66230 Pika with harvest
The Pika is related to the rabbit. It lives high in the mountains, and does not hibernate. It has instead evolved a survival strategy, turning into a little harvester: all summer it gathers edible plant matter, piling it into "haystacks" close to its home in rockslide areas, to dry in the sun. Then it stashes the food supply below ground, for winter use.
Watching the activity in a pika colony one morning, I noticed that one individual was using the same route nearly every time between its harvesting and drying locations. On every trip it would pause at this lookout post. So, while it was away cutting, I hid in the rocks, pre-focused on the lookout post, and waited. Within two minutes my little friend had arrived and I got off six or seven shots before it darted away.
I'll admit that I was very lucky. The light at that moment was soft, yet bright; the background was good, the focus sharp. And look at that mouthful! Grasses, yarrow stalks, even a red strawberry leaf. Nice catch-light in the eye, too. Sometimes it all comes together perfectly.
I waited around another 4 hours, but didn't get anything of this calibre in subsequent shots...
Scanned from the original Fujichrome Provia slide, August 1995. Don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without explicit permission © 1995 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
66230 Pika with harvest
The Pika is related to the rabbit. It lives high in the mountains, and does not hibernate. It has instead evolved a survival strategy, turning into a little harvester: all summer it gathers edible plant matter, piling it into "haystacks" close to its home in rockslide areas, to dry in the sun. Then it stashes the food supply below ground, for winter use.
Watching the activity in a pika colony one morning, I noticed that one individual was using the same route nearly every time between its harvesting and drying locations. On every trip it would pause at this lookout post. So, while it was away cutting, I hid in the rocks, pre-focused on the lookout post, and waited. Within two minutes my little friend had arrived and I got off six or seven shots before it darted away.
I'll admit that I was very lucky. The light at that moment was soft, yet bright; the background was good, the focus sharp. And look at that mouthful! Grasses, yarrow stalks, even a red strawberry leaf. Nice catch-light in the eye, too. Sometimes it all comes together perfectly.
I waited around another 4 hours, but didn't get anything of this calibre in subsequent shots...
Scanned from the original Fujichrome Provia slide, August 1995. Don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without explicit permission © 1995 James R. Page - all rights reserved.