Mammal Watching
I went birding today at a local state park with my wife and ended up parked in the middle of a prairie dog colony. I was looking for Burrowing Owls, but ended up absorbing myself in the antics of these furry little Sciurids (squirrels).
Several of the little buggers approached the car. Hmmm. Somebody’s been feeding the wildlife.
The coolest thing by far though was a territorial behavior we witnessed between (presumably) two males. One prairie dog would approach the other, who would turn it’s tail, raised up in the air, towards it’s opponent. After a while, it would turn around, and it’s opponent would turn around too. In other words, someone was always looking at their opponent’s butt. They even made short sprints at each other.
We didn’t know at first whether they were going to mate or fight. Being the voyeurs that we are, we kept watching. We got our answer when suddenly two prairie dogs became one large blur as they rolled around violently on the ground. It was a heck of a fight and pure fun to witness.
As we kept birding, we noticed that the mockingbirds in the area would intersperse their song with perfect mimicry of prairie dog scolding and alarm calls.
The birding was good, but the highlight this morning was watching mammals.
“As we kept birding, we noticed that the mockingbirds in the area would intersperse their song with perfect mimicry of prairie dog scolding and alarm calls.”
What do the prairie dogs do in response?
Did you take bets on which dog would win? Public praire dog fighting and betting may be the next big sport!
Or it might be the next big sport to be outlawed…
As far as the mockingbirds go, the ones we heard mimicking the prairie dogs were quite a ways off from the colony. Point being, there weren’t any prairie dogs around to see if they showed some kind of response to the mockingbirds calls. That would actually have been a cool thing to look out for though.
Nice pics and story. The prairie dog is fun to look at unless you’re a developer needing to put a building on top of their homes. Abilene has a prairie dog town but a developer now has sites on it. I think the prairie dogs are going to loose this fight.
Hello,
It is very intersesting about mockingbirds and their precise duplication of any sound possible. In my area of citrus heights, calif. our birds do the following sounds, pheasants normal and fleaing sound,car alarms,chain saws,truck backup horn beeping,night tree frogs croaking,local domestic parrot calls,woodpeckers pecking wood sound and every bird in the local area. The bird around my property is very active day and night. Perfect duplication of sounds is absolutely amazing!
From a bird lover.
Mark