One of the small creatures from our visit to Grand Teton National Park.

While staying in the Gros Ventre Campground, these guys were pretty regular visitors and provided some entertainment as they went about scavenging for food.

The Uinta ground squirrel has a somewhat small range in western Wyoming, southwestern Montana, eastern Idaho and northern Utah. Most notable about them is their lengthy hibernation. They will head to their burrows as early as mid-July and not emerge until mid-March. That makes for a pretty long winter’s nap!

In the wake of last weekend’s blizzard, we still have a good bit of snow in the backyard. The birds have been constant visitors to the feeders and the squirrels come by to grab what they drop.

This cute lady was hanging out one afternoon this week, picking up the sunflower seeds and peanuts off the ground. The squirrels’ visits are usually pretty fleeting as our dogs are less than thrilled when they are around and calamity ensues once they are let out. 😉

The neighborhood squirrels can’t get directly to the bird feeder that has the peanuts but, lucky for them, plenty fall to the ground. This one wasn’t shy about eating its stolen meal right in front of me. 😉

It’s not trespassing if you don’t touch the ground, right?  😉 

The neighborhood fox squirrels oftentimes come by, looking for leftovers that have fallen below our bird feeders. They are quite cautious though as they know if my dogs see them, they need to be prepared to run.

This squirrel yesterday was quite wary as it lowered itself down from the fence, slowly working closer to a potential jackpot. Lucky for it, Scout and Ellie happened to be inside at the time.

The saying is, “even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then.” This little guy was almost certainly not blind and it knew exactly where to dig to find that nut.

My wife and I were sitting at our campsite one evening last weekend. This squirrel hopped over to a spot under a nearby tree and began digging. Soon it had worked its way down a couple of inches below the top of the ground cover and then popped up with what looks like an acorn.

Pretty funny to watch and impressive how it seemed to know exactly where it had hidden the nut to begin with. Heck, if I put down my glasses I can’t remember where I put them 5 minutes ago.  😉

On this photo outing last week, I found myself switching from one of the biggest creatures in the forest to one of the smallest.

The moose were grazing nearby and I was happily photographing them when motion from this golden mantled squirrel got my attention.

It was busy scurrying about, looking for a meal, when it found this flowery bush. I have no idea what kind of flower / bush that is but the pods on it were apparently to the squirrel’s liking as it proceeded to really pig out on them.

Here it is seen pulling a branch down so it can grab one.

The one, specific squirrel that I actually am able to recognize due to its location and unique coloring.

I have observed this little guy for a few years now hanging out in the trees near one of my favorite bald eagle spots. It happily goes about its work eating and hanging out, all the while within easy reach of the raptors.

A few years ago, I actually watched it get quite close to one of the resident eagles as they enjoyed a bit of a game. You can check out that video here.

A common creature and not one that I normally photograph. However, one day this past week, this one seemed truly enamored with me.

I was taking pictures of a different creature and the #squirrel was constantly staring at me. It kind of made me self-conscious. 😉 I figured I would snap the little one’s pic since it was being so cooperative.

It looked a little bit raggedy with its fur kind of a mess and that crazy tail.

So, I just learned it is National Squirrel Appreciation Day. Go figure. I never knew there was such a thing! Certainly I would hate to not give the little bushy-tailed creatures their due so here you go.

This one was hanging out in a local open space not far from where I live back in October. Normally I wouldn’t have bothered taking pics of it but it did look pretty cute up there

This was one fast-moving little creature. While in Katmai National Park and Preserve, I spotted quite a few of them but they were not ones to linger. They would dart in and out of their holes, rarely stopping at all. This one let me get one capture before running off on its summer errands.

The arctic ground squirrel is a fascinating little creature. It hibernates for 7 to 8 months out of the year. During that time, its core body temperature actually will drop to below freezing!

This is called supercooling and during that time it will have body temperatures down to 27 degrees, the lowest body temperature known in any mammal. Its heart-rate will drop to a mere one beat per minute while hibernating as well.