{"id":81345,"date":"2021-03-13T06:13:39","date_gmt":"2021-03-13T13:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=81345"},"modified":"2025-05-26T06:37:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T11:37:23","slug":"white-tailed-prairie-dog-at-sunset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/03\/13\/white-tailed-prairie-dog-at-sunset\/","title":{"rendered":"White-tailed Prairie Dog At Sunset"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"White-tailedWhite-tailed Prairie Dog at sunset \u2013 Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/500, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

March means spring to me and there are signs of spring that I look for. The first of year sighting of a White-tailed Prairie Dog is a sign of spring for me.<\/p>\n

I don’t see White-tailed Prairie Dogs locally though and to look for them it means I have to travel. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic I haven’t traveled outside of my local area for over a year.<\/p>\n

I photographed this White-tailed Prairie Dog at sunset in March of 2015 on the wind-swept Aquarius Plateau<\/span><\/a> of Utah. There was a small colony of prairie dogs that weren’t too far from the edge of the narrow dirt road that I was on. I had gone to the plateau to look for Greater Sage-Grouse<\/span><\/a> and finding the prairie dogs was an added joy.<\/p>\n

Photographing the White-tailed Prairie Dogs in the fading light was a bit challenging. I didn’t mind though, I would have stayed and photographed them in a pouring rain or temps below zero. That is just how thrilled I was to find them.<\/p>\n

Every time I see prairie dogs I am reminded of when me and Beau, my Springer Spaniel, drove to the Western U.S. in 2001 to start a new life. We came across our first prairie dogs at a rest area in Wyoming. Beau had never seen them before and he got so excited that his stubby, little tail wagged at 90 mph.\u00a0 I believe that Beau thought they were little dogs and that he wanted to play with them. I even had trouble getting Beau back into my Jeep when it was time to get back on the road and he was an extremely well behaved dog. I lost my sweet Beau to a brain tumor about 7 months later. I can’t see these little “dogs” now without thinking of him.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good. It tugs at my heart at times, but it is still good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

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

March means spring to me and there are signs of spring that I look for. The first of year sighting of a White-tailed Prairie Dog is a sign of spring for me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":147420,"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":[26,2486,3473,99],"tags":[4004,6957,3474,4098,14566,307,1632,9005,4947,165,3993,3475],"class_list":["post-81345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-utah","category-wayne-county","category-white-tailed-prairie-dogs","category-wildlife","tag-adult","tag-aquarius-plateau","tag-cynomys-leucurus","tag-desert","tag-desert-plateau","tag-evening","tag-mammals","tag-prairie-dog","tag-prairie-dogs","tag-spring","tag-sunset","tag-white-tailed-prairie-dog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/white-tailed-prairie-dog-at-sunset-mia-mcpherson-7290.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-la1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":144303,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/05\/16\/young-black-tailed-prairie-dog-with-parent\/","url_meta":{"origin":81345,"position":0},"title":"Young 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