{"id":86402,"date":"2021-04-30T05:34:13","date_gmt":"2021-04-30T11:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=86402"},"modified":"2026-03-11T13:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T18:50:10","slug":"my-first-of-year-uinta-ground-squirrels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/04\/30\/my-first-of-year-uinta-ground-squirrels\/","title":{"rendered":"My First Of Year Uinta Ground Squirrels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I spent some time up in the Wasatch Mountains<\/span><\/a> where I found and photographed my first of year Uinta Ground Squirrels with frost on the ground.<\/p>\n

\"StandingStanding Uinta Ground Squirrel and frost \u2013 Nikon D500, f9, 1\/640, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When I was in the mountains in March it was still too early to see these ground squirrels but they are out and about now and it was wonderful to hear their calls and see them above ground.<\/p>\n

I know that some people think these squirrels are pests. I don’t and they are fun to photograph too, especially the babies who should be making their appearance before too long.<\/p>\n

\"TwoTwo Uinta Ground Squirrels on a frosty April morning \u2013 Nikon D500, f13, 1\/320, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

These two adult Uinta Ground Squirrels stood side by side for the longest time above their burrow in the frosty grasses. When I left the squirrels they were still standing next to each other.<\/p>\n

\"UintaUinta Ground Squirrel standing in frosted grasses \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Uinta Ground Squirrels spend only a few months above ground so I try to photograph them as often as I can where ever I can. I photographed a few more ground squirrels yesterday morning but I liked these images that included the frosted grasses the most. The frost on the grasses sparkled like tiny diamonds in the bright morning light.<\/p>\n

It won’t be long before it is too warm even in the high Wasatch Mountains for frost to form. It is supposed to be 83\u00b0F down here in the valley today!<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

Yesterday I spent some time up in the Wasatch Mountains where I found and photographed my first of year Uinta Ground Squirrels with frost on the ground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":171719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1731,1630,26,773],"tags":[4004,3940,3983,6904,368,3747,4109,1631,5071,4378,4069,6456,165,3826,3827,953,2619,2620],"class_list":["post-86402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-summit-county-utah","category-uinta-ground-squirrel","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","tag-adult","tag-canyon","tag-frost","tag-frosted","tag-frosty","tag-grass","tag-grasses","tag-ground-squirrel","tag-ground-squirrels","tag-morning","tag-mountains","tag-side-by-side","tag-spring","tag-squirrel","tag-squirrels","tag-standing","tag-uinta-ground-squirrel-2","tag-urocitellus-armatus"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/uinta-ground-squirrels-frosty-morning-mia-mcpherson-2534.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-mtA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":101468,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/04\/08\/my-first-of-year-uinta-ground-squirrel-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":86402,"position":0},"title":"My 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Love them, or hate them, there is no denying that they are fun, fascinating, beguiling, fuzzy creatures!","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":"Dozing Uinta Ground Squirrel, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/uinta-ground-squirrel-adult-closed-eyes-mia-mcpherson-5141.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/uinta-ground-squirrel-adult-closed-eyes-mia-mcpherson-5141.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/uinta-ground-squirrel-adult-closed-eyes-mia-mcpherson-5141.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/uinta-ground-squirrel-adult-closed-eyes-mia-mcpherson-5141.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\/86402","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=86402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}