.
He surely is a handsome devil.
.
.
Strutting out of the woods with his son.
.
.
Always wary of the neighbor’s dogs.
.
.
And the crazy lady with the camera.
.
.
The time of year I worry about him is almost upon us.
.
.
And as much as autumn is my favorite season….
.
.
It brings with it rifles and bullets and trophy hunters.
.
.
And I’ll fear for our beautiful visitors.
And yes, I mean that literally.
Continue at your own risk.
Remember, you were warned.
And I’m not talking about a little poo. No.
To be precise….
It’s a dozen piles of crap.
On top of our stone wall.
What?
Why?
All along the top of the wall….
Crap.
It looks like skunk to me, although why the little devil feels the need to climb up there and poop every night is beyond me.
Our big fellow made an appearance last night.
Moseying on up the back lawn.
Nibbling along the route.
Fresh grass pickings are slim with everything turning brown from our drought..
Except for over the septic tank.
Even he knows the grass is always greener there.
And woodchucks eating watermelon is too damned cute not to share.
I never thought about giving watermelon to the chucks.
But a bowl of it got pushed to the back the fridge recently and I couldn’t see throwing it away.
Let me tell you….
There were some happy little chuckers that afternoon.
Until the last piece was in sight.
Then it was every chuck for themselves.
I looked out the window the other day and saw something that terrified me.
Don’t laugh.
It was momma red squirrel and she looked…..
Fat.
And since red squirrels don’t get fat?
There can only be one explanation…..
She’s pregnant again.
A little background before we begin:
I have a YouTube channel.
The only reason I have a YouTube channel is so I can post short ridiculous videos of meaningless drivel here on my blog.
Nests, ducks, ants, roof leaks and the ever popular baby barn.
As you can see by the number of views, my audience is limited. And who can blame them? Watching my roof leak will only excite a small demographic.
Yes, occasionally a friend will stumble on my channel and watch a few…. but without my blog narrative they don’t make a whole lot of sense.
Which is fine, because I don’t have time for… nor interest in…. promoting this channel.
So I have to ask… why?
Why have I gone from 8 subscribers to 805?
And while I don’t mean this to be a racially charged statement…. there aren’t any John or Jane Smiths on the list.
Totskie Pacino.
Al’s 3rd cousin twice removed? Could be.
After a little research, I found comments.
I didn’t understand them, but I found them.
And upon further study it seems this video, that I posted when we visited the Jacksonville, Florida Zoo 2 years ago….
Is the reason.
Holy mother of wombats!
It went from 7 views to 100,000 in the span of a week.
And a few days later?
Another 92,000 views. WTH?
Is there some lame international search engine that was so desperate to provide results they chose my far from riveting 51 second clip over this?
I’m befuddled.
I mean hell, my video wasn’t titled Look At This Awesome Tiger! So why are 192,988 people searching the web for IMG 5867?
Yes, I’m befuddled. And also a little ticked.
Clearly Evelyne Robinson hasn’t been paying attention.
If I did indeed have a tiger?
He’d be as fat as momma woodchuck and unable to nimbly traverse my lovely backyard waterfall.
*Note to self – check into installing lovely backyard waterfall. Red squirrels can’t swim*
Yes, my views are up.
But once these subscribers realize it’s nothing but woodchucks and barn insulation, I fear my stats will be taking a dramatic downturn.
Sorry Totskie.
Our resident buck was here the other evening.
Up from the woods with last year’s progeny in tow.
The twin fawns are now young bucks themselves.
Before we knew it the whole family was here.
Chasing each other and ruining my shots.
This year’s Bambi.
And his/her dad.
Yes sir…
There are some good genes running through this family.
One minute you’re happily eating dinner side by side with your woodchuck brother.
Until he realizes his lettuce and carrot tops might not be as tasty as what you have….
And moves in on your watermelon.
If looks could kill.
That’s one dead chuck.
Because it’s time to clear out the photo files again.
Momma chuck has been packing on the pounds with an eye toward winter..
But it doesn’t stop her from scrambling up and over the rock wall quicker than I can move my shutter finger.
I have a feeling at least one of her two remaining offspring will be sticking around when the snow flies.
I keep catching him rooting around under the daylilies, filling his mouth with dead leaves and making off for parts unknown with nesting material.
Last year’s fawn comes every night, and since his new antlers are decidedly unbranched, I’ve taken to calling him the antenna buck. Because I’m old… and remember when you had to wiggle those things every afternoon to watch Dark Shadows.
Though these next two pics were at the outermost limit of my zoom, I’m including them because we rarely see momma turkey and her young.
She raises them in the woods and neighboring meadows, never crossing our large expanse of open lawn.
And finally, a few Bambi shots.
Because they’re so damned sweet, I can’t help it.
It’s happening.
Red squirrel.
And woodchuck.
A common goal.
A shared food source.
An alliance.
Partners….
Synchronizing positions.
I’m doomed.
River's world..... 