{"id":137953,"date":"2024-12-20T02:34:34","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T08:34:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=137953"},"modified":"2026-04-28T05:48:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T10:48:30","slug":"virginia-opossum-at-sequoyah-national-wildlife-refuge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/12\/20\/virginia-opossum-at-sequoyah-national-wildlife-refuge\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia Opossum At Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge"},"content":{"rendered":"

I finally have Virginia Opossum photos that I feel are good enough to share! These “possum” images were taken yesterday at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge.<\/p>\n

My friend and wildlife photographer, Steve Creek<\/span><\/a>, spotted the possum and got us into position to take photos of it.<\/p>\n

\"VirginiaVirginia Opossum at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma \u2013 Canon R7, handheld, f11, 1\/1250, ISO 1000, -0.3 EV, Canon 100-400mm at 263mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve taken a few opossum photos in Arkansas, but none I was happy with until yesterday. I have been trying, hard, in fact, to take images like these.<\/p>\n

\"FallFall Virginia Opossum at Sequoyah NWR \u2013 Canon R7, handheld, f11, 1\/1250, ISO 1000, -0.3 EV, Canon 100-400mm at 234mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Every time I see a possum, I am reminded of an encounter I had with one during a snowstorm in my garden in Virginia. It was late at night, and I was already dressed in a warm flannel nightgown, ready to go to sleep. My English Springer Spaniel, Beau, let me know he needed to go out one more time.<\/p>\n

I put a heavy coat over my nightgown, pulled on some snow boots, and turned on the outside floodlight before letting him out the back porch door. Beau went on alert as soon as he spotted a possum on the east side of the porch. I quickly grabbed his collar and dragged him back inside.<\/p>\n

Then I stood there, snow swirling around me, with nearly 12 inches already on the ground, wondering what to do. The possum? It was playing dead.<\/p>\n

I trudged through the deep snow, found the snow shovel in my shed, walked back to where the possum was still playing dead, scooped it up into the shovel, and carried it to the chain-link fence. I lowered the possum onto a mound of snow outside the fence.<\/p>\n

Beau could finally come back out to answer his call of nature while I stood there laughing about how crazy everything that had happened, and how I must have looked. I still laugh about that cold winter night.<\/p>\n

My neighbors already thought I was a little odd, and they would have thought I was even stranger if they could have seen what went on with the possum. Not that I would have cared one tiny bit.<\/p>\n

\"VirginiaVirginia Opossum walking near a road \u2013 Canon R7, handheld, f11, 1\/1250, ISO 1000, -0.3 EV, Canon 100-400mm at 263mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyhow, taking these Virginia Opossum photos yesterday was great fun, and the possum brought back a terrific and funny memory. Now, I finally have a gallery for these amazing marsupials.<\/p>\n

