Ice skating on the pond

White Tailed Buck in Snow

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Three Night Visitors

Seven Point Buck: Notice that he has only one tiny point over his right eye..none on the left:
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Eight Point Buck:  Link Here: : Watch Him On Youtube!

Four Point Buck: Link Here:  Watch him on Youtube

November Colors

Milk Weed,  and Bittersweet

Bittersweet: A surprise, bright and  unexpected. We've never found bittersweet growing on this side of the lake in over 40 years; a volunteer, like the milkweed  found several years ago, growing in the strangest place, not once, but season after season.
Weeds in a garden,  jewels in the woods.

Eight Point Buck with short tine on left antler

This is the first 8 point buck which passed my trail camera. The tine on his left antler is shorter than the one on his right. The 2nd 8 point buck had more  symmetrical antlers. 

It's the time of year that a Buck visits the grove...He ate a few of the apples that I left under the tree….
Watch him on Youtube

Lovely Doe

This is the first day of Bow Hunting so I dug out an old Orange Hat.  The old apple tree provided a bag of Drops to leave for the deer and raccoon. There weren't any spider webs across across the trails as I walked,  so I knew there would be new images on the trail camera. Yes!  Night visitors: Two grey squirrels, one fox, two large Tom's and several deer. And this Lovely Doe.

Spike Horned Buck

A late night visit to The Grove...the first for this young buck....

Young Spike Horn Buck

Autumn! No bugs! Blue skies!

Fawn Comes out of Hiding

Three Racoons

The Fox Returns

Bob Cat September 2013

This is the first Bobcat I've seen on the trail camera.
Click HERE for a link to more information about the BobCat.

Two Boys and a Dog

S. & K. found my camera in the Woods.

Great Blue Heron

Using our raft to fish from...a beautiful bird....

Great Blue Heron 

Gray Fox

CoyDog, or Gray Fox?   The Gray Fox has shorter legs, a shorter muzzle and a pointy face...and is much smaller.  This was taken in the middle of the night, but the infrared camera didn't miss the tell-tale  black stripe down the length of his bushy tail...

I continue to be amazed by the variety of wild animals which travel through so close to our house.
Curiously,  since the first appearance of Bear Cub, CoyDog and Gray Fox, our Doe and Fawn have not passed this way.

Bear Cub

This morning the woods "smelled" of Bear. Did he pass by the Trail Camera?
 It was a Bear Cub!  He visited The Grove several times Sunday, July 28th, in the evening, and again on Monday, July 29th, 8:45 am....just one hour ahead of me.

Bear Waymark

There are a lot of old Blowdowns harboring grubs for the Bear to "harvest'l

Night Visitors

The night of July 19th was a busy one in the woods: Early-on, two fat raccoons, followed by Mamma Deer and her fawn, at 8 pm, followed by a Black Bear at  9:15 pm  and finally by a Coyote at  10:15 pm. !  These images are still clips from the trail camera set to take videos.

Tail end of the bear cub. He came back later in the week and I have a better video of him. 

While the night videos are difficult to see,  and to judge size, I've  learned that Fox carries his tale horizontally, and Coyote let's his hang down. 

Dutchman's Pipe

We walked early before the heat drove us indoors. These popped up overnight along the woodland path.

Wildlife Activity

My trail camera is working again, however, the wildlife is somewhat illusive; most of the images are in the darkest hours, and while I  know what I'm seeing, nothing is clear enough to bother uploading.

Sorry about that!

On July 6th the Fawn was captured by the camera for the first time since it's birth a month ago; it is seen dashing past in a blur.  He let's us see about 3 seconds.  On July 7th a fat raccoon jiggled the camera on the tree while either a wary doe or a hungry coyote...I'm not certain which it was..watched from a distance; we've had a lot of rain, and most of the story of woodland life is told in the wet areas and sandy places, by the tracks...doe, fawn, yearling deer, and a very large "coy wolf", whose track at run measured 3 1/2 inches wide by 4 1/2 long...I'm guessing it is the "coy wolf" I spotted only once, three years ago; a canine much larger than the coyote we've seen on camera this entire spring and early summer.

July: The sun is starting it's relentless path back to autumn; thunderclouds form to the north and to the south.  I spotted a wash tub size Snapping Turtle in the water just off shore, and a 3 foot long water snake; both keep the Duck population well under control here on the lake, I'm afraid.