Category: Wildlife

Still deer

On By CarynIn Wildlife

We do still get deer through our back woods, as evidenced by pictures from the trail cam.

Photo description: night vision side view of a doe White Tailed Deer

Two by two

On By CarynIn Wildlife

The raccoon kits are getting big! I pulled my trail cam photos and they are about half as big as their Momma, all six of them.

Photo description: night vision view of seven raccoons walking through the woods, Momma’s chewed tail on the right, and six young raccoons following in pairs, the eye glow the only sign of the sixth
Photo description: another picture of this raccoon family, Momma on the bench, five young on the porch, and one kit on the ground between the porch and bench, all cleaning up cat food

I think the number of kits explains Momma’s tail being thin and scraggly. I think I would give up and just let them play with my tail in order to get some sleep.

Bat house

On By CarynIn Wildlife

My bat house is finally up! I was gifted the bat house a number of years ago, but had trouble finding a place near the edge of the woods, 15 feet up with a clear drop, and southern facing. None of our out buildings fit the requirements, and I was not willing to put up a 15 foot post. My eldest learned about bat houses for a project in college and found a good place on an existing tree and installed it.

Photo description: ladder leaning against a very large Post Oak on our property, with a new bat house installed on a sturdy branch
Photo description: view from the meadow looking back into the woods with the bat house installed

Now I watch for… signs of guano?

Racoons

On By CarynIn Wildlife

I pulled trail cam footage and there were baby raccoons! There look to be five young ones, and that there are two mother raccoons, or there are ten babies and three mothers. Hm. I saw photos of a mom with three, a mom with two, and a mom with five. Raccoons will communally raise young, I’ve read, so I’m hoping there are only five.

Photo description: mother raccoon bottom left, five (six?) young raccoons bottom right

I did a video by recording my computer screen as I flipped through photos. The cutest one is where the kits are climbing the tree.

I noticed a pattern in the trail cam photos. When I would feed the meadow cats, within minutes a raccoon would come out and get food too. Then when I was in the coop looking for eggs, I heard a strange hiss outside the door, and sure enough, momma raccoon was getting dinner. She didn’t know I was in the coop, so I recorded video on my phone. I was probably three feet away, but she was used to chicken noise and didn’t consider the door direction a threat, so didn’t see me. I could see that she is definitely a momma with nursing young, which explains the high calorie need.

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