Local wildlife

[AndyM]

Bit of a story here - we have had one larger (male) bear around for a while. The trail camera caught a pic of two together (very dark, bad pic but it provided proof we had two around). Pic 176 is his lady friend.

307 and 313 (sorry not great pics) show the male(?) rearranging a flower pot to get at the tray of water under it - the whole sequence is kind of neat but you get the idea with the 2 pics.

 

[Paul Allwood]

Bit of a story here - we have had one larger (male) bear around for a while. The trail camera caught a pic of two together (very dark, bad pic but it provided proof we had two around). Pic 176 is his lady friend.

307 and 313 (sorry not great pics) show the male(?) rearranging a flower pot to get at the tray of water under it - the whole sequence is kind of neat but you get the idea with the 2 pics.

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I hear of people being worried about our snakes and spiders in Australia. I think I'm way more worried about your bears.

 

[AndyM]

I hear of people being worried about our snakes and spiders in Australia. I think I'm way more worried about your bears.

I have not met them face to face (and that's a good thing) - they seem to be careful to stay out of the way . I look at the paw on the male and know it could cause a lot of pain so here's hoping they keep their distance.

We are careful to make sure there is no food about (other than the fruit trees and they are all picked now).

 

[S-G-R]

My wife got a red fox in the front yard last week.

 

[Shawn T. W]

Got a notice this morning of my back deck camera that watches the feeder saw something ... Once I got stopped I opened my app, and before I went to the saved files, I noticed something on the front lawn, I opened up that camera to full screen and watched a Turkey Buzzard peck at the ground, then flare out it's wings like they do when they are trying to dry off, but it's been real dry ...

It pecked a couple of times then flared out it's wings again, just as I saw my cat Charlie Boy chase after it!



My guess is one of the cats caught something earlier and didn't finish it ...

Here is a short video, at about 02 seconds you can see Charlie Boy putting the sneak on, then disappear for a few seconds, then launches the attack ...

Get off my lawn!

 

[NordTrac]

Not my tractor. Sun had just come up and frost was still present in the shadow of the steering wheel and controls...

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[Paul Allwood]

We had another snake in the shed today. This time it was a pretty healthy looking red bellied blake snake. I think it's a sign I need to clean up the shed to eliminate some of the ready hiding spots.

These are not normally aggressive and was an easy catch for our local snake catcher. He'll be relocated to somewhere in the bush away from houses.

 

[ken erickson]

Its that time of year here in Wisconsin that we clean up and make repairs to our deer blinds.

I camped at my land last weekend with a friend and we decided to sit for a few hours in the late afternoon with cameras. On cue a small buck came out of the thickets and crossed in front of us about 30 yards out.

Whitetail in this part of the state have become so common that many folks refer to them as "big brown yard rats", LOL

 

[jaxs]

Its that time of year here in Wisconsin that we clean up and make repairs to our deer blinds.

I camped at my land last weekend with a friend and we decided to sit for a few hours in the late afternoon with cameras. On cue a small buck came out of the thickets and crossed in front of us about 30 yards out.

Whitetail in this part of the state have become so common that many folks refer to them as "big brown yard rats", LOL

Are you saying there is an overpopulation of whitetail? Do you have a population of another species of deer? Is there not enough interest in hunting to control population or is it because natural resources isn't allowing enough to be harvested?
It was a long uphill battle with landowners and hunters but TPWL has done a fantastic job managing whitetail since 1990. First by allowing more doe to be harvested which resulted in increased average body weight. At the same time, large doe were brought from MId-West and placed on large acreages scattered accross state where doe were not allowed to be harvested. Then in 2002 they enacted antler restrictions which said, legal buck must have at least one unbranched antler or an inside spread of 13" or more inside beams. Sightings of spike bucks declined by 50% within 5 years and has continued to decline since. At the same time , bucks with good size antlers increased dramatically. Six point buck sitings are nearly non-existent now whereas they made up over 25% of buck harvest before restrictions were put in place. Currently, the average 18 month old buck has 8 points, most with 13" or more inside spread. Interestingly tipical 10 & 12 point bucks haven't porportionally increased.

 

[NCL4701]

Security cams picked up a group of turkeys wandering past the north end of the house this morning. As they made their way through the back yard our cat watched them from his catio.

 

[Workerbee]

Group of turkeys thru the yard yesterday morning

 

[Paul Allwood]

White faced herons in our trees this afternoon. Photographed by my wife, Marion.

 

[jaxs]

Ok I have to ask what herons are apt to do if some hapless person invades their space, scratch, peck or just knock them silly with a wing slap?