Stuck my head out the window this evening because I saw one of the feral cats out there but it was off the deck, and that’s when I saw why! BIG raccoon on the deck eating corn pieces with its little paws. The cat, wisely I think, trotted away to leave the area to the raccoon! I may have a picture to post tomorrow if it turned out!
Category: Status
Status update post.
Second Visit by the Gray Squirrel
We just had our second visit ever to our backyard feeders by a black phase Gray Squirrel. I wanted to add a picture but it got spooked up a nearby tree by some noise outside. So far it hasn’t returned.
Dreaming about Juncos
Funny that I posted about some of the birds that show up bringing in fall every year and then I had a dream last night, and there was a Junco in our back yard ushering in fall! It was so vivid I thought it really happened until I woke up and found out it was just a dream. I looked out the window and live! No Juncos yet. Still too warm!
Chipping in the Evening
It’s interesting that almost every evening the last birds to show up outside at our backyard feeders are the Northern Cardinals. They come in to the sunflower and safflower feeders chipping away loudly so you can’t miss that they are there! I wonder if they need the energy for their overnight roost?
Another Hawk Interrupted!
No birds outside so I step out the door expecting the yellow feral cat only to once again spook a small Cooper’s Hawk out of the pine tree on the edge of our deck. I should have been thinking hawk all along and been prepared with camera, but this hawk caught me flat-footed once again! No pictures. Just the tail end of a hawk soaring away!
Juvenile Blue Heron out-fishes me!
Was on Lake Ovid today fishing, and watching a juvenile Great Blue Heron fishing up a storm on the humps. It was standing in deep water almost swimming, and every once in awhile would dart its head and snap up another small bluegill! It caught more than I did!
Are My Hummingbirds Gone?
Well, I was just saying my Hummingbirds are not gone yet but here it has now been almost 4 days without seeing one little hummer out back at any of the feeders. I’m starting to think they’ve left early this year. The last two years our final sightings were September 29th and 30th!
Night of the Skunk
We have a new visitor out back. Smelled something skunky quite a few mornings but this is the first time we actually observed this skunk out back eating under our feeders! It ate some sunflower seeds apparently and then went sniffing in high speed all over the yard like it was looking for something else? But what?
Habitat is important!
I haven’t seen any Red-bellied or Hairy Woodpeckers in weeks. A neighbor had a risky big old dead tree cut down a while back and I think that dead tree was a home to the bigger woodpeckers. But now it is gone, and so are the bigger woodpeckers. Hopefully they haven’t gone too far and we’ll see them back.
Meanwhile plenty of Downy Woodpeckers still hanging around!
No birds due to Hawk!
No birds out back for awhile earlier today. I went out the back door expecting a feral cat lurking. Instead, a young Cooper’s Hawk soared off our roof and back around the big willow tree! That will do it for all the little birds that were hiding around the garage, and in the trees and brush piles!