Who's Who Visiting?!

The covering of snow we now have gives some insight to the critters that visit and pass though our yard.  I was out and about yesterday and captured the following pics -

Bird tracks -

Two deer passed thorough, eventually hoping the fence, and making their way across the street -

A fox also passed through too -

The handsome homeowners boot print -

I'm sure the prints would have been much better had I grabbed the pics before things warmed up and melting began.  However, still interesting to walk around to see who visited.

Wascally Trixie-Dog

It's easy to see who visits when there's snow on the ground VI.

Trixie-dog following her morning constitutional.

Wascally Birdy

It's easy to see who visits when there's snow on the ground V.

A little hunting and pecking following last nights snow storm.

Wascally Me

It's easy to see who visits when there's snow on the ground IV.

Enjoying the solitude and reminiscing of years gone bye. 

Wascally Squirrel

It's easy to see who visits when there's snow on the ground III.

Now that the walnuts are gone and the ground is frozen the squirrels are nut challenged.

Wascally Deer

It's easy to see who visits when there's snow on the ground II.

Many many deer tracks all over the back yard.  They're taking full advantage of there being no one around to keep them in check.

Wascally Wabbit

It's easy to see who visits when there's snow on the ground.

Be vewy vewy quiet.  I'm hunting wabbits!

There's No Hiding With Fresh Snow

Some random animal tracks in the dusting of snow we had several weeks ago.  I took these while visiting my farmer friend just before Christmas.

Fox -

Rabbit -

Turkey -

Always interesting to get a peak at what wild critters are lurking about.

Fun With Snow

Franklin got approximately 8" - 10" inches of snow here back on Saturday 1-7.   It was light and fluffy, so cleanup wasn't too bad.  Also, since it was a weekend there was no need to venture out.

It's always so attractive and peaceful following a snow storm before it's disturbed and dirtied up.  This snow fall was no different.  Fresh snow gives a glimpse to some of the visiting critters.  Here are my guesses at what animals made the prints below - 

Rabbit - 

Grey Squirrel #1 - 

Grey Squirrel #2 -

Fox -

 Home owner -

Birds, lots of birds -

Deer -

Wild Turkey #1 -

Wild Turkey #2 -

Kill Zone

A blanket of snow on the ground can be very telling. In many respects it give you some insight to the ongoings in your yard, aka a map; the visitors and who they are, what direction they come from, where and what they visit and how they leave.

For example, one walk around the yard and it's plain to see that the neighbor's dogs visit! Now one possibility is that their Invisible Fence® is not working. However, since they're inconsiderate my guess is that they simply can't be bothered to put the Invisible Fence dog collars on the animals before letting them out - but I digress.

OK, back to what I was saying - any idea what this is a picture of and who or what may have made it?

Well, this is a "kill zone" for lack of a better term. This is where a bird of prey, which I can say with a very high degree of certainty was a Coopers Hawk, took down it's victim/meal (bird). You can make out the wing marks in the snow, perhaps due to a bit of a struggle and, as one might expect in such a conflict, the blood stain of it's victim.

Interesting, yes?!

My next posting, another installment of "Find the", just might contain a picture of said Cooper's Hawk - Oh, the anticipation!!!

Snow Cover Visitors

With the recent snow fall mother nature dumped on us you can get an idea of some of the visitors that pass by. It's easy to see where the blanket of snow cover is disturbed and who's lurking around -

Here is a single bird's foot prints, just hoping along -

This is a picture of the ground beneath the post holding our bird feeders, which are shadows. You can see that we've had a lot of birds looking for a bite to eat in just a short while -

These are squirrel foot prints. Yup, we still have some of these varmits around -

These tracks were made by a deer. They come across our front lawn, across both our driveway and the neighbors driveway, their front lawn and into the woods beyond their house. It's been a while since we've seen the deer but as these tracks show, they're still out there...

Identify the Tracks III

Can you identify the critter that made the tracks above?

Identify the Tracks II

Emilie and I walked up to the ball fields/playground this morning. It snowed over night and everything was covered in a white layer of snow; it was beautiful and very peaceful.

As we typically do, the camera came along too. Here are some tracks that were left behind in the snow from various critters. Can you identify them? How bout I make this a little easier as a multiple choice quiz. Here are some possibilities to choose from - Coyote, Fox, Dog, Emilie, Squirrel and rabbit - GO

Identify the Tracks

Can you identify what animal left the following tracks?

As always, a lollipop goes to the winner.

Feeding Station

Here are a few pictures taken in our backyard just the other day. The first picture is of our backyard bird feeding station. It's been a popular spot since the last snow fall with plenty of feathered visitors, as well as some furry ones too (ugh). The birds appear to have the ability or premonition of knowing when a storm is coming, as the number of visiting birds increase just prior to the storms arrival. They're filling their bellies in preparation for time spent hunkered down waiting out the storm.

The feathered visitors in this picture are: (2) male Cardinals, (2) Juncos and (2) Sparrows. Other birds that we've seen visiting so far this winter: Morning Dove, Nuthatch, Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Blue Jay, Starling, Common Grackle, Downy Woodpecker and Northern Flicker -

Feeding station

Two female Cardinals resting in our Weeping Pussy Willow tree with passed snow covered sedum below.

Admittedly this isn't the best picture, especially if enlarged. However, with that said can you identify the furry critter than made this set of prints?

Coyote Tracks

I went to visit my farmer friend Tim yesterday to lend a hand with a few things - more on that later in another post.

He's had an issue with coyotes for years now killing his animals from the small ones like chickens and geese to the larger ones like goats. This year, again, is no different. Since they're allusive animals it's hard to know just how many there are. Occasionally you'll catch a glimpse of one and as a matter of fact the last time we were down visiting one crossed the driveway in front of us as we were making our way to one of the animal pens and it was a good sizes one too.

Even though you rarely see them they can be heard at time howling off in the distance and the above picture is proof that they're still around and doing just fine. I took this pictures just outside of one of the animal pens in the dusty driveway (we need rain).

"Uncle Tommy" Hosta

Here is a picture of an "Uncle Tommy" hosta of ours, which we appropriately named after JoAnne's uncle who gave them to us. As you can see something just doesn't look right with this plant, wouldn't you agree? Can you tell what it is? It's been eaten; tasted, chewed, nibbled, munched, grazed on darn it! After close examination we know what animal is responsible for this atrocity. Do you?

Here is a clue for you circled in red below. Do you know now? Think people and no peaking at the labels below, that's cheating!

Bingo, you're right, it's a deer. Darn things don't look too cute grazing in the neighbor's yard now that they've decided to dine on our plants. JoAnne sprinkled some chili powered on what remained of this guy, as well as the other hostas in the area. Hopefully this will deter the deer from eating them. The good news, the plant is doing just fine and has bounced back nicely.