Raccoon Sighting!

Now that we moved our dinner table in front of the picture window facing the backyard, it increases our chances of seeing wildlife at dusk. Tonight we saw a raccoon come hobbling up from the park into our yard. It then made a beeline straight for the compost. Leotis had cleaned out the fridge earlier by throwing a piece of chicken out there, and it then made its way in the direction of the chicken. It disappeared and then reappeared (it, or another raccoon), coming out of the woods again, making another beeline for the compost. Unfortunately, the camera trap is sitting right here on my desk, because I took it down when they were chopping down another tree. Its batteries were dead too, but I will put it back up.

Taking Phineas for a Walk

He loves to sniff anything and everything, while he's not trying to eat anything green.
The second his feet hit the rough stepping stones, he loves to roll around on them.
The patio is his favorite place to roll around....
and roll around some more...

Checking Out the Wood Piles

It's hard to get a picture that's not blurry of a moving target.
Dead trees make great scratching posts.
More wood to check out, maybe hiding places for mousies.

Enough Fun For One Day

Here he is sniffing the rake I use to stir the compost.
Completely filthy at this point.
Dreamily staring off into space after all the fun.

The Duckweed and Ferns Are Coming in Nicely

Anyone Know What Kind of Flowers These Are?

I have no idea what the first one is. The second and third I used to know and forgot. The fourth might be an azalea but it seems different than the other azaleas.

Mangey Fox

I saw this fox this morning, but unfortunately he seemed sickly. He was walking slowly, possibly limping, and looks mangey. Poor guy. Normally they trot quickly through the yard but he seemed to not be in the best of shape. At first I thought he was a new fox, maybe from this year's litter, but I think he is too big for that. The previous year's foxes were more fluffy and playful and this guy wasn't either of those. I saw him scratching himself as he moved off into the woods.

Everything is in Full Bloom

This is the time of year when our yard is most beautiful. The azaleas are in full bloom and the honeysuckle is very aromatic.

Fox Crossing

Firewood, anyone?

As you can see, our yard is looking more like a lumber yard after they took down the fallen trees. They still need to grind the stumps, and take down one more dead tree.

Another Deer

I didn't know deer came around that much. We counted the rings on the trees that were cut down to see how old they were, and we estimated a couple trees to be around 70 and 80 years old, and the largest tree that fell we estimated to be at least 100 years old, maybe 120 years old!

Disaster Strikes Backyard

Heavy rains which caused flooding in the yard, followed by extremely high winds, caused a huge tree to fall on our house on Monday! It fell on the tree I used to always have the camera trap on, and broke it in half. A few other trees had branches broken off or are leaning. Luckily it didn't cause much damage to the house, mainly it ripped off the gutter. We are having 4 trees removed that either fell, are dead, or are leaning. Hopefully it won't deter the wildlife from coming around. Our yard used to feel like it blended in with the park and now it is more open. The tadpoles are about the size of peas with tails. Hopefully they will survive tomorrow when the tree crew finishes the job, as the majority of the trunk is resting near the pond still. Luckily we weren't home when the tree fell, although I'm sure our 3 kitties were scared. It must have happened early in the day because they weren't acting scared when we got home, but it must have made quite a commotion when it came down. I had put my new camera trap on a different tree, and it came out of the catastrophe unscathed. The front yard also had its own separate disaster. Trees were touching the power lines which were sparking like fireworks, until a firetruck came and they shut off the power, right as I was about to post these pictures. The power was off all night Monday, and our internet connection was not restored til tonight.

New Views from Inside the House

Here's the new camera trap: