Oppie

 It is not just Flying Squirrels that like the peanut butter.

Virginia Opossums do too.

This one was already waiting for the peanut butter when I went out to the feeders. And it played 'possum', barely moving while I put the peanut butter on the feeder and took this, and three other, pictures.

Alas, when I moved away so did Oppie, obviously scared of the big beast in the feeding area. It, or one very like it, came back and enjoyed the peanut butter. And all was good.

Looking for Lunch

 Before:

After:

There was a lull in the Siskin Storm and this young Cooper's hawk was the reason.

It seemed surprised, where'd they all go, as it was looking all over for them.

It had to be thinking, there were so many, I'm bound to get at least one.

But it was not to be.

It did not find any. And as far as I could tell, despite visiting several feeders, it flew off still hungry.

But as I noted in the Siskin Storm post, the Siskin numbers are way down ...

Wildlife at the Door

The other morning I wake up, wander into the living room, and see this:

Turkeys on the doorstep. 

And then I go and open the front door, to let more light in, and who's there?

Mr. Squirrel.

No, you can't come in. None of you.

Siskin Storm

Some days and posts ago, I wrote about Pine Siskins. Recall this line in particular: 

Some years, as this year appears to be, we get these in large numbers ...

Did we ever.

Image courtesy Patty Rehn

While sitting at her desk on the last Sunday in October, Patty spotted a small flock eating seeds in our garden.

Image courtesy Patty Rehn

Look closely at the above image. I see at least eight Siskin. 

We would have over twelve times as many this day.

Above are a few more eating seeds in another one of our gardens. I count seven.

And just above the previous image, which I had taken when putting out more birdseed on the platform feeder shown here, we have a bit of a crowd. Forty plus Pine Siskin. 

Those keeping score at home (or wherever you may be reading this) know we are over fifty Siskin so far.

This shot, out our living room windows, has over fifty more Siskin. You'll need to bigafy to see them, and even then it is tough as they blend in with the leaf litter. The post for the platform feeder shown in the previous image can be seen at the upper left edge of this image.

Another view of the birds out my living room window. There are over fifty Siskin in this image.

Another twenty plus bird on the top step immediately outside the living room. 

They were everywhere ...

Crazy.

Since the 'storm' we averaged forty to fifty Siskin daily for close to two weeks. And now we are down to maybe ten a day. It seems our yard was just a rest stop. A stopover on their migration further south. As can be seen from this linked range map, they spend the winer in much of the lower forty-eight and in to Mexico.

Crazy.

Winter is Coming

And yet another sparrow species has returned to our yard.

Fox Sparrow.

Named such for their reddish, fox like color.

I like the above shot for how it shows the placement of the eyes on either side of the bird's head. Prey animals generally have eyes on the side of their heads like this, to give a wider view of their surroundings, ever vigilant for predators, albeit at the cost of 3D vision. But flight would seem to require acute 3D vision, to navigate between obstacles and such. Curious.

These birds breed way up in northern Canada. Which might explain why they are one of the later species to arrive here at Piney Place. And while they don't arrive in the numbers that White-throated Sparrows or Dark-eyed Juncos do, we have had them in double digits on rare occasions.

And while it is always nice to see them it really does portend colder temperatures and shorter days.

And a visit from Santa! So it's not all bad.

For the Safety of Motorists and Pedestrians

 "For the safety of motorists and pedestrians". 

That was the answer I received when I asked why the township was mowing, to the ground, the shrubs, small trees, and any other plant life on side of the road in my yard.

This might have made sense except they mowed on the opposite of the ditch from the road. 

And living where we do we don't get all that many pedestrians.

Did the fellow driving the mower, who's tractor can be seen in the distance in the above image, really think what he was doing was useful? 

What a waste. Of time, tax money, gasoline, and plant life.

But I've already ordered more meadow seed mix ...

Glow in the Dark Squirrels

 

At least in UV light they do. Southern Flying Squirrels.

We're lucky that we have these critters visiting our feeders almost every night and have for some time. And for the most part are rather tolerant of us humans.

I forget when I learned that Flying Squirrels turn pinkish-red under UV light. But photographing them went onto my to do list. But last fall-winter was not a good one for these critters. Few came to our 'peanut butter tree'. But this year they are back. Again coming to the tree as soon as we put the peanut butter out. And as it was a rather warm day, I decided to give it a go.

First I smeared some peanut butter on the aforementioned 'peanut butter tree', a Sweetgum in the Feeder Garden outside our living room.

I then strapped an ultraviolet flashlight to the tree, aiming up. You can see the peanut butter fluorescing.  

