This striking little guy was crawling across the bedroom floor. I think the cat brought him in. After taking his picture, I returned him to the wilds of the back yard. The rainbow shimmer is quite striking!
Metallic Tiger Beetle
Category: Wildlife
Squirrel swing
We converted an old mini tire that my eldest found into a squirrel feeder. It looks like a little tire swing! It took about a week for the squirrels to find the nuts we put in, and we didn’t actually see the squirrel until our cat was meowing at us, desperate to go outside. We did not let her out!
The swing has been great entertainment for everyone.
I did mange one video, but it was with my phone from a distance, so blurry. Still funny though!
I’z brought present
Sophie the indoor/outdoor cat, who is leaning more toward indoor everyday, brought me a present. I remembered to take a picture before I investigated, which is the only reason I am posting about it. The lizard was playing dead for the cat, and when I reached for it, it took off like a shot and disappeared. I think this lizard has done this before. With any luck, the lizard will go off and make more cat and human foiling baby lizards.
Keep the door closed
I had contemplated keeping the back door of the coop open at night to really let the cool air flow through the coop. There is a “screen” door with chicken wire instead of screen, but chicken wire won’t hold up to the attentions of a raccoon, and after the trail cam took a picture of a raccoon right behind the coop, leaving the door open is a definite no. In fact, I need to line the inner door with hardware cloth and put a heavy two step latch on it just in case a raccoon gets bold before I close the back door! (The solid door has three latches on it and a pad lock.) I had originally intended the inner door to only be utilized when I was out in the coop, but I found that keeping it as a breezeway after dinner makes a 10 degree difference in the inside of the coop. When the temperature in the coop goes from 95 to 85, it is worth airing out.
The trail cam also took a decent picture of an armadillo behind the coop. There is hardware cloth buried all around the coop and runs to keep the diggers out.
Froggy went a courtin’
I’ve seen videos of people giving a toad a back scratch, and the toad leans into the attention as if in enjoyment, but I didn’t think this was a regular toad behavior. Imagine my delight when one of the house toads let me give him (her?) a scratch! Oh wait, you don’t have to imagine, here is the video. Warning, my voice goes hypersonic and I speak baby talk to the toad (incidentally, I never use this speech mode with children, it is reserved for animals).
Critters and Craft 