dead Hermit Thrush

Wee Hermit Thrush -- Such a sweet song silenced -- Apparently flew into the garage windows on a perfect sunny 55 degree Autumn day.

On Sunday October 18, 2015 around 1 pm we had a snow shower!  Pretty cool.

Groundhog

Groundhog contentedly surveying the yard from a perch on the bench out back on September 4, 2015.

Praying Mantis

While harvesting green beans today, I had a little company -- in the form of a brown praying mantis.

We've had Cabbage Whites, Yellow Swallow Tails, Great Spangled Fritillaries, and Giant Swallow Tails -- but today we saw our first Monarch of this season.  [Love hearing the Cicada on this audio.]

Skunk

Last night as I got home around 9 pm we had a surprise visitor in the back yard.  I snapped on the flood-light and shot this video (Sorry it's shaky -- there were obstacles to step over.)  

We haven't seen a skunk in over a year, and it was nice to see it clearing some grubs out of the lawn.  About 2 hours later you could tell the skunk had sprayed -- guess someone else got a surprise too.

Fawn calling

All day on Friday June 26, 2015 a little fawn kept calling out and running up and down along the golf course fence.  Gather either an adult deer found it that day, or the coyotes found it that night.

I hate being repetitive, but the coyotes were just going at it again over towards Vassar Farm.  What a ruckus !!  Yipping, howling, barking, and a call like I've never heard before -- sort of like an owl's bounce call -- up and down, loud and soft, all in rapid succession.  One of these times I'll try to get a recording, but it happens so quick they'd be done before I set up.

Garter Snake

A wee garter snake lounging atop a boxwood next to the front sidewalk around 11am this morning.

A few minutes ago @ 12:05 am the coyote pack was yipping and howling far off towards Vassar Farm.  Beautiful 65 degrees with a yellow waning gibbous moon on the rise.

All day today -- Flurries!  Listen carefully and you can just hear the male Red-Wing Blackbirds calling by the pond just beyond the tree-line -- got to hold onto territory for the mating season.

1145pm -- Just heard the coyote pack yipping and howling South on the golf-course -- not surprising since we've seen many extra deer this past week.

9am -- Red Tailed Hawk (lower left corner) perched at the edge of the golf course looking for breakfast .....and a wee grey squirrel (upper right corner) hiding on the opposite side of a Norway Maple trunk trying to stay off the menu.  

A fine pair of Spring-heralds -- 
      Two days ago at 630 am a woodcock (aka timber-doodle) was "Peenting" near the golf course pond at the edge of the woods by the fairway, and yesterday at 7 am a red-wing blackbird was calling from that same pond.  
      So now today, on the Vernal Equinox, the First Day of Spring.....snow.  

      Quite fitting since this past Thanksgiving was laden with snow, but this past Christmas was warmer than usual and snow-free.

     This sunny morning around 11am, I finally saw a Monarch butterfly -- first of this season -- most likely migrating South.  It wandered North through the back-yard then fed for a while on the last blooms of the yellow and the pink Buddleia bushes in the Play area.  Afterwards it hung in the warm sunshine from the needles of one of the weary Hemlock trees which are rapidly thinning and dying off from a tenacious Wooly Adelgid infestation.  After pumping its wings, then hanging still for a minute, the Monarch flew South down the back-yard until it disappeared into the woods, still heading South.
     Five of the local turkey hens were wandering in and out of the yard today, clucking and pecking around.

      Yesterday morning I watched a Pileated Woodpecker working its way North through a tract of woods behind our property.  It would fly to the bottom of a tree, examine it spiraling up to the top, stopping sporadically to peck briefly, then, fly off to the base of another tree to repeat his foraging -- calling out all the while.
      Later, around 12 noon, my mother and I were walking about the backyard checking for crocuses, daffodils and tulips which are just emerging, when a crow-sized Coopers Hawk (I don't know if it was male or female) swooped around from the front of the house, banked hard when it saw us, then flew up into a row of Hemlock trees that line the North of the property.  Since the Hemlocks' needles are sparce due to Woolly-Adelgid-damage, I could see it sitting in there eyeing us intently.  We believe it was originally headed toward the black-oil bird feeder near our kitchen window, but we blocked its mid-day snack. My mom, who is hard of sight, couldn't see the hawk on its perch, but, after a minute, the hawk gave up, and my mom did see the movement of it flying down and away towards the West into that tract of woods behind our house.

      Went for a 20 minute walk this morning around 336 am with hopes of some critter activity. Under an overcast sky with the almost full moon glowing through the clouds in the Western sky, the windchill was 23 degrees F, but it felt colder. Way in the distance, twice trains sounded their whistles and twice I heard loud vehicles -- a car with muffler issues, and a noisy tractor-trailer rumbling up Route 9, but otherwise the silence was absolute.  Three times I heard a faint brief sound, but when I stopped to listen, it was gone.  Maybe just a dog.  Possibly an owl.  
      When I was almost back to the house and feeling disappointed at the critter-free walk, I heard the distinctive sound of geese calling overhead as they were apparently flying North -- a sign of Spring, but it sure felt like Winter this morning.

      Yesterday morning at 215 am I heard the coyote pack howling over towards Vassar Farm.  It wasn't the usual sound though.  It was more energetic as well as in a minor key.  Very different from what I've heard before.  Gather they got a fawn.  We've had a doe with one fawn frequenting the property just about daily, and I know there are many more fawns around.  The coyotes always seem to come back this time of year for the pickings.

      Two days ago, March 8 just before 5am with a bright full-moon in the West, a flock of turkeys that roosts in the neighborhood began gobbling, but I hadn't heard what set them off.  Then I did.  The very faint call of a coyote pack coming from the direction of Vassar Farm.  The howls, yips and barks were brief but unmistakable.  I used to hear them every Spring around the time the white tail deer drop their fawn, and then in the Autumn, but that hasn't happened for over a year.  
      Hopefully I'll hear them again as the fawns aren't due for a couple months.

      Every year I hear the coyote pack howling or see them roaming about during my morning walks, but last year, nothing.  Then yesterday while driving North on Rt 9, I saw a hearty medium sized coyote dead on the side of the road from an apparent car-strike.  It's coat was full, and it appeared to be well fed.

      Went for my walk at 228 am with the hope of seeing shooting stars from the Quadrantids meteor shower that was due to peak around 230 am coming from the NE -- triangulate Ursa Major, the head of Draco, and Bootes.  
      The temp was 9F, the sky was clear, the half moon was low in the Western Sky, and the stars were bright, but with the pervasive ambient light and low degree of visible sky due to trees and buildings, viewing was tricky.  I spent the first half of my walk heading toward the direction the meteors were to be coming from, and not one did I see, though I tried.  Luckily the morning was deeply quiet (even with 2 cars that passed, and one train that called out its 4-horn crossing-warning), and the air was sweet, so the walk was delightful, albeit quite chilly.  
      After returning from my walk, and picking up the newspaper from the box, I looked to the West to check out Orion, when suddenly, just South of that constellation, a beautiful bright shooting star blazed from mid-sky towards the horizon.  Not where it was supposed to be, but really cool!
      I like to imagine in that cold dark silent morning air I heard the meteor sizzle.