Going on a Bear Hunt

Black bear in the Glade

Going on a Bear Hunt

Memorial Day Parade

Geese Family Memorial Day 2012: Taken with my iPhone from the Deck

The Buck visits at Midnight

June 1 2012: Midnight Visitor
Notice the new antler's beginning to grow on this Buck

It will be interesting to see if this fellow continues to visit the area throughout the summer so we can see how large his antlers grow...

Snail

Feeling  his way across the driveway. 

 Where are his eyes?
On  the tip of the longer tentacles.

The Luna Moth

This is the first live Luna Moth I have ever seen in the wild.
There were three of them clinging to a barn door in broad daylight.
The next day I saw another. 

YouTube life cycle of the luna Moth

After the Storm

A violent Thunderstorm brought the deer together deep in the hemlock grove.
Occasionally they huddled together, side touching side,  heads facing away from the wind. 

Quiet Moment

The Yearling and her Mom

New Trail Camera Up and Running

On Alert: A porcupine is nearby.

A new Bushnell trail camera.!! 8 m pixels, infra red at night, and uses 4-8 AA batteries. It is tiny and goes unnoticed.  This new one is placed in the same "secure" location....just off a well used animal trail, in a grove of Oaks and Beech, surrounded by Hemlocks. It is a hike in any direction to deer feeding grounds, but offers sanctuary, especially to expectant does.

Wild Honeysuckle Blooms in May

The Fragrant "Swamp Pink"

Another spring...last year I posted a photo of this fragrant bush in full bloom.
This year's image was taken with my iPhone4S.



Swamp-pink

To him who keeps an Orchis' heart –
The swamps are pink with June.
               Emily Dickinson















"But with June comes the most exquisite of our New England wild-flowers, the arethuta, or swamp-pink,——The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 5 (1860)

"Swamp Pink . . . they are eagerly sought after, and form a conspicuous part of the decoration of the mantel-piece, in its season, the month of June. The color is commonly a fine pink.——New Book of Flowers (1866)

Baby Snapping Turtle

Tiny Turtle

This Prehistoric-looking turtle was found and photographed by my neighbor. Many years ago my son somehow pulled a giant snapping turtle into his canoe.
"Mom, can I keep it?"
I should not be surprised that 30 years later a giant snapping turtle is still resident and  reproducing.

Along the Path this Morning

Spotted Newt

Wake Robin

Fiddlehead Fern

April Gold

Nothing Gold Can Stay
by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay

April's Assault

THE OLD RED KAYAK AT SUNSET
From the  Deck on an April Evening
Camera:  iPhone 4s, using the " 6x6" App. 

Assault

I HAD forgotten how the frogs must sound
After a year of silence, else I think
I should not have ventured forth alone
At dusk along this unfrequented road.
I am waylaid by Beauty. Who will walk
Between me and the crying of the frogs?
Oh, saavage Beauty, suffer me to pass,
That am a timid woman, on her way
From one house to another!
-Edna St. Vincent Millay

April's Charms

New Leaves in the Thicket
Camera:  iPhone 4s using "CameraBag" app:  "Magazine" filter.

"When April scatters charms of primrose gold

Among the copper leaves in thickets old,

And singing skylarks from the meadows rise,

To twinkle like black stars in sunny skies;

When I can hear the small woodpecker ring

Time on a tree for all the birds that sing;

And hear the pleasant cuckoo, loud and long --

The simple bird that thinks two notes a song."

-  William Henry Davies, April's Charms 

Passing Through the Woods in Early April

Three Deer in The Woods"
Camera: Wildlife motion activated trail camera.
Rendered with more color  in Aperature.
Update April 18th, 2012: Both of my trail cameras have stopped working.

Looking for Acorns

There isn't much food in the woods this time of year. The deer are used to finding acorns under the Oaks, but last fall the trees didn't produce.

Expect that the deer will move on to a high meadow further up the mountain in search of food.

The Old Ash Tree

The hole is 5 inches in diameter; wood chips circle the base.
It appears that a woodpecker is building a nest hole
in this old ash tree.

Update: 2014: This year the old ash tree doesn't have any leaves..it is totally dead.  

First Green

The snow melted in the Hills this week..exposing last fall's leaves and bright green moss in the brook.

Winter of 2011-12: Kinder to the Deer

This doe was so much fitter after our  mild winter, compared to the winter of 2010-11
Problem with the warm winter is that the ticks didn't die out. Each time I walked into the woods to check the
camera I came home with a tick.

Daylight Savings Time March 2012

Time to bring in the Bird Feeders. You will have to take my word for it, but these really  are bear tracks.

Bear Tracks in snow

If you enlarge the photo you can see the leaves under the snow.  We had over 12 inches of new snow a week ago, followed by some very warm weather.
This  bear must have come out in the last 5 days, as the sun warmed the southern exposures of the rocky, wooded hillsides.

In this spot there was a pile of rocks, with a couple of young hemlock trees growing out of the top. The bear walked in a tight circle all around the pile of rocks, then wandered back  in the direction he had come...

I'm glad I didn't run into him..but wish my trail camera had been up and running.

Woodpecker Advice

Woodpecker at the Birdfeeder

"First, land on the rail
Then  tip back on your tail.
Thrust both feet forward
And grasp the lip of the feeder.
Otherwise you'll bump your head every time."


A great (March) wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache.
Catherine the Great

Wordless Saturday Morning in early March

The Shed and Coyote Tracks

March Storm

March 3, 2012: And I thought the ice would melt soon....
There were tracks of two large "coyotes" crossing the yard this morning. 

