October 31, 2016

Bob Cat 

Crossing the stream

Morning Visitor

Our neighbor's dog barked for a long time, then came up on our deck and 'knocked" at the slider, trying to get our attention; wanting to come inside;  something he's almost never done. 

"He smells something," my husband said. "Probably a bear." 

Two sets of Twins

 LINK HERE TO " Watch the twins on YouTube

September 2016

Hummingbirds leaving

 This is a link to a migration map which updates weekly.  Check back from time to time to view the migration into Mexico.

Cormorant

Cormorant drying his wings 

Young Mom and her fawn

This season we had three mature does; two sets of twins and this singleton. Following behind are last years twins, one of which is growing antlers.

Early July Twins

Twins!

Twins come out to Play:
Also on the camera: A Coydog, porcupine, and two  young bucks with "prong" horns,  covered in velvet.

June Parade in the Pisgah Woods

Bob Cat, Mother Deer, Porcupine, Possum, and First Fawn of the Year

Bob Cat and Doe Early June

Three does have had fawns. The Forrester is working nearby.

Female Coyote

A young female Coyote in the Pisgah Woods.

A New Area of the Woods

A  new part of the woods; faint deer trails criss cross the area, and a few rock piles are visible  on the slope falling down to an old spring fed brook. I placed a rock salt lick, then tried to pick out a trail .

End of April

How did the deer fare this winter? The Trail Cameras (2) have followed three does and five 2015  yearlings throughout the winter.   Old Blind in One eye doe is back, pregnant for the 4th year,  and with her two  healthy looking 2015  twins.  Her 2013 pregnant daughter is back for the 2nd year, and can be seen on the video rejecting last's year's fawn.

I've noticed two poor looking, orphaned yearlings as well, tagging along at a distance. 

Heron of a Different Color

Early in the morning:  an unusually colored Heron stalking, along the edge of the Lake.

"Yellow Crowned Night Heron" 

 (I had to look that up.) 😀

Mink sighting

On Friday March 11th we woke to find The Ice had gone Out!! Open water! A little dark mink scampered along the edge of the lake, then ran around in back of our neighbors garden shed. It's always a thrill to spot such an illusive animal. 👀

Trail Camera Early March '16

A Bobcat  has been hanging out recently. The Deer are unusually cautious.

 (Click on square bottom right to enlarge)

Spotlight on Spring

The ice is melting!

Counting the Days: On Sunday March 20, 2016, the day and night will be of almost equal duration at most time zones in the world.

Coywolf

Late January 2016 In the Woods just beyond my house.

"Coywolf Basic Info

The coywolf is currently most commonly called “eastern coyote”. However, recent research suggests that this animal is both genetically and morphologically intermediate to western coyotes and eastern wolves. So, even though most people refer to these canids in the Northeast simply as “coyotes”, their background is much more complex and recent science states that we should more properly call this animal coywolf. It is important to note that this hybridization episode did not occur recently; rather, the animal has always been a hybrid of two different closely related species since it colonized the Northeast US starting 50-70 years ago (and now, they are found throughout the region). Initially they were called coydog, then eastern coyote, but we now know that coywolf is the most appropriate descriptor of this animal because the original wolf found in the Northeast was most probably the smallish (~60 pound) eastern wolf (Canis lycaon), which is very closely related to (and possibly the same species as) the red wolf (Canis rufus). The eastern wolf is actually more closely related to western coyotes than they are to the larger gray (western) wolf (Canis lupus). Thus, the coywolf has “native” wolf genes and got here on its own four feet: it therefore should not be considered non-native or invasive. Furthermore, it is questionable if the gray wolf actually ever lived in the Northeast, or if the eastern wolf and possibly gray/eastern wolf hybrids (which are common in the Great Lakes states, Canis lupus x C. lycaon) were endemic to this region."

LINK to Source

Mink Sighting

This morning I spotted a black mink scampering along the edge of the frozen lake.  About 80 feet north from where I was watching, he  ducked into a hole in our neighbor's rock retaining wall.. Heres an old photo..not mine...and an interesting vintage article about trapping mink.  If you are curious, here's the link:

Vintage Article: Click here

Mink

January 2016 on the Trail Cameras

 Coyotes have been howling in the woods this month. They are  the size of our neighbor's black Lab, "Ace," who I was happy to have walking in the woods with me today.

They have been "stalking" the deer for several days now.  Coyotes go after the smaller varmints; Could these be "coy-wolves" instead?

January: The Wolf Moon

The Setting of the Wolf Moon.
. West-Northwest at 7:30 am.
The morning sky,  pink.
Haze from a  wood stove drifts across the frozen Lake.

In January snow gathers deep in the woods and the howling of wolves can be heard echoing in the cold still air.