More Backyard Tracks

I've had these pictures in my camera since the 18th and I'm glad to finally get the chance to get them into a blog post. We had some snow predicted around this time and I wanted to make sure I got these photos before the snow covered them up because for me they held some special significance. Can you tell what these tracks in the snow are?? If it helps at all, here's a hint: they're on the south side of a large evergreen.....
If you said to your monitor, "that looks like spots where 2 deer laid down," well, then you are absolutely correct!

You probably remember that I posted some photos a few weeks ago (before the snow) of where deer had bedded down in the backyard and flattened the grass. Ever since it snowed and we were still seeing deer in the backyard, I've been on the lookout for any evidence that they're still bedding down and I finally found these 2 spots the morning of the 18th when I was out filling birdfeeders.

Mr. Johnson said I would be able to easily notice where deer had bedded down because the snow would be melted all the way to the ground from their body heat. (I tried finding out what the body temperature of a white-tailed deer is, but couldn't find that specific information. We're thinking that it's probably at least 100 degrees. If anyone knows for sure, please let me know in the "Comments" section, OK?)

So here's a close-up look at the first spot. It looks like she had a good nap and then probably had a stretch and a pee once she got up (just like me after a nap!)

Here's the other spot. Isn't it just so neat the way you can see the impressions from where she had her legs tucked in underneath her? And then her little hoofprints from when she got up and walked away?

The more I see of these deer, the more fascinated I become with them. I really love the fact that they're right in the backyard where I have the opportunity to watch their activities and habits so closely.

When I was out searching for more deer bedding spots (which I didn't find, BTW), I did come across this well-used bunny trail that goes from under another evergreen to the dense dogwood thicket in the backyard. All the little birdies and critters love this thicket and it provides really good protection from predators -- especially hawks.

Random Friday

Happy 3rd of July! I hope some of you are enjoying this day as a holiday from work (I sure am!) It's been a while since my last post, so here's a potpourri of observations from the past week.

A look in the garden the other day revealed that some thing were missing--like beet tops.......

and pea sprouts!

Since I'm reasonably certain Peter Cottontail and his buddies can't access the garden, my immediate suspect was Bambi's mom and sure enough, after very little searching, I found her hoofprint (several, actually!)
Obviously the greens provided a tasty diversion from the usual nightly feast of corn and birdseed and my 3-foot fence was no obstacle for Mrs. White-Tail. Liquid Fence to the rescue! I mixed up a fresh batch of this horrible-smelling stuff and applied a liberal dose to all of this tempting salad bar. And it worked! Here's some of the beautiful fresh lettuce and peas I used to make us delicious salads for supper last night. (those peas were so sweet--no wonder the deer liked them!)

There are lots of flowers blooming all over the place right now. Here are some of the sweet-smelling blossoms on the staghorn sumac bushes. This busy little bumblebee was loving it! See all the pollen collected on his/her back legs?

I'm starting to see some butterflies, but the butterfly activity seems slow this summer. I think this is a Pearl Crescent.

The common milkweed in my yard is starting to bloom. I actually saw a couple of monarchs checking out the flowers for nectar. The monarch numbers seem to be down this year too and I have yet to find any eggs or larvae on any of my milkweed plants.

Hopefully there's just a delay in their migration and things will pick up soon--I've got a brand new monarch ranch on the kitchen counter just waiting to be populated with caterpillars.

Two of my neighbors have beehives now and I'm guessing this might be one of their honeybees checking out the milkweed blossoms for nectar too.

Did you get your new "license to bird" yet?

The new duck stamps are available at your local post office and you don't have to be a duck hunter. "Federal Duck Stamp Dollars are used to purchase wetlands and other valuable habitat for the National Wildlife Refuge System, benefitting many different birds and other wildlife species."

Another plus: your duck stamp can be used as a season pass to any National Wildlife Refuge! (where you might be able to see the really neat Long-Tailed Duck pictured on this stamp)

I saw this inside my compost bin the other day.......

Thanks to Susan's post a couple weeks ago about slime mold in her yard, I was pretty certain that's what this was. So instead of being grossed out, I was pretty excited!

Two of the baby chickadees have fledged and have been seen hanging around the yard.

A nest box check last evening revealed two little ones still inside. I don't know how those overworked parents can manage it, but they're looking pretty frazzled when they stop by to pick up some mealworms.

Thus ends another nerdy post from the Nature Knitter. Since you've read this to the end, you may be a nature nerd too--check out The Nature Lady's blog and take the quiz. (I believe I answered "yes" to 15 of the 16 questions.) It's time to come out of the closet and declare yourself as a Nature Nerd too! Finally it's cool to be a nerd! Woo-Hoo!

