While Helen Waited

Our technique on the Short-tailed Hawk vigils has been to split up and watch from different vantage points. Helen and Noel have stayed in contact with handheld radios. We've each had marvelous encounters with wildlife.

Yesterday, the hours passed quickly for Helen, who found no end of entertainment with this family of Cliff Chipmunks.

Cliff Chipmunk family (Photo by Helen Snyder)

She wrote, "These little guys were at exactly the same stage of innocence as the young Short-tail on the other side of the ridge. On Saturday I watched him charging around the outside of a pine tree, snatching at terminal clusters of needles or pine cones––a crazy zig-zaggy dash that took him about 10 seconds, during which time he snatched maybe six times at imaginary prey."

How rich are these mountains, and how rich the hours we spend there!