And then I waited. The Squirrels came, but wouldn't dally long enough in the light beam for me to get a shot. So I switched to plan b, handholding the UV light.

And it worked. Although most of the images were unusable.

They are very active, chasing each other about.

Note the 'ghost', just hints of pink, on the left of the trunk. And the more substantial 'ghost' on the right. Most shots weren't even this good. In fact, the only good head to tail shot I managed was that that led off this post.

No one is really sure why these critters glow like they do. And the discovery that they do was accidental. Another critter that fluoresces is the Virginia Opossum. And when I was out photographing the Squirrels one came looking for peanut butter. I shined the light on it and sure enough its face started glowing pink. But I scared it off when I moved the camera to try for a picture. A challenge for another night.

November Paddle

November 8, 2020.

It hit 80° F.

So we went for a paddle down the Rancocas Creek Canoe Trail.

It was a relaxing and very scenic float. 

But eighty in November ...

American Bird and Berry

The bird is an American Robin. A year round resident which is also a short range migrant. Thus the birds here in the summer may or may not be the same that visit in the winter.

The berries are American Beautyberries. This bush is in our Feeder Garden, outside our kitchen and living room.

We've had a small flock, twenty or so birds, which have been visiting the yard for several weeks now. They've de-berried our Crabapple and Dogwood trees. They missed out on the Elderberries and Viburnum berries, which the Gray Catbirds and Great Crested Flycatchers gobbled down in September.

This is the only non-blurry shot of the bird with a berry. The fast bird gets the berry it seems.

The Shrew

As long time readers know, our cat Max likes to spend time outside. And as cats belong indoors, we keep  Max on a leash out on our deck. This to prevent him from preying on the local native fauna.

But even then, sometimes he manages to find some critter to 'play with'. And a couple of nights ago when I  went out to bring him in I noticed he had something.

A Masked Shrew. These critters are small. I had initially thought Max had a large insect.

This is not the first time Max has encountered one of these nocturnal mammals. But this time had a better outcome. Although perhaps not for the efforts of the shrew.

Once I realized what was going on I grabbed Max and pulled him away from the Shrew. Holding him on the deck. Rather than run away the Shrew did two things. As shown in the images above, it would run a bit away and then roll over and 'play dead'. And after a moment or two would get up and do it again. 

The other thing it would do would be to run and hide under Max. Which would confuse Max (and truth be told, me as well). Max would be crouched down, ready to pounce, and the Shrew would make a beeline for Max and snuggle in under his belly. 

This reminded me of a story Charles Darwin related about the Marine Iguanas of the Galapagos Islands. These lizards have nothing to fear on land, but when feeding in the water have a variety of predators. So whenever in danger they head toward land. Darwin would pick up a lizard and throw it into the ocean. The lizard, sensing danger would scramble back onto land. Straight back the Sir Charles, who would promptly toss it back. This went on for several rounds.

I hypothesize that the Shrew, sensing danger, headed for the nearest dark hiding place. Which on the empty deck was under Max. Fortunately for it, I came along when I did.

And eventually it ran away.

It was very cool to see a live one.

🐀  🐀  🐀

You can find all of the Yard Critter posts listed here.

Finally, It's Evening Time Here

 Evening Grosbeak time that is.

A songbird without a song, this is yet another bird that breeds in Canada. But like the others featured on this blog of late, this one generally stays there year round. But the past two 'winters' have seen them visit our area.

But not our yard. At least, none showed up here last winter. We were very sad. They had been reported in the area, at feeders of friends and acquaintances. But despite having a platform feeder covered with sunflower seeds, an Evening Grosbeak favorite, we were passed by.

But not this year. Halloween morning I spotted this bird and having been primed from reports of birds in the area (and again at friend's feeders!) took a double take. And of course it flew off. Obviously, it came back

About it not having a song? It seems this critter does not use a song to attract a mate or defend its territory. And those little birds on and around the platform feeder with it? Those are Pine Siskins. The Grosbeak's gross beak allows them to crack open seeds the smaller Siskins cannot. And the Siskins hang around the Grosbeaks to scavenge the scraps. Although that's definitely not the case here, with seeds of varying sizes available to all comers.

🐦  🐦  🐦  🐦  🐦

You can find all of the Yard Critter posts listed here.

Shadow Halos at Home

A couple of years ago, back the before times when I actually went somewhere else to work, I noticed some curious halos in the parking lot outside my then office window. And thus the Shadow Halos post.

Halloween morning I looked out my window to see this.

Shadow Halos on my garage.

Although this time it was a bit easier to see what was going on. Cool to see just the same.