Hilltown Winter

Outside my Bedroom Window

February 27th 2012:  The sun catches the hill opposite my bedroom window, across the frozen lake.  Soon the ice will melt and neighbors will lose their seasonal shortcut.

The Eagle will return.

A few people  saw the tracks of a "Big Cat," close to area cottages.

My trail camera batteries don't hold up to temperatures below 25 degrees, so I don't have any winter photos.

Hilltown Weather Keeping Us Indoors

Ice Storm

Hilltown weather..
Mud encased by ice
Covered with slush
Puddles, over slush,  on top of ice
Encasing mud. 
Framed by silver branches bent
By the weight of winter

                                                    Alma

A cardinal crunching, fog lifting, hot chocolate

Reading and painting all day - not so bad. (dish for tv not working, no tennis today)

                                    Mary Jo

Hilltown blue
Feeling bent 
Like the yew,
covered in ice
That's my view
Nothing spent, 
nothing new
Time feels lent
How about you?

Carol

The Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle outside my Window

At 8 am we spotted this mature eagle outside our bedroom window. I was able to grab one quick photo before our movement behind the curtain spooked him.

Deer Hunting Season is Over!

A nice Doe living in the Woods..and tracks indicating several more. Well done.

Passing Through

Last year a buck with 6 points appeared on the trail camera; this year a larger buck... 10 points! came through. Wonder if it is the same animal? Impossible for me to tell.  Himself tells me that I am not the only one who knows this handsome Buck is in our neighborhood. During Deer Hunting Season a neighbor "bagged" an 8 point buck. Perhaps this fine fellow escaped deeper into the woods, and survives.

A Bloggers Mistake...

The two does and their three fawns have been chased  deeper into the hills by Bow Hunters.  The camera has only "trapped"  a porcupine and a raccoon in the past week or so.

Bloggers Mistake:
I do hope the deer have found a safe haven..and remain safe during the next month...as more hunters take to the woods with their rifles.

Have I inadvertently put these lovely deer in harms way by posting their photos?  Will hunters find them in the nearby woods?

The Duplex (see "Woodland Duplex post)  in the Woods brings to mind Thornton Burgess, who used his  outdoor observations in nature as plots for his Mother Westwind stories.

In his first book, Old Mother West Wind, published in 1910, all of the characters were introduced...including Peter Rabbit, Jimmy Skunk, Sammy Jay, Bobby Raccoon, Little Joe Otter, Grandfather Frog, Billy Mink, Jerry Muskrat, Spotty the Turtle, Old Mother West Wind and her Merry Little Breezes. Illustrations by Harrison Cady.

The Woods at Night

This little doe first arrived just before dark on Nov. 14th, and spent the entire night...getting up and down several times throughout the night. The last photo was 5 am, Nov. 15th, when she is startled by something in the woods.

Halloween Snow Storm

20 Inches of October Snow. The Camera was too slow to capture the Animal that set it off....

Because of our altitude, the snow wasn't as wet and heavy as down in the Valley. The  Oak and Ash trees, heavy with leaves,  were thus able to bear the burden.
Not so fortunate were the thousands of Oaks and Maples elsewhere in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Woodland Duplex

Duplex: Rabbit Hole? Bear Cave? Curious. 

I was curious as to the occupant of  the "duplex" so set up a trail camera; a "video" created from the images reveal Bobby Coon coming out from the Tree Hole to explore the new addition to his neighborhood.   Lilly Porki,  a bit more timid..started forward to explore, then retreated.. back into her cave.

Bobby Coon followed her calling : "No Worries.. it's just a trail camera."

Coy-Wolf: October 23, 2011

"coy-wolf...! "

A "coy-wolf" on my Wildview trail camera! 11 PM.  About 15 minutes after a deer passed through.    While the  "Eastern Coyote" has been in this area for quite a few years, this is the first image "trapped" by my camera.
Read more:
Massachusetts Wildlife Link

Late Autumn Woods: A Poem by Bryant

Squirrel in the Autumn Woods

AUTUMN WOODS

William Cullen Bryant

    Ere, in the northern gale,
The summer tresses of the trees are gone,
The woods of Autumn, all around our vale,
Have put their glory on.
The mountains that infold,
In their wide sweep, the colored landscape round
Seem groups of giant kings, in purple and gold, That guard the enchanted ground.
     I roam the woods that crown
The upland, where the mingled splendors glow, Where the gay company of trees look down
On the green fields below.
My steps are not alone...
 In these bright walks; the sweet south-west, at play,
Flies, rustling, where the painted leaves are strown
Along the winding way.

The Days are Getting Shorter

Gathering under the Hemlock and Oaks

The animals are moving along the trail...there were Bear tracks, and further up in the woods, fresh moose tracks. Both were headed north, to the dens and swamps deeper into the State Forest.
The deer are beginning to group together.

After the Hurricane

Traveling along the deer trail, skirting the gorge, dodging blowdowns, and checking tracks.

I walk the woods quite often. Lyme Disease is ever present on my mind. Not only have I had Lyme, my daughter and three grandchildren, who live in Northern New Jersey,  suffer from late stage Lyme, a terrible disease which has robbed them of years of normal living, and caused them to endure countless hours  and travel far distances to obtain diagnosis and treatment from Lyme Aware Physicians.
Sometimes my camera catches the image of a terribly diseased deer.  Perhaps I am just trying to understand it all.Massachusetts Wildlife: Living with Deer

Hot Summer Afternoon, under the Oak Trees

The doe on the right had twins with her last week; today they are nowhere to be seen.

Where are the Twins?

Looking for her Twins

On Alert

Where oh Where have They Gone?

Twins In The Woods

Deer Twins