasant, and we had the entire place to ourselves. We didn't see a soul.


From Wikipedia: Painted Hills is named after the colorful layers of its hills corresponding to various geological eras, formed when the area was an ancient river floodplain. The black soil is lignite that was vegetative matter that grew along the floodplain. The grey coloring is mudstone, siltstone, and shale.^[3] The red coloring is laterite soil that formed by floodplain deposits when the area was warm and humid.^{[4]An abundance of fossil remains of early horses, camels, and rhinoceroses in the Painted Hills unit makes the area particularly important to vertebrate paleontologists.[5]}



Painted Hills, part of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.


Painted Hills, Oregon


On the way home this old bunk house caught my eye. I don't normally photograph abandoned structures – but this lonely building sitting in a patch of sun was irresistible. It appears to be in the early stages of a slow motion collapse and resembles a warped illustration of a building...

The Rat Lowdown

It seems that few people appreciate rats, primarily because we tend to see them in the creepiest places. Like the sewer. Not a lovely spot unless you are pretty low on the totem pole. The sewer rat however, comes from Europe and has followed civilization around the world. They have made an art form out of living off the refuse of humans. It is probably among the least attractive members of this class of rodents. Note the lovely naked, scaly tail.



My wife, daughter and I went to see the new version of Charlotte's Web and I was surprised to see the sympathetic treatment of "Templeton" the rat. Sure he comes across as a self-centered lout, but even he eventually succumbs to the charms of Charlotte and Wilbur and spends time selflessly guarding the spider's egg sac. Templeton appears to be a European brown rat, the same species that haunts Portland's nether regions. However he has the curious habit of collecting trinkets and other curious items. This behavior is more reflective of the pack rat.
Pack rats are native to North America, and I recently photographed one in an abandoned shed in NE Oregon scurrying across a shelf with a rusty old turpentine can.



Please note the furry tail. While I wouldn't want one in my house, I think these little fellows are bit more gifted on the "cute" end of the scale. Feel free to disagree.