Washington Trip Report - part 4 - Turnbull NWR mammals

[kknight]

The scenery at Turnbull NWR was lovely but the really good part of being there was seeing mammals. I saw two moose as well as a porcupine, a few squirrels, and a chipmunk. Squirrels and chipmunks aren't surprising but moose and porcupines are not critters I expect to see during the middle of the day (or at all for that matter).

The moose were among pine trees, grazing on the lower branches. Can you spot the one in this photo?



Here's a better view of one of them












This is the second moose






Douglas Squirrels are the western version of the east coast's American Red Squirrels.










This is a Yellow Pine Chipmunk. It was not cooperative and this was the best photo I managed to get of it.





The porcupine was a brown blob on a rocky mound rising above a marshy area. At first, I couldn't tell what the brown blob was, but eventually it lifted its head and started moving and I could see that it had quills on its back. I never did get any really clear views of it, but at least you can see its face in this photo.





This is what it looked like when I first spotted it, except that it was a lot further away in person.









Eventually it moved off behind some trees