Tag Archives: animals

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Wild Kingdom… the River edition.

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It’s not just the woodchucks who show up for a nosh at Casa River.

 

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We have a beautiful pair of foxes who are denning down in our woods.

 

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Hey now… I’m sharing the sights and sounds of my backyard.

Please be respectful.

 

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Early morning shots through a wet window are a little blurred.

 

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This is sharper.

 

 

 

Then there are the daily seed raiders…

 

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This not pregnant anymore doe just dropped her fawn in the woods 2 houses down and is late in blowing her winter coat.

Of course if we had this type of deer, our seeds would be safe.

 

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But if we had these?

We might not be.

 

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Yikes!

 

 

 

And do you remember the Catbird nest with it’s bright blue eggs?

 

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Well….

 

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New life is popping there too.

 

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Although momma Catbird doesn’t like it when I photograph her babies. Turn up your volume to hear her cry.

 

 

 

And then there’s this fellow…. who I stumbled on by accident and took one quick out of focus shot of before I hightailed it inside.

 

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At least I wasn’t looking at the business end.

 

 

 

 

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Baby chucker update.

28 Comments

 

What…

You thought I’d run out of cute baby woodchuck pictures?

 

 

No, they’re still here.

 

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And still adorable.

 

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So there will be baby woodchuck butt shots….

 

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Baby woodchuck eating apple shots…

 

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Baby woodchuck following momma shots…

 

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Baby woodchuck napping on the deck in the sun shots…

 

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And various baby woodchucks just looking too damned cute shots for days, okay weeks, to come.

There’s even woodchuck baby I’m too  fat  fluffy to take a bath without falling over videos.

 

 

 

 

Which, btw…. took me two and half hours to upload to YouTube with our slow as molasses internet connection.

A little appreciation would not be unwelcome.

 

 

That’s better.

 

 

 

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In case you didn’t know….

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Don’t worry..

I do.

 

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Did you know…. after the battle of Waterloo in 1815, dentures were made from the teeth of dead soldiers? They were given to wealthy people who experienced tooth decay due to consuming too much sugar.

I’m not sure how bad my teeth would have to be before I wore a dead man’s… but I’m guessing pretty bad.

 

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Did you know….. mosquitoes are attracted to people who have recently eaten bananas?

This explains why I’m swarmed every time I start my morning with a smoothie.

 

 

Did you know…. castoreum, the vanilla flavored food additive used in baked goods can be listed as “natural flavoring” because it comes from the anal glands of beavers?

Thankfully it’s hard to procure and prohibitively expensive, so I doubt we’ll be finding it in our Twinkies anytime soon.

I’m sure the beavers aren’t thrilled either…

 

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Did you know…. preparing an Egyptian mummy took upwards of 70 days, and dead noblewomen were allowed to ripen for few days prior to the procedure so the embalmers wouldn’t find them too attractive.

Makes you wonder just how desperate for a date those fellows were….

 

 

Did you know.… Kemosabe means “soggy shrub”  in the Navajo language?

Good ole Tonto, not quite the faithful sidekick you thought he was.

 

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Did you know….  woodpecker scalps, porpoise teeth and giraffe tails have all been used as currency at one time or another?

This is good news for me as I am currently awash in woodchuck poo and am hoping it will be the next monetary trend.

Momma gonna make it rain up in here!

 

 

 

 

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green. Green. GREEN!

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We had a very wet spring… and it looks like we’re going to have a very wet summer as well.

 

 

Our lawn is still part swamp, numerous perennials have drowned and I am beginning to feel moldy.

 

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At times it feels like we’ll never dry out.

 

 

But the result of all this infernal moisture is green.

 

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Sprawling lawns of verdant green…

 

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It took us a little longer to get Casa River in shape this year….

 

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Because as soon as the warm temperatures hit there was an explosion of growth.

 

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My pink honeysuckle was glorious and grew twice as wide.

 

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Every single shrub is screaming for a haircut.

 

 

And the plants aren’t the only ones growing.

We have a pair of foxes with a den in our woods. They come up every evening to feed and carry pieces back to their young.

 

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The woodchucks babies are scampering every where and curious as all get out.

 

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These two were fascinated with the husband’s wet, smelly work boots.

 

 

No accounting for woodchuck taste apparently.

Summer may have been long in coming…

But it looks like it’s going to be an abundant season.

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More baby chuckers!

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Remember how I warned you there would be  more pictures of baby woodchucks than you ever thought possible  future photographs of our backyard wildlife?