Have a great weekend everyone!

A Backyard Walk With Sophie

Finally we saw the sun for a few short hours this morning (first time since last Friday!) Here's where working part-time is great because Sophie and I got to take advantage of a nice morning and go for a little hike in the backyard. Come on along and I'll show you some of the things we saw.......

In spite of being almost 12 years old, a heart murmur and hind feet with no feeling in them, Sophie still loves to get out and run in the backyard. I don't take her for long walks anymore and she spent the rest of the afternoon napping after this adventure, but I think you can see how much she's enjoying being out here!

There's nothing wrong with Sophie's "sniffer" though. I bet she was smelling a bunneh under this tree.

When we were exploring at the farthest end of our yard, I noticed this fresh deposit of deer droppings.

Very close to where I found these droppings, we have an area of the yard that we've never mowed or done anything else with -- in fact, it's where we dump tree trimmings and other yard waste. It's grown up into a pretty dense thicket, but as you can see below, there's a little path going into this thicket......

and when I followed the path into there, I spotted this fresh deer hoofprint also.

Sophie was checking out all the good scents in there too, but I didn't let her snoop around too much because I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if a doe hasn't hidden a fawn or two in that area! Wouldn't that be a real treat to see someday? I'll definitely be keeping a closer watch on this part of the yard now.

I've got quite a few cavity-nesting birds occupying some space in the backyard also. There are three active Tree Swallow nests. This little female Tree Swallow was reluctant to vacate her house, but I wanted to see if her eggs had hatched yet.

Not yet! Just 6 pretty little white eggs in a lovely bed of feathers. I'm always amazed at the variety of feathers the Tree Swallows can find to line their nests. Does anyone know if that stripey feather right down in front is from a hawk? (click on the photo to enlarge it)

I also have Tree Swallows nesting in two of these plastic super gourds, but they place their nests against the back wall of the gourds, so it's impossible to see how many eggs there are and whether they've hatched or not. But I know the nests are still active because I see the swallows going in and out.

Mrs. Chickadee is still sitting on her 5 eggs in this front yard nest box. According to my incubation calculations, there should be baby chickadees hatching by this weekend and I'll keep you posted on any new developments.

I have bluebirds in a nestbox in the backyard too. There was an unsuccessful nesting attempt earlier in the season and I'm not sure what happened, but that nest had been abandoned. Now a new nest with 5 eggs is being tended by the bluebird pair. Another neat thing about this is that I've finally found a nest that incorporates some of the yarn scraps that I put out in the backyard every spring!

Here's a nice shot of Mrs. Bluebird waiting for me and Sophie to get the heck out of her territory!

A quick check on the vegetable garden revealed these broccoli sprouts from the seeds I planted a couple weeks ago.

The garbage can potatoes are doing pretty good too.

Remember the scenes of the wildflower garden that I burned on April 13th?

Here's what it's looking like today. No buds or blossoms yet, but everything has grown back very nicely. With all the rain that we've had recently, once it gets sunny and warms up again, these flowers are really going to take off.

The wild grape vine has really taken over the dead tree in my front yard. Right now it looks there's going to be a good crop of grapes later this summer and the dead tree isn't quite so unsightly now that it's covered with green leaves again.

The house sparrows finally took over the nesting cavity that I showed you in this tree earlier this spring. I wasn't real happy about that, but a windstorm a couple weeks ago blew the top part of the tree off right at that nesting cavity, so the sparrows lost their home anyway. (I'm so glad the bluebirds weren't nesting there when that happened!)

I've got a bumper crop of common milkweed growing next to my driveway this year. I have only seen 1 monarch butterfly in my yard so far this spring, but hopefully when they come back, they'll find this milkweed patch along with several others that are growing in different spots in the yard.

And finally, a couple weeks ago I cleaned out some dead plants and replanted some new perennials in my hummingbird and butterfly garden. One of my new plants is this Foxglove. It's the only one blooming so far, but isn't it pretty?

Thanks for coming along with Sophie and me on this walk.....we had a good time and hope you did too.

An Evening Walk to the Pond

I haven't been over to the little pond in the woods near our house yet this spring, so after supper last night, Mr. Johnson and I decided to take a walk over there. No development for the home lots or streets has been started yet, although there are some sewer pipes stacked up and a big John Deere digger that's been sitting there since early spring. I count that as one of the advantages of our current economic situation.

