It's a Badger!

Badgers are not unknown to Michigan, but this is the first time one appeared on our trail camera.

Some Badger Fun Facts:

- nocturnal

- related to the weasel

- dwell in burrows they dig themselves

-  omnivores

Trail Camage 14

 Some of you may recall the fisher sightings reported here a few years ago.  You can review the fisher specifics here if you so desire.

Now, what have we here?  A dreaded fisher or just a black squirrel?  We need scale.  How big is that log?   Not sure.  I meant to go back and check, then I forgot, then I remembered but it snowed, then I forgot where the log was...   

The short days of winter:  the bane of early risers.

  

This is a big reason why the ducks are locked in at night.

Even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense, and he says to every one that he is a fool.  

- Ecclesiastes 10:3

Trail Camage 11

 

Gray squirrel

Red squirrel

Neighbor dog, Duke

Rabbit

Buck

Groundskeeper 

Purple Birkenstocks?!

Trail Camage 4

Resident dog keeps vigil while the camera is re positioned.

Crow out for a walk.

Crow remembers he can fly.

Oh my.  What sort of critter is this?

What is It?

This was caught by the trail cam.

Is this some sort of mutant or what?   Let me know what you think!

More Trail Camage

It was just a matter of time before we got some pictures of a fox.

It may be two different foxes, one red, one gray.  The first one has black feet, so it's probably a red fox.  The second one doesn't seem to have the dark feet.

Here's Feral Cat skulking by the duck pen.  He is beefier than he was before I started feeding him.

Yes, that's a Texas flag.  The Handsome One is a Texan.

Here we have Fluffy Feral Cat.  A relative of FC, perhaps?

Another possible relative of FC.  I call him Cream Cat.

Trail Camage

As is our custom, The Handsome One and I celebrate our wedding anniversary with a gift to ourselves.  This year it's a trail camera!

  Nice crow in flight.

Deer and more deer.

It's hard to see, but there are at least two raccoons on the trail to the right.

Wait!  Who's this?  Oh.  Just Clover and me.  Never knew we looked so spooky on those early morning strolls.

It's easy to move the camera for a different view.  Just a matter of reaching in there and unstrapping it...

Mrs. Cardinal

Mr. Cardinal  appears to have found a piece of corn.

What have we here?

It might belong to this creature.

Finally a picture of Feral Cat!

Alas, not a very good one.  He just isn't photogenic.

Looks like a pretty big raccoon.   He appeared a few nights in a row.  Time to move the camera again.

There are more critters out here to capture.  Stay tuned.

Portrait of F.C.

Update on Feral Cat.  He's still visiting the homestead regularly.

Since he is unwilling to sit for a photograph, we must settle for this artless rendering.

I Seem to have been Adopted by a Feral Cat

This scrawny orange cat kept appearing on the trail near the clothes line.  It occurred to me that he might help out with the mouse problem.  Mice in the house really bothers me.

To encourage this obviously hungry cat to draw closer, I put a bowl of cat food at the end of the path.  Little by little I moved the bowl closer to the house. 

The cat hangs around more now.  

Haven't seen any mouse turds in the house for some time.

My Shoes are Still Wet

The inside of my shoes were wet so I put them on the back porch to dry.

This critter was in the way.  The light was good so I got the camera.

Annoyed by the impromptu photo shoot, he moved on.  I put my shoe on the post to dry.

I got the camera out again.

Who's messing with who here?

This One doesn't have a Skeleton!

There are so many pretty things here at the homestead.  There are some not so pretty ones too.  Last week it was creepy bones left on the trial like a gruesome decoration.  This week's creepy find appeared in the garden and was boneless.

The head gardener is pleased that this grisly gift did not appear a month ago when the place was crowded with Roma tomatoes.  Anyway.  Sometime in the night, some violence was done to a raccoon.

All that was left behind was the head and back fur.  Deciding to join the macabre party, I posted it.

Now we got us a Scare Coon.

What other sinister ornaments have we in store?

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?