Ground Hog's day 2011

Other than holidays that are celebrated with candy, Groundhog's Day is my FAV.O.RITE.  I'm biased because it's my birthday. I didn't lay eyes on a for-real-groundhog until I was an adult, but I've always felt attracted to all animals, small rodents in particular.  Seems coincidental that my research has been with field mice and in prairies and woodlands. 
Since I was a kid, I was outdoors, playing in the grass, trying to get a closer look at the animals.  Now that I'm a trained biologist, what are considered professional skills seem almost like super powers that I learned to wield.  Part of me sometimes wonder if being born on Groundhog's Day pre-destined my steps in zoology.  Is the Groundhog my spirit guide? Am I ruled by the Order Rodentia? I don't know.


But even as a young child - and still today - I always have had this unexplicable attraction to animals and wild places.  I can just spot a nest or den or an animal hiding in plan sight. I've got the eye or ear or something.  I always seem to be in the right place at the right time. (Though I seldom have a camera or a good lens to document the occassions). This was one of those luck times, however.



Groundhogs in the City.
Recorded summer 2010, behind a business park parking lot off of Brentwood Boulevard in St. Louis, Missouri. Shout out to my sister who pointed out the little guys to me.