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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
Sometimes pictures just speak to you, and this shot of an American Goldfinch and a White-breasted Nuthatch on the Nijer seed sock is one I like.
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!