American Marten (Martes americana), Mirror Lake, Wasatch National Forest, Duchesne County, Utah - 16 August 2012. We first detected this predator by the alarm calls of a nearby chipmunk.
aka Sky Pilot?
Saw about a dozen of these beauties along the treeless trail, but the highlight might have been a Red-breasted Nuthatch zipping just over my head at 12,000 feet.
Is it a mouse? a squirrel? someones escaped pet hamster?Nope,its a Pika. Related to rabbits, they live in rock piles in the high mountains of the west, as well as Asia, were they make their broken kazoo calls from the rocks when they see danger,real or imagined.
