Category: Wildlife

Pic-a-nik table

On By CarynIn Wildlife

My eldest gave me a bird feeder that looks like a little picnic table for Mother’s Day (I *may* have laid out some heavy hints). It came rigged to be hung, but after trying it that way for a couple days, I decided to mount it to the tree.

Photo description: small picnic table shaped feeder screwed to a post oak tree and filled with seed

The tray serves a dual purpose, both as entertainment (although the squirrels don’t have proper table manners), and to catch the corn the squirrels drop from the spinning corn holder (which doesn’t spin when they eat off of it, but does hold 5 ears of corn). The squirrels drop the corn after they eat the tip off and discard the rest of the yellow part of the corn kernel.

Photo description: downward view of the squirrel feeder, showing the discarded corn kernels

Tiny opossum

On By CarynIn Wildlife
Photo description: small mammal checking out a food dish on wood steps, possible opossum
Photo description: adult opossum on the same steps, bowl for scale, with a tabby cat peeking out from behind the door

At first I thought the mammal in the first picture was a rat, but it doesn’t stand like a rat, it stands like an opossum.

Oh yeah, I checked the trail cams again. Downloading a thousand photos and then deleting the ones I don’t want was exhausting, to me and the cloud. So then I was using the Photos app to pick just a few remarkable pics to download, but the thumbnails are very small there and hard to see what is going on in each picture.

I found a better method this last time: open up the folder on the USB card in the Finder app (Mac), maximize the preview size, and arrow button press through single-view photos before ever downloading them. I drag the interesting pics to a temporary folder, and keep going. It is also like playing a time lapse video, I see the photos rapidly in sequence and get a better idea of the animals movements.

They are trying

On By CarynIn Wildlife

We have an algae problem on one part of our siding on our house. It needs a good scrub, but the snails make interesting paths in the field of green as they eat their way into a food stupor.

Photo description: green algae on hardy plank siding with snail tracks and a browsing snail, upper left

Better late than never

On By CarynIn Wildlife

Last year my youngest and I assembled and painted a small wood birdhouse. I sprayed a clear coat of UV protection on it and left it in the garage to dry, for a year. The year was not intentional, life got busy, and whenever I would see it in the garage I was on a different mission. Then iNaturalist popped up a message that it is chickadee breeding season and showed a bird house the same size as the one we had in the garage. That was my sign.

Photo description: small blue and green bird house hung on ropes running under the tree branches

I found a length of chain and a spring hook and attached the bird house about 7 feet above the ground at the back side of the yard. I can just barely see the small house from my kitchen table, so now we wait and see if any birds find it acceptable.

Less than a year

On By CarynIn Wildlife

I first attached a deer antler to the squirrel feeder tree in June 2025. Here is what was left after 11 months.

Photo description: small section of deer antler scored with squirrel teeth marks screwed to a Post Oak tree

I took one of the other antlers that I had already harvested parts off for craft projects and replaced the devoured antler.

Photo description: partially sawed antler screwed to a Post Oak tree

I watch the squirrels gnaw on the antler everyday. They get minerals from the antler and also wear down their constantly growing teeth.