Winter Coat - Summer Coat

[Doug L]

Mud Lake in West Ottawa is protected from the Ottawa River by a man-made berm about 8 metres high made primarily of sedimentary rock rubble. It has lots of shrubs and trees on top and is known locally as 'the Ridge'. Besides being a great spot for viewing migrating warblers, snapping turtles from Mud Lake lay there eggs there, and many insects, snakes and mammals make a home in the hillside - it's full of tiny holes and tunnels. One of my favourite dwellers to watch is a family of short-tailed weasels, though I haven't seen them recently. These two shots show the same (similar marks in the chewed up ear) critter in his / her? winter and summer fashions. When in winter apparell, they are called ermine. Both are taken with a 200mm F/4 lens.

[Iguanasan]

What a little cutie. I like the way the head is poking out to see what's going on in the first one.

[Marko]

Both very cute shots!

[Richard]

loving that first one.

[Hillbillygirl]

Nice shots Doug. Like the cute peekaboo composition of the first shot, but the quality of the second shot is that much better.

[Lizardqing]

Very cool, that first pose is great!

[Doug L]

... the quality of the second shot is that much better.

Agreed. With shot #1, I remember rushing to capture the pose before the ermine moved - one of the drawbacks from using all - manual lenses and camera settings. Thanks everyone for the comments.

[aubintbay]

Cute guy! I like the peek in that first one!

[asnow]

They are so cute. Really digging that first one with the peek-a boo.

[susan]

Thanks for sharing these little guys with us! Agreed with above statements... Shot one, I may have cropped a little off the left. The noise on the top one is distracting as well. The lower one is a stronger photo in general - IMO.