Photo of the Day: Whassat?

Whassat?, originally uploaded by JeremyT.

Prairie dogs fascinate me, and I think I could probably spend my entire day watching them goof off, if I felt like I had the time.

I do wish I had a longer lens, say, a 300mm or more, so that I could get decent shots of them. I had to push the limits to even get this picture. He looks relatively calm in this photo, but the truth is, that little guy was chirping and crying, letting all of his colony members know that I was standing there.

The funny thing was, he was about one of sixty or so sounding the alarm, all over the area. Their colony sits surrounded by hiking and jogging trails, and on Saturday, the area was busy. I can't imagine what that feels like. Most of the week, they live in relative peace, but then, every weekend, they get invaded by giants who don't really do them any harm, but sure as hell scare them. Story idea in there somewhere.