Maybe it is just me, but it seems sometimes you are walking with your morning cup of coffee, and a swarm of Orange-crowned and Nashville Warblers starts working through the trees, and you need to use your binoculars, and you have a sudden need for a cup holder, and then you realize why pocket gophers are so useful to have around.
#Coffee #Birding #Spring #Migration #Oregon #Warblers #PocketGopher

Sure, scan the trees and sky for spring migration, but keep an eye out for what's underfoot! In the field down by the ponds the architect of the extensively mounded soil popped his head up for a leafy snack - a Camas pocket gopher! And a big chunky boy at that! With his back turned, just a big brown rodent. Face on, super alien looking! The long top and bottom incisors grow _outside_ the lips, so the front view of the face is all ginormous monster-teeth, all the time!
#PocketGopher #Oregon

One of my research subjects--Geomys texensis. One of a dozen or so species of #PocketGopher. Most closely related to kangaroo rats, pocket mice, and beavers.