Crazy Woodpecker

While I was sleeping in this weekend, or trying to, a woodpecker kept pecking right near my head outside the window. I thought it was in a nearby tree. When I finally got the energy to raise my head, I was face to face with it only a few inches away! It was clinging to the window staring me right in the eye, as if to say, "what's that person doing in my tree?!". Then it flew off. I was too groggy to see what kind of woodpecker it was, but this is not the first time my sleep has been so rudely interrupted.

Hawk Sighting

Today I was in the yard and saw a hawk high in a tree. Then it flew off through the woods.

Hawk Sighting

Today I was in the yard and a hawk was sitting in a tree and then flew off.

Buck walking off. You can see his hind right leg bends inwards at the knee. Poor guy. But he looks healthy otherwise and it didn't seem to bother him.

Buck eating.

Buck Sighting!

This morning I saw a buck with antlers! Unfortunately, he had a broken hind leg. :( It sort of bent the wrong way and he kind of walked funny, but it may have been an old injury that just healed that way, because otherwise he seemed to be healthy and could walk around. I took some pictures through the window so I will post them tonight, although they probably will be blurry. There was a smaller deer in the area too.

Litter Analysis

Litter tends to blow into our front yard from the street. Being the nerd that I am :) I like to analyze its sources. Mostly it's from people eating fast food (I guess they prefer a clean car to a clean environment), but also from kids' school assignments (they don't have to do their homework if they lose it), and also advertising.

Squirrel.

Raccoon in the rain.

Raccoon(s) in the rain. It's hard to tell whether it's one or two raccoons but you can see at least one tail.

Cat in the rain.

Raccoon drinking from the pond.

Deer Sighting Again

Yesterday morning the 3 deer were in our yard again! The mother that I startled the other day was close to the house, munching away on acorns. One of the youngsters was just hanging out, lying on the ground.

The stray black cat again. Today I startled 3 deer. Then we saw 3 more run by, and they were frolicing with each other, sniffing each other's tails, and one mounted another briefly!

Deer sighting

This morning there were 3 deer in our yard munching away. I don't know what they were eating, but I know there were a bunch of mushrooms out there. It may have been a mother and 2 youngsters. One may still have had spots, but it was the farthest one away so I couldn't tell. The other one didn't have spots but looked young. They were there for quite a while and then they moved on.

This is what it looks like when you don't mow all summer. It's on the side of the house where no one can see it though. I call it my prairie. All the crickets like to hang out there.

We put a bat house on our shed, in the hopes that bats will move in and eat the mosquitoes that breed in the pond.

Black cat.

Two raccoons!

Squirrel fattening up on acorns.

Only a few seconds later, and he is perfectly dry.

It looks like the raccoon would have to be in the water, but it must be on the ledge of the pond.

Squirrel.

This isn't a good picture because it was taken through a window but that is a hawk. I saw it fly by to a tree. Then it swooped down and acted like it was trying to catch something and flew back up to another tree, but it hadn't caught anything.

The fox is back. If it were closer to Halloween, I'd call that an apparition above it with two eyes. Hmmm...maybe it's just his aura.

Hope it's just drinking and not harrassing my frogs.

Black cat with white feet. It looks smaller than I thought it was, if it's the usual cat.

A very healthy looking fox! Could this be mangey fox, all cured, sporting his new fall coat?

Raccoon blinded by the flash.

What's he doing coming up out of the pond that way?

Scratching in the dirt.

1:17 a.m. Climbing up onto the pond deck.

Spotted Fawns Spotted

This morning we spotted two spotted fawns! They were lying down in our yard, near a pile of sticks. They seemed quite content, but their mother was nowhere to be seen. They were out there for quite a while and it didn't seem like they were going to move any time soon.

Both frogs are still in the pond on a daily basis. They are almost unnoticeable now that duck weed has covered the pond. Two springs ago I had ordered aquatic plants, but not duck weed, although I think a small piece was on one of the other plants I ordered and now has taken over. It is good frog camouflage.

Black cat with white feet up close.

Black cat.

Fox.

Fox again at 5 a.m.

Return of the fox!

Raccoon.

If that raccoon were any farther in the pond, he'd be swimming. I didn't see the big frog today. Hopefully he's still around. The big frog is more shy than the little frog, who was out there just now.

Raccoon. As far as other wildlife goes, we saw the doe and her 2 fawns again back in the park behind our house.

Big frog (he's probably the size of my hand).

Both frogs.