It starts now.

 

 

Calm down, they’re babies and they’re cute.

How bad can it be?

 

 

In the evening, it usually goes like this…

 

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Mother woodchuck comes out to see if the coast is clear.

 

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And must give some kind of silent signal…

 

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Because before long….

 

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The little ones are scampering around everywhere.

 

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They love our deck and run back and forth so quickly it’s hard to snap a shot.

 

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Two of them chase each other around and love hiding under the grill cover…

 

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While the other two are busy eating deer grain.

 

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With their mother…

 

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Who is in serious need of an 18 hour bra.

 

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Sorry girlfriend, but it needed to be said.

 

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I know you can’t un-see that. 

Apologies.

Maybe this bit of cuteness will make up for it.

 

 

 

He doesn’t quite have the hang of it yet…

But he’s trying.

 

 

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Because I promised I would….

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Squirrels.

Love ’em or hate ’em, you have to admit they’re marvelously clever and acrobatic creatures. Entire industries are built on deterring them from raiding our bird feeders, but squirrels?

They train for it.

 

 

Personally, I enjoy their antics and figure anyone who works that hard deserves a few seeds and nuts.

So as promised, here are a few of my favorite shots over the years.

When we moved to our house in 2002 it was a wasteland of gardenless grass, so I stuck a quick pole in the ground with a feeder.

 

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It didn’t take long for a squirrel to find it.

 

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Reaching it was a little harder.

 

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But eventually he got there.

 

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Although he had a hard time accessing the seed…

 

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It didn’t beat him.

 

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And he happily ate hanging upside down.

 

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Mind you, we have a large open backyard and the winds blow like downtown Chicago so a lot of the feeders actively swing.

 

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Which is what this one was doing. Back and forth, back and forth, with a squirrel happily perched inside and enjoying the ride.

 

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This one didn’t mind sharing the feeder with an orange.

He just used it as a cushion.

 

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Here’s another upside down eater.

 

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Maybe he was raiding seed…maybe he was doing handstands.

Tough call.

 

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Either way, I’m in awe of the leg muscle it takes to hang like that.

 

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This feeder posed a challenge at first.

 

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And for a while all he could do was hug it.

 

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But after a day or two?

 

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Upside down munching.

Squirrels….

 

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Is there anything they can’t do?

 

 

Apparently not.

 

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Babies!

37 Comments

 

Remember the dandelion eating woodchuck I posted about a while back?

We’ve discovered she lives under our barn.

And yes, she’s a she because…

 

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She has babies!

Baby chuckers… can I get an awwwww?

 

 

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They’re just too cute.

Four in total …but I rarely see them together long enough to get a photograph.

Three is the most I’ve captured so far.

 

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Sweetness!

 

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Here’s one trying to hide under my iron garden bird.

 

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Well, not quite.

More like…

 

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This little one seems to like our back deck.

 

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You can hear him scurrying for cover under the grill… then catch him checking to see if the coast is clear.

 

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This looked like trouble…

 

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But after a few nibbles, he decided he didn’t like geraniums…which was good news for me.

 

 

 

I hate to tell you, but this probably won’t be the last of the baby chucker pics.

You’ve been warned.

 

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The great goat escape.

35 Comments

 

Yes, we who live in the country are easily amused.

 

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A few weeks ago as I was doing dishes, I saw one of our neighbor’s goats on the run…. with their daughters hot on it’s heels.

 

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It was a grand chase.

 

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And went on long enough for me to photograph it.

 

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Don’t think goats can run?

Try chasing one.

 

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One daughter managed to steer it closer to the outbuildings…

And viola… the take down.

 

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Country goats.

Because city people don’t know what to do with them…

 

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Dragons on the other hand…

 

Bwaahaahaa!

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If you fill it, they will come.

12 Comments

 

We watch the birds here at Casa River.

 

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Lots and lots of birds.

We also feed the birds.

Which brings all manner of beasts to our backyard to eat what falls on the ground…

On any given day you can see woodchucks, chipmunks, skunks, raccoons, squirrels, and fox.

 

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During the cold winter months, the birds eat me out of house and home.

I fill and fill and fill those feeders but their appetites seem to know no bounds.

But lately….

I’ve noticed the seed levels were dropping at an alarming rate.

In mere hours multiple feeders were stripped clean.

 

 

Ah.

That explains it.

(Photos and video taken 2 weeks ago. Even Maine is greening up by now.)