We know the deer have started having their babies and I was hoping to see a fawn, but we didn't. However, Eagle Eyes Johnson spotted these tracks in the dirt on our way home, so we know they've started to arrive on this earth. I just love seeing those teeny, tiny hoofprints (less than 1.5 inches long). You can tell this little one was staying pretty close to mama.

I think there are still quite a few deer in this little woods, judging by the number of tracks we saw. Here are some more from a little buck.

Raccoons are pretty common too.

Eagle Eyes Johnson also spotted these turkey tracks near the pond. He never did see any while he was out turkey hunting a couple weeks ago, though.

But the trip wasn't just about animals tracks, we saw some live creatures too. Here's a tent caterpillar.

How about this pretty dragonfly -- a male Common Whitetail. The dragonflies were hanging out on the sun-facing side of that John Deere digger I mentioned earlier. They must have been enjoying some of the remaining warmth from the sun on the metal of the machine.

We did see a couple of white-tail deer, but this one was the only one who allowed me to photograph her--and only from a distance.

We heard and saw quite a few birds--especially several territorial male Indigo Buntings. On my next trip, I'll see if I can't get a couple shots of those guys. Here's a bird I couldn't identify for sure; I think it's an Olive-Sided Flycatcher. At first I thought maybe a Great-Crested Flycatcher because there are so many of them in this woods, and it was about the same size. But once I got home and looked at this photo, I changed my mind, specifically because of coloration and the dark streaking at the sides of its breast. (A positive ID from any of my readers would be greatly appreciated.)

In addition to fauna, we also saw some flora. These little Johnny-Jump-Ups were growing right in the middle of what will be the main street into this subdivision. (I have half a notion to go back over there tonight and dig them up to replant somewhere in my yard.)

I noticed these roses blooming from the edge of the remaining woods. "So pretty," I thought to myself. "Now where did I just see a picture of these???"

Oh yeah, at Heather's blog......I believe it's the beautiful but invasive Multiflora Rose. Oh well, I guess it will be taken care of once the housing development starts here. I commented to Mr. Johnson on our way back home that if we were ever to win the Powerball, the first thing I would do is purchase this undeveloped subdivision from the realtor and just build one house there way back by the pond -- ours!

There must have been a farm or something here at one time many years ago because we see a lot of glass and sometimes other artifacts where the dirt road was been cleared out. I spotted this tiny little cobalt blue bottle just barely sticking out of the dirt and kicked it loose with the toe of my shoe......intact, very cute and a perfect sized vase for a tiny flower.

I cleaned it up when I got home and picked the perfect tiny flower in my backyard.

Now it resides on my kitchen windowsill as a souvenir of last night's walk.

Master Naturalist Class

My Minnesota Naturalist Class is going well. Last night was class #4 (there are a total of 9 classes). I thought I was pretty knowledgable about nature, but I'm finding out in this class that I really don't know very much at all! I felt a little smarter in yesterday's class: Creatures of the Big Woods. We had the opportunity to go outside and make a plaster cast of an animal footprint found along the edge of the pond. Here's how our group's turned out -- do you know what animal made this footprint?

If you guessed "hind foot of a raccoon" you would be correct!

So far we have learned about Minnesota's biomes (we are in the deciduous forest biome), glaciers and geology and what effect they had on the big woods, management and identification of terrestrial plants (trees and shrubs), and last night's class on wildlife. I'm enjoying these classes and especially all the new things I'm learning.

And now to totally change the subject, look at this picture I took yesterday morning......

Those dang starlings! It took them almost 3 months to figure out how to get to the suet log inside this cage. I don't know if it's just this one bird, but when I got home from work this afternoon, there was a starling all the way up inside--with one foot braced on the suet log and one on the cage. I was hoping they'd never figure this out, but this is one smart bird. Now I'm going to have to attach a pie plate to the bottom of the log and cut off that access. The only bad thing about that is the hairy woodpeckers will also lose their access to the suet log. Crap!!

Can you stand any more possum stuff?

We had a little dusting of snow overnight and the temperature was just below freezing, so when I let Sophie out this morning, here's what I saw on the concrete patio:
It was still warm enough for the possums to be active overnight and this one visited the ground feeder tray I have outside the back door. I love the way its warm little feet melted through the snow on the patio to leave these perfect footprints.

I took the spotlight outside and saw their footprints all around the house, down the driveway and out into the street. Mr. Johnson confirmed that they had walked up the street because he saw the tracks when he took Sophie for their early morning walk. He said he could tell it was possums by how their long tail drag lines.

I hope the possums don't become a nuisance in the neighborhood. I know of a couple neighborhood jerks who would just love the chance to shoot these little critters--even though they're harmless.