Isn’t life simply grand?<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Check here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my mammal photos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I finally have Virginia Opossum photos that I feel are good enough to share! These “possum” images were taken yesterday at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137939,"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":[13973,13974,16049],"tags":[4004,970,14190,13984,16058,4620,4109,6583,16059,16060,16061,16062,2326,4427,10660,1232,16057,4236],"class_list":["post-137953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oklahoma","category-sequoyah-national-wildlife-refuge","category-virginia-opossums","tag-adult","tag-autumn","tag-bottomland-hardwood-forest","tag-bottomlands","tag-didelphis-virginiana","tag-fall","tag-grasses","tag-leaves","tag-opossum","tag-opossums","tag-possum","tag-possums","tag-road","tag-tree","tag-tree-trunk","tag-vines","tag-virginia-opossum","tag-walking"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/virginia-opossum-sequoyah-nwr-mia-mcpherson-0155.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-zT3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":114113,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/07\/04\/female-and-male-common-whitetail-dragonfly-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":137953,"position":0},"title":"Female And Male Common Whitetail Dragonfly Photos","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 4, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month, while visiting Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma, I was able to take quite a few female and male Common Whitetail dragonfly photos.","rel":"","context":"In "Common Whitetail"","block_context":{"text":"Common Whitetail","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/common-whitetail\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Common Whitetail dragonfly on a fallen tree, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/common-whitetail-dragonfly-male-oklahoma-mia-mcpherson-2739.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/common-whitetail-dragonfly-male-oklahoma-mia-mcpherson-2739.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/common-whitetail-dragonfly-male-oklahoma-mia-mcpherson-2739.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/common-whitetail-dragonfly-male-oklahoma-mia-mcpherson-2739.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":137610,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/11\/29\/blizzards-of-snow-geese-now-at-sequoyah-national-wildlife-refuge\/","url_meta":{"origin":137953,"position":1},"title":"Blizzards Of Snow Geese Now At Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 29, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Blizzards of Snow Geese have arrived at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge! I\u2019m so excited about all of the Snow Geese that I can barely contain myself. Wow!","rel":"","context":"In "Oklahoma"","block_context":{"text":"Oklahoma","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/oklahoma\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Flock of Snow Geese blasting off at Sequoyah NWR, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/snow-geese-sequoyah-nwr-mia-mcpherson-3778.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/snow-geese-sequoyah-nwr-mia-mcpherson-3778.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/snow-geese-sequoyah-nwr-mia-mcpherson-3778.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/snow-geese-sequoyah-nwr-mia-mcpherson-3778.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":137622,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/11\/30\/male-pileated-woodpecker-up-a-tree\/","url_meta":{"origin":137953,"position":2},"title":"Male Pileated Woodpecker Up A Tree","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 30, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier this week, I was happy when I took my first acceptable images of a male Pileated Woodpecker in a tree at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma.","rel":"","context":"In "Oklahoma"","block_context":{"text":"Oklahoma","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/oklahoma\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Pileated Woodpecker in a tree at Sequoyah NWR, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pileated-woodpecker-male-sequoyah-mia-mcpherson-2762.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pileated-woodpecker-male-sequoyah-mia-mcpherson-2762.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pileated-woodpecker-male-sequoyah-mia-mcpherson-2762.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pileated-woodpecker-male-sequoyah-mia-mcpherson-2762.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":115070,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/08\/09\/great-blue-heron-and-azolla-at-sequoyah-nwr\/","url_meta":{"origin":137953,"position":3},"title":"Great Blue Heron And Azolla at Sequoyah NWR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 9, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A quick post about a Great Blue Heron hunting for breakfast in Azolla at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in June in Oklahoma.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Blue Heron at Sequoyah NWR, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/great-blue-heron-azolla-mia-mcpherson-1153.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/great-blue-heron-azolla-mia-mcpherson-1153.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/great-blue-heron-azolla-mia-mcpherson-1153.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/great-blue-heron-azolla-mia-mcpherson-1153.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":160494,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/10\/16\/mid-october-scenery-at-sequoyah-national-wildlife-refuge-in-oklahoma\/","url_meta":{"origin":137953,"position":4},"title":"Mid October Scenery At Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge In Oklahoma","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday morning before sunrise I was on my way to Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma. I was in need of a nature break.\u00a0","rel":"","context":"In "Oklahoma"","block_context":{"text":"Oklahoma","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/oklahoma\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mid October scenery at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/sequoyah-NWR-autumn-small-mia-mcpherson-093521.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/sequoyah-NWR-autumn-small-mia-mcpherson-093521.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/sequoyah-NWR-autumn-small-mia-mcpherson-093521.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/sequoyah-NWR-autumn-small-mia-mcpherson-093521.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":113894,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/06\/20\/male-indigo-bunting-at-sequoyah-nwr\/","url_meta":{"origin":137953,"position":5},"title":"Male Indigo Bunting at Sequoyah NWR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 20, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm thrilled with the photos I took of a male Indigo Bunting at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma yesterday morning near the Arkansas River.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Indigo Bunting near the Arkansas River, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/indigo-bunting-adult-male-oklahoma-mia-mcpherson-0383.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/indigo-bunting-adult-male-oklahoma-mia-mcpherson-0383.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/indigo-bunting-adult-male-oklahoma-mia-mcpherson-0383.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/indigo-bunting-adult-male-oklahoma-mia-mcpherson-0383.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\/137953","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=137953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}