Just Make Yourselves at Home

And I don't mean on my rosy red lips

Psycho Bunny

This is the bird chasing rabbit I wrote about in the Farm Side. The thing is bizarre, racing in circles, over and over again, chasing birds off the long lawn.

You can see that it is huge for a cotton tail, but it isn't a snowshoe, which is the only other rabbit found around here. These pics aren't great because it was real early in the morning when I got them and was still pretty dark.

Psycho bunny sure hates grackles....and loves to take victory laps around the mugho pine, kicking up its heels and shaking its furry ears.

Where the Wild Things Are

Pileated woodpecker lunch counter. Must be some bugs in this cherry tree that he wanted to eat.

And this gold finch must have had a real wild night; (prolly up at the bonfire) he still has his sunflower seed party hat on...

**sorry about the less than great photo...taken through the kitchen window.

Visitors

There were many yesterday. (Most of these photos were taken at the full extent of every bit of digital and optical zoom I could come up with so they aren't the greatest.)

One visitor left while I was running for the camera. He or she was right up at the edge of the lawn. I saw large, fuzzy ears between the branches of a clump of box elders. I was doing the dishes....and looking out the window over the sink. The ears twitched back and forth in a display of great alertness. At first I thought I was seeing a very short deer.

However then the critter moved out into the open, its thick, puffy tail so heavy with fur that it looked like an effort to hold it up out of the snow.

A red fox with the plushest fur I have ever seen, hunting in broad daylight. He kept looking up the little box elders and sniffing the bark. Wonder what he was finding there.

Bear vs. Zucchini

Zucchini wins

Signs

Of the end of summer

How Much

Wood plastic could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck.....?

I was sitting here at my trusty computer yesterday when I heard a weird rattling sound from the front porch. There was a lusty breeze bending the sumacs so I thought it was just the plastic that was on the door in the winter rattling in it.

However it went on and on so I got up to go look. Elvis was staring out the door in his grab-the-robin pose, only different. Kind of hesitant and nervous-ish.

Well no wonder! In place of the robin was a fat young woodchuck gathering plastic in its mouth like a gerbil collecting tissue for a nest. It was perhaps six inches from his face. It was so darned bold that it let me take its picture. Then when I clapped and shouted to make it leave the region it ignored me.

The cat ran away but not the road rat. Dag nabbitted thing anyhow. It just looked over its shoulder in an irritable fashion and sauntered away.

A much better encounter of the wild thing kind came later on the other porch. I was watering the plants when I heard an unfamiliar bird call. I looked up and the speaker came right to my knees...right there a foot away from me a lovely little Carolina wren. It hopped all over the porch looking right at me, completely unconcerned, then flew down below the driveway. How cool is that?

Surprise Guest

(And what with the beans and peas being planted just a little ways from here, not necessarily a welcome guest). These pics were taken through the living room window...the lower one by Alan who crawled on his hands and knees to get closer to the window to get a photo of her...she was looking right at us! I'll bet she has a fawn hidden out there near the lawn, since she was not at all inclined to leave even with a bunch of people peering out at her.

Turkey Day

Photo by Alan, taken through the living room window

A new hen turkey has taken up residence here by the house. Last year's neighborly bird was taken out by a coyote or fox.....we missed her. Alan also took a terrific video which I will post when we figure out how to get rid of the audio of somewhat profane exclamations of amazement at her nearness (thanks, Boss).

Walking on Water

Hurry on over to Compass Points to see the photos Joated took at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge yesterday. He actually got a really good shot of a muskrat walking across water on top of a school of carp!

The Fisher Returns

This time there were no close encounters of the uncomfortable kind, but there are tracks up the creek between the house and the barn. I think I want to get some batteries for my real bright flashlight and stop going back and forth with the little dim one I normally use around the house.

Pasture Walk

Cottontail

I have always been fascinated by tracking. I can claim no great expertise, but I love to go out in fresh snow or mud of just the right consistency to see who walked there before me.
Wednesday it snowed a little and Thursday morning conditions were right for a track walk. The sun was shining and the wind wasn't blowing so I went out with the camera to take a look around. I discovered an interesting surprise among the skeins of bunny prints, fox, coyote, bird, mouse, domestic cat and Nick the dog tracks I found.

Box elder

As it happened, the other day I stopped by a blog that I have followed for a while, but always seem to forget to read (I have now linked so I don't miss these fascinating posts.) Anyhow the author has been discussing tracking for a while and I found myself reading page after page. One post that really interested me involved a wild canid leaving a certain sort of triangular print in the snow when thrusting the muzzle down to sniff for prey.

No doubt I have passed this phenomenon before but wasn't aware of it and so didn't really see it.

Hot Showers and Warm Toes

Imagine my surprise when, right outside the back yard next to the pony yard, I found just such a triangular mark among a tangle of coyote tracks. I would have missed it completely except that Mr. Coyote had pulled a couple of feathers out of the mouse run he was sniffing and I spotted them on the snow. I didn't try for a photo as it was in an awkward spot, but it was neat to look down into the sub-snow mouse run. I'm so glad that I happened to read that particular blog post on that particular day and then walked past that particular nose print in the snow.

And I wonder why the feathers were there in the mouse run.

Mr. Mousy Built a Housie (Click for cool detail)
(this is not the nose print, but the opening of a different tunnel)

River Grape...
about five months from now the valley
will be sweetly scented by its inconspicuous flowers

Good Grief-Mother Nature is Getting Kinda Raw

We tried off and on all day yesterday to get a decent photograph of this turkey hen. She kept sneaking in and out of the bushes playing peek a boo. We never did get anything decent.
This pic is taken from the living room window from this morning and that is the lawn.
And that pile of feathers and stuff is what is left of her. I don't believe the grey fox did this. I am thinking coyote. I am also afraid she had a nest out there somewhere......