{"id":105481,"date":"2022-08-28T04:03:07","date_gmt":"2022-08-28T10:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=105481"},"modified":"2022-08-28T04:03:07","modified_gmt":"2022-08-28T10:03:07","slug":"roadside-young-rock-squirrel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/08\/28\/roadside-young-rock-squirrel\/","title":{"rendered":"Roadside Young Rock Squirrel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"YoungYoung Rock Squirrel portrait \u2013 Nikon D500, f9, 1\/1600, ISO 640, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Almost two weeks ago I took a series of images of this young Rock Squirrel<\/span><\/a> near its burrow next to a dusty dirt road high in the Wasatch Mountains. When I slowly drove closer to the squirrel I thought it would take off but it stood its ground. I was able to pull over onto the other side of the road and take portraits of the young squirrel.<\/p>\n

I don’t get these Rock Squirrels in my viewfinder as often as I would like. More often than not I see them running up the slopes through my windshield and disappearing from my sight before I can get to them. For that reason I was thrilled to take photos of this youngster. I was even happier that my images were portraits because of the fine details I can see in my photos.<\/p>\n

A bicyclist rode past me which scared the young Rock Squirrel into its burrow but before then I was able to take thirty-six\u00a0 images of the squirrel. I waited around hoping that the squirrel would come back but after about five minutes I headed down the road.<\/p>\n

I was disappointed that the squirrel didn’t come back above ground but leaving it when I did was the right choice. Just a few minutes later I stopped for my lifer photos of a young Yellow-breasted Chat<\/span><\/a>. If I had waited longer to leave I would have missed out on seeing and photographing the chat. Some people might call that luck, chance or good timing. I personally like calling it a moment of sweet serendipity.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my Rock Squirrel photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost two weeks ago I took a series of images of this young Rock Squirrel near its burrow next to a dusty dirt road high in the Wasatch Mountains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":105153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4594,5661,26,773,99],"tags":[3940,4142,5370,6259,4067,1632,4069,5662,4046,5663,3826,3827,2315,4193],"class_list":["post-105481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-morgan-county","category-rock-squirrels","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","category-wildlife","tag-canyon","tag-close-up","tag-forest","tag-forest-edge","tag-immature","tag-mammals","tag-mountains","tag-otospermophilus-variegatus","tag-portrait","tag-rock-squirrel","tag-squirrel","tag-squirrels","tag-summer-3","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/rock-squirrel-young-burrow-mia-mcpherson-5311.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-rrj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":99148,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/01\/21\/squirrel-appreciation-day-2022\/","url_meta":{"origin":105481,"position":0},"title":"Squirrel Appreciation Day 2022","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 21, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"January 21st is Squirrel Appreciation Day around the globe. There are many reasons to appreciate these furry, four legged, cute creatures.\u00a0","rel":"","context":"In "Box Elder County"","block_context":{"text":"Box Elder County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/box-elder-county-utah\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Baby Uinta Ground Squirrel calling from a rock, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/uinta-ground-squirrel-baby-calling-mia-mcpherson-4066.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/uinta-ground-squirrel-baby-calling-mia-mcpherson-4066.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/uinta-ground-squirrel-baby-calling-mia-mcpherson-4066.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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McPherson","date":"September 13, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I spent the morning up in the Wasatch Mountains yesterday where one of the furry creatures I saw and photographed was a Rock Squirrel on a lichen encrusted boulder.","rel":"","context":"In "Rock Squirrels"","block_context":{"text":"Rock Squirrels","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/rock-squirrels\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Rock Squirrel on a lichen encrusted boulder, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rock-squirrel-adult-lichen-covered-boulder-mia-mcpherson-5937.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rock-squirrel-adult-lichen-covered-boulder-mia-mcpherson-5937.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Utah.","rel":"","context":"In "Summit County"","block_context":{"text":"Summit County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/summit-county-utah\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Young Uinta Ground Squirrel in the Wasatch Mountains, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/uinta-ground-squirrel-baby-mia-mcpherson-1041.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/uinta-ground-squirrel-baby-mia-mcpherson-1041.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/uinta-ground-squirrel-baby-mia-mcpherson-1041.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/uinta-ground-squirrel-baby-mia-mcpherson-5803.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/uinta-ground-squirrel-baby-mia-mcpherson-5803.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/uinta-ground-squirrel-baby-mia-mcpherson-5803.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/uinta-ground-squirrel-baby-mia-mcpherson-5803.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":102952,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/06\/06\/more-cute-baby-uinta-ground-squirrels\/","url_meta":{"origin":105481,"position":5},"title":"More Cute Baby Uinta Ground Squirrels","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week while up in the Wasatch Mountains with my friend Steve I took more images of cute baby Uinta Ground Squirrels. I simply can't resist them.","rel":"","context":"In "Summit County"","block_context":{"text":"Summit County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/summit-county-utah\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cuddling baby Uinta Ground Squirrels, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/uinta-ground-squirrel-baby-mia-mcpherson-5017.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/uinta-ground-squirrel-baby-mia-mcpherson-5017.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/uinta-ground-squirrel-baby-mia-mcpherson-5017.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/uinta-ground-squirrel-baby-mia-mcpherson-5017.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}