Kirkham Trail

It's not quite as warm today, but it was warm enough that I ventured over to the Kirkham Trail. Lots of cool stuff to see, but I'm going to focus on non-plantlife for the moment. Click below for wildlife encounters.

The first rabbit of the year! (Which I wouldn't have even seen if I hadn't startled him and sent him hopping for a different bush)


And the first robin of the year:


A magpie. The magpies were a mite infuriating. Every time I moved to get a better angle, they hid. I wasn't trying to get close to them. *sighs* I managed to get a few decent shots, though.


And a butterfly. I've seen one like this before...but I don't feel like digging through books or the archives to find it. I was just surprised to see a butterfly out this early. [UPDATE: I think it's some sort of tortoiseshell, likely Milbert's Tortoiseshell. The other two tortoiseshells on the site don't have ranges anywhere near Idaho, but I'm sure there are some tortoiseshells not pictured on the site. Although...the Milbert's tortoiseshell isn't expected out this time of year, so possibly it could be a California Patch that got blown off course? *shrugs*]


Last, some sort of white weasel. I've never seen an animal like this in the wild. I only managed to get the one picture, and I was just lucky it (mostly) turned out. My scale could be off, since I was a fair distance away, but I think his body was about 6 inches long and maybe 1.5 inches thick, with a 6-8 inch tail that looked a lot like a rat's tail. I have a total of two weasels in my one book with mammals in it, and both have furry tails. *shrugs* [UPDATE: My best guess is that it's a Least Weasel that either had lost the fur on its tail, or had such sparse fur there that the tail looked bare.]