{"id":27836,"date":"2015-08-26T06:06:04","date_gmt":"2015-08-26T12:06:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=27836"},"modified":"2026-04-28T06:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T11:11:08","slug":"an-injured-long-tailed-weasel-and-a-snowy-egret-entangled-in-rope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/08\/26\/an-injured-long-tailed-weasel-and-a-snowy-egret-entangled-in-rope\/","title":{"rendered":"An Injured Long-tailed Weasel and a Snowy Egret Entangled in Rope"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Long-tailedA Long-tailed Weasel at a burrow – Nikon D810, f6.3, 1\/2000, ISO 640, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Life is hard for birds and animals around the globe and in my small patch of the planet too. Three days ago while photographing at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a> I came across a Long-tailed Weasel and had hope to get some high quality images of it but it stayed on the road for the most part which didn’t give me nice, natural backgrounds. I liked this image of the weasel at a burrow in the gravel road though.<\/p>\n

\"PortraitPortrait of the injured Long-tailed Weasel – Nikon D810, f6.3, 1\/2500, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

And this one of the Long-tailed Weasel at the side of the road that shows its face, dark eyes and cute rounded ears but it also shows that the weasel appears to be injured on the left of its nose. The fleshy part of the nose just does not look right.<\/p>\n

\"CloseClose up of the Long-tailed Weasel’s facial injury – Nikon D810, f6.3, 1\/1600, ISO 640, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I only had a few long-distance, poor quality images of the weasel where I could crop in 100% to show the injury and in this close up I can see a healed gash to the left of the weasel’s nose along with being able to see some of its teeth. Long-tailed Weasels are extremely aggressive even with their own kind and it is likely that this weasel got into a fight with another weasel and lived to walk away. I have photographed a weasel carrying another dead weasel and I suspect the one killed the other.<\/p>\n

Life is hard even if you are a weasel but I suspect that even with this injury the weasel will do just fine.<\/p>\n

\"SnowyA Snowy Egret with rope around its leg – Nikon D810, f6.3, 1\/4000, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

While I was heading east on the south side of the auto tour loop I also photographed a Snowy Egret with rope entangled around its left leg. Fortunately the rope hasn’t yet constricted the leg and caused it to swell below the rope and the egret can fly which would make it very difficult to capture it and remove the rope at this point and the egret looks healthy. My concern at this point is if the rope gets entangled on vegetation, a stump or other object that the egret could possibly starve to death.<\/p>\n

For me one of these images is harder to view than the others because in the first three the injury is naturally caused but the image of the Snowy Egret makes me cringe because its problem is<\/em> purely man made.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

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

And this one of the Long-tailed Weasel at the side of the road that shows its face, dark eyes and cute rounded ears but it also shows that the weasel appears to be injured on the left of its nose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":116667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,27,1148,1157,255,26],"tags":[4004,4054,4142,743,351,4120,9887,9884,9886,3815,4607,2416,4094,1162,9885,4046,2326,4606,3988,9708,2774,2775],"class_list":["post-27836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-long-tailed-weasels","category-snowy-egrets","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-burrow","tag-close-up","tag-egret","tag-egrets","tag-egretta-thula","tag-entangled","tag-gash","tag-healed","tag-injured","tag-injury","tag-long-tailed-weasel","tag-marsh","tag-neogale-frenata","tag-nose","tag-portrait","tag-road","tag-rope","tag-snowy-egret","tag-tangled","tag-weasel","tag-weasels"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/long-tailed-weasel-burrow-mia-mcpherson-0818.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-7eY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":93805,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/08\/22\/four-long-tailed-weasel-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":27836,"position":0},"title":"Four Long-tailed Weasel Photos","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 22, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I have shared photos of this Long-tailed Weasel before but I liked these four images that I hadn't edited and wanted to share them today.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Long-tailed Weasel standing in tall grasses, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/long-tailed-weasel-adult-mia-mcpherson-0891.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/long-tailed-weasel-adult-mia-mcpherson-0891.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Avocets","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/shorebirds\/american-avocets\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Black-crowned Night Heron adult hunting in the marsh, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-crowned-night-heron-marsh-mia-mcpherson-5630.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-crowned-night-heron-marsh-mia-mcpherson-5630.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-crowned-night-heron-marsh-mia-mcpherson-5630.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-crowned-night-heron-marsh-mia-mcpherson-5630.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":43295,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/11\/30\/long-tailed-weasel-in-winter-white\/","url_meta":{"origin":27836,"position":2},"title":"Long-tailed Weasel in Winter White","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I was able to photograph a Long-tailed Weasel in its white winter coat two years ago at Farmington Bay WMA and although I liked the images they really weren't what I truly desire.","rel":"","context":"In "Davis County"","block_context":{"text":"Davis County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/davis-county-utah\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Long-tailed Weasel on a hillside, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/long-tailed-weasel-winter-coat-mia-mcpherson-1616.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/long-tailed-weasel-winter-coat-mia-mcpherson-1616.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/long-tailed-weasel-winter-coat-mia-mcpherson-1616.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/long-tailed-weasel-winter-coat-mia-mcpherson-1616.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":115739,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/09\/08\/late-summer-long-tailed-weasel-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":27836,"position":3},"title":"Late Summer Long-tailed Weasel Photos","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 8, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I was super excited to take Long-tailed Weasel photos yesterday morning while I was looking for birds to photograph at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area.","rel":"","context":"In "Davis County"","block_context":{"text":"Davis County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/davis-county-utah\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Long-tailed Weasel stopped on a gravel road, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/long-tailed-weasel-summer-mia-mcpherson-9716.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/long-tailed-weasel-summer-mia-mcpherson-9716.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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