Clouds

Out my office window (which unfortunately adds a brownish tint).

This second one has a soaring Red-tailed Hawk right smack in the middle (it's kinda small).

I like clouds.

Which, as one of my hobbies is astronomy, is a bit curious.

But it seems I'm not alone in my appreciation.

Ducks on the Pond

After seeing Mrs. Ducky Lucky had returned we waited to see if Mr. Ducky Lucky would as well. And we wondered if there would be two female mallards, as was the case last year.

And then one day we noticed he, or a reasonable facsimile, was back.

And we saw them not only on the pond but also in the ditch in front of our house, which is new this year (the ditch is old; ducks in the ditch is new).

And then one rainy evening I noticed two male mallards, walking in the side yard toward the back pond. So Patty grabbed an umbrella and we headed out to take a look.

And we saw this (sorry, a zoomed in iPhone video). It's spring, and a young duck's fancy turns to love. Which, as you can see, can get a bit intense.

Since then, we've only seen one male mallard attending Mrs. Ducky Lucky.

Update: Since I'd written the above we saw this:

Damn Tree Shadow

Two males and no female.

To be continued ...

The View ...

... from inside my new ride.

(I just like this picture.)

Day Life

The trail cam is a tireless device, shooting all night and all day, twenty four/seven. Snapping away whenever there's movement in its field of view.

So we see that despite not seeing them while we are at home, turkeys do continue to visit.

Sometimes lots of turkeys. We had been wondering where they were.

Last year we saw plenty of turkeys, both in the morning before we left for work and in the afternoon when we got home. This year we have seen very few. It's good to know they are still around.

And there are squirrels.

And, surprisingly, sometimes turkeys and squirrels.

I write "surprisingly" as in the past the squirrels hightailed it out of here when the turkeys came to call. Apparently they've overcome their fear of the much larger visitors.

And rabbits. But only one at a time.

The only other mammal that was captured on silicon was this chipmunk (center of the image near the bottom of the wood post).

We've several that visit the bird feeders, often at the same time, stuffing their cheeks with seed. So it is curious that we only got a couple of images of this one individual.

And again surprising but happily missing are deer. Our fingers are crossed that it stays that way.

Night Life

Ghostlike images, shot mostly while we're sleeping. Taken by a trail cam, a christmas gift from Patty, set on autopilot. It takes about a thousand images a week, triggered by movement.

Rabbits are quite active at all hours of the night (the camera records date and time data for each image).

As you can see there are at least two in the image above. And perhaps even three in the one below. At least I think the one on the far right is a rabbit.

And that's how we know that there is more than just one bunny.

It's more than rabbits that wander about at night. And while many images are just pairs of white spots, eyes of unknown creatures passing through, others are easily identifiable.

We knew that there are raccoons. Two in the image above, some images have as many as three.

But I had not expected to see a raccoon and a rabbit in the same image. And we got such images on multiple nights.

Nor a human and a rabbit.

I did expect possums. And was not disappointed.  They are regulars.

I was disappointed, but not surprised, to see these passing through.

Cats. I'm not sure if it was one or several cats. We've seen at least three different cats in our yard since we've moved here, and more at our neighbors. We don't know if they are feral or pets. We do know that we don't like that they are out and about.

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One animal I was happy not to see in this last set of images were deer. They were common in previous image sets. You might have noticed a black object in the center of each image. We have three such objects placed about our yard. They're called a "Wireless Deer Fence". We bought them at the Philadelphia Flower Show this year. They work by having a scent attractant that draws the deer in to investigate. And when they do the deer gets an electric shock (a pretty good one as I can attest to from experience). Theoretically this trains the deer to stay away, as they develop an unpleasant association with the area. So far it seems to be working. But it is still early, and not much is in bloom yet. So we'll see.

Other animals I'm surprised have not appeared yet include skunk, fox, and coyote, all of which are in the area. The trail cam will keep watching ...

Fascination

When I got home from work today Max, our cat, was not there in his normal greeting position, lying on the floor waiting for a belly rub.

Rather, he was on the dining room windowsill, eyes glued to something outside.

This.

A rabbit. Perhaps the same from the other morning. I can't be sure because we've discovered there are several about the yard.

Max spent a good twenty minutes staring out the window. At times hiding behind the window feeder. Other times, as above, up and looking.

The rabbit, like the birds, paid him no never mind. Just munching away at the weeds.

Morning Visitor

We didn't see many rabbits about the place when we first moved in. We suspect it is because of how the previous owners maintained the lawn, with plenty of chemicals. It was a very nice lawn. But we prefer a more natural environs. So we discontinued the chemicals. And we're converting parts of the lawn to meadows and gardens (deer be dammed!).

And now we have more bunnies. In the past we've seen them, but usually as only visitors passing through. This one has been hanging around quite a bit. Patty thinks it might have made a 'home' under our deck and maybe we'll have baby bunnies later this spring (I worry about the local feral cats).

In any case it is nice to have them about and we hope they do decide to stay.