{"id":111956,"date":"2023-04-02T05:01:43","date_gmt":"2023-04-02T11:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=111956"},"modified":"2023-04-02T05:03:06","modified_gmt":"2023-04-02T11:03:06","slug":"rock-squirrel-tree-topper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/04\/02\/rock-squirrel-tree-topper\/","title":{"rendered":"Rock Squirrel Tree Topper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost three years ago, I photographed this Rock Squirrel perched in top of a juniper in the foothills of some sky island mountains in the West Desert of Utah.<\/p>\n

\"RockRock Squirrel on a juniper on the West Desert \u2013 Nikon D500, f6.3, 1\/2500, ISO 800, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I happen to be fond of Rock Squirrels<\/span><\/a> but I don’t find them as often as I would like. When I do find these squirrels I do my best to get images of them.<\/p>\n

These squirrels aren’t always found among rocks as their name implies, quite often I spot them at the tops of trees. More often than not those trees are junipers but I’ve also found them in pines and sumacs. Rock Squirrels eat the berries of junipers which may be why I see them in these trees as often as I do. They also like to sunbathe and the top of a tree is a great place to soak in the rays of the sun.<\/p>\n

When the sun actually shines after this next snow storm blows through northern Utah I hope to find some of these squirrels again. The storm front is supposed to get here later this evening and bring more snow through Tuesday afternoon. But looking at the long range forecast gives me hope for sunnier skies after this front dumps more snow on us here in Utah. We needed the moisture this winter has given us. It would have been nicer to have just a little more sunshine though than we got.<\/p>\n

The Rock Squirrels?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I doubt that all the gray skies this past winter affected them much at all. They aren’t nearly as dependent on sunshine and good light as this photographer is.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

Almost three years ago, I photographed this Rock Squirrel perched in top of a juniper in the foothills of some sky island mountains in the West Desert of Utah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111952,"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":[5661,358,26,1314],"tags":[4004,7017,3914,4674,2691,4069,5662,5663,4018,10452,165,3826,3827,13795,2690],"class_list":["post-111956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rock-squirrels","category-tooele-county","category-utah","category-west-desert-utah","tag-adult","tag-foothills","tag-juniper","tag-junipers","tag-juniperus-osteosperma","tag-mountains","tag-otospermophilus-variegatus","tag-rock-squirrel","tag-sky","tag-sky-island-mountains","tag-spring","tag-squirrel","tag-squirrels","tag-top","tag-utah-juniper"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rock-squirrel-juniper-mia-mcpherson-0428.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-t7K","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":61299,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/11\/09\/west-desert-rock-squirrel-on-top-of-a-juniper\/","url_meta":{"origin":111956,"position":0},"title":"West Desert Rock Squirrel On Top Of A Juniper","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 9, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A soft blue sky, a juniper and a Rock Squirrel made me pretty happy two days ago because I don't have these squirrels in my viewfinder nearly as often as I'd like to.","rel":"","context":"In "Rock Squirrels"","block_context":{"text":"Rock Squirrels","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/rock-squirrels\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Rock Squirrel at the top of a Juniper tree, Stansbury Mountains, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rock-squirrel-juniper-sky-mia-mcpherson-9697.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-juniper-sky-mia-mcpherson-9697.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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28, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Rock Squirrel was grasping a sumac branch and the shrub was so close to me I wasn't even sure I was going to be able to focus on it.","rel":"","context":"In "Rock Squirrels"","block_context":{"text":"Rock Squirrels","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/rock-squirrels\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Rock Squirrel in a Fragrant Sumac, Stansbury Mountains, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rock-squirrel-sumac-mia-mcpherson-1428.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-sumac-mia-mcpherson-1428.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rock-squirrel-sumac-mia-mcpherson-1428.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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