It's July

 Warm enough for Malcom to be outside.

The harvest is going strong: squash and peas and beans, tomatoes soon.  

We've had some nice wild mulberries and raspberries and blackberries this year.  Now the boysenberries are getting ripe!

Of course, there is still mowing to be done in summer.  

It's hot and hilly but the groundskeeper is unafraid.

Trail Camage 20

 About a month ago, we saw some youngsters.  Here they are again: a little bigger.

Racoon mom with kits.

Doe and fawn

They are likely heading towards the mulberry tree which still has fruit.

Mulberries are popular with deer.

Fawn with the zoomies.

It is quite common around here.  The groundskeeper has witnessed fawn zoomies many times.

Trail Camage 18

Here we have a mother racoon followed by some youngsters. 

Here they are again.  Is it the same group or another?  

Who knows...

Around this time, a raccoon was seen in broad daylight climbing the fence in an attempt to remove the orange left out for the Orioles.  

We have no picture of the attempted theft.  The groundskeeper was too busy yelling and waving her arms at the miscreant to record the event.

Trail Camage 7

Grackle on a dead branch.

Grackle close up.

Cat bird

Deer with sun shining through her ears.

There sure are a lot of blood vessels in a deer's ear!

It is not conclusive but that just might be a bat in flight on the left.

Meanwhile, at the Homestead

There is a peaceful moment when puppy Hazel is not tormenting the older dogs.

Clover notices some activity outside the inner perimeter.  She comments to Lily, "there's a couple deer by the apple tree."

Lily responds by barking at them. 







Clover regrets her rash remark.  Peace is lost.

"Um,"  Hazel asks.  "What's the protocol here?" 

Trail Camage 6

We know there are skunks around here because every now and there's a whiff of skunk in the air.  Finally we have some footage.

The activity is pretty close to the house which explains those times we had to close the bedroom window in the wee hours due to an unsavory aroma.

Oh oh.  Is this skunk raising his tail about to spray?!

Run!

A Couple of Cranes

The other day, Lily was barking up a storm.  Why? 

She sighted a couple of trespassers just outside the inner perimeter.

There are many Sandhill Cranes around here but we've never seen them in our yard before.  They makes nests on the ground in grassy areas.  Will this pair make a nest here?  Stay tuned. 

This is what they sound like!  (Just click listen.)

Trail Camage 4

Classic deer stare.

It's tempting to believe they know about the camera.

Peek a boo

Cute deer pose

Ham deer.

Going places.

Travelling Tom.

Has he found love?  (A couple weeks ago I was on the road in my car and had to stop and wait for a couple of toms to finish strutting for about six hens.)

This is No Halloween Skeleton

Sometimes you find things here at the homestead that are well, disturbing.

Like this for instance.

This was smack in the middle of a path.  (Best guess, based on the bones, skull, teeth and a little bit of hair left on the head, these are the remains of a skunk.)

What else lies on the path?

Summer is Here

After a cool wet spring, we have catapulted into summer.  Yesterday it was in the high eighties.  Predictions are that today will be in the nineties.

Thus it is time for our annual It's Hot Enough for Malcom to be Outside picture.

Look! Squirrel!

It is a curious thing.  When we left suburbia and settled here at the rural homestead, we noticed that there weren't a whole lot of squirrels around.

Sure, there was an occasional sighting but nothing approaching the volume of activity we'd observed at the old house.

Fours years in, here at the homestead, squirrel sightings have increased significantly.

Did they follow us here?

Mysterious Critter Alert!

The sighting occurred a couple weeks ago, just before daylight, out this window.  The creature was strolling casually along the edge of the mowed area.  It vanished into the tall grass beyond the trees.

Description 

dark brown in color
fluffy tail
approximately 3 feet in length, including tail
small head
small ears
beady eyes
big feet
looks like a skinny badger
aura of malevolence







The identity of this animal is most probably a fisher.

Fishers belong to the family Mustelidae, along with badgers, ferrets, minks, otters, sables, wolverines.

Some Fisher Facts

-coat thick and lush, dark brown to black in color
-  4-15 pounds
-  29-47 inches long, including tail
-  range 3-5 square miles
- solitary hunters:  rabbit, mouse, grouse porcupine, carrion
- populations dwindled about 100 years ago due to trapping (fisher fur is similar to mink)
-  fisher populations are larger now
- most active at dusk and dawn
-  able to climb trees but spend most of their time on the ground.  However, young are raised in hollow trees high off the ground

  Have there been other fisher sightings here at the homestead?  No.  But that's probably due to fisher stealth.

Read more about the Fisher here.

A Little Tail before Breakfast

The local rabbits seem to agree with Erma Bombeck, who said that the grass is always greener over the septic tank.  Even though there is lots and lots of grass outside of the fenced in area, rabbits regularly enter the yard.  There have been numerous rabbit sightings, smellings, and compelling scat evidence.  Then there was the rousing encounter of a few days ago.

It was a morning like any other, the dogs go outside in shifts to do their business.  Lois and Henry are first- the benefits of seniority.  Suddenly, things came to a head, or rather, tail.  The sound of a rabbit screaming is loud and full of anguish.

That was the sound that brought me outside in the still dark.  This is what I saw.

Well.  The rabbit stopped screaming.  He was wedged in that fence very tightly.  Fortunately, after slowly pushing one hip, then the other, little by little through the chain link, the rabbit was unstuck.  Once free of the fence the rabbit turned tail (what was left of it) and ran quite fast away from his morning  nightmare.

Henry strutted around the yard carrying the trophy tail.  I took it from him and flung it over the fence.  The rabbit has not returned to claim it, as yet.