Backyard Buck

A couple days ago, Mr. Johnson happened to notice that a few small trees in our backyard have been rubbed rather vigorously by a whitetail buck. He seemed to favor my staghorn sumac thicket. This one was on the outside edge of the thicket.

Here's my hand to use as a guide for the size of the tree being rubbed.

This one was farther inside and towards the back edge of the thicket.

Pretty much the same size tree again. Check out those gouges in the wood below my hand! Those antler tips are really sharp!

On the other side of the yard in the aspen thicket, we found another tree that had been worked.

Same size again, so we were pretty positive this was the same buck. This tree was deeply gouged. They're really strong and so aggressive this time of year! Can you imagine how dangerous it is for them when 2 bucks have locked antlers and are fighting? I sure wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of those antlers.

Since it was obvious there's a buck in the backyard, Mr. Johnson turned the trail camera on again......and we weren't disappointed. We're fairly certain this is the buck that's been rubbing on our trees. This guy doesn't have very big antlers, and the general rule is that the larger the antlers on the deer, the larger the tree they'll work. This buck has a nice big body, but due to point restrictions in place this deer hunting season, it's not legal to shoot this buck, so maybe we'll see him around again this year.

I got these pictures in reverse order, but he showed up twice in one night for corn. I'm guessing he also stayed around to visit with some of the does that frequent our backyard overnight too. There was lots of deer activity and photos on the camera on this night of 6th and early morning on the 7th.

The little fawns are still hanging around in the backyard, but I think they're on their own now. Once the does come into their breeding season, they chase their babies away to be on their own. At least the little fawns that have visited regularly over the summer know where there's a safe place to eat and rest in our backyard. Now if we could just figure out a way to keep them from trying to cross the road!

The possum is still visiting the backyard at night too. Looks like this possum is getting in pretty good shape for the long winter!

More Trail Camera Photos

If you don't have a backyard trail camera of your own yet, here are some photos taken during the daytime. This will give you a good idea of the capabilities of this camera for detecting and photographing birds and critters much smaller than deer. This particular camera is motion and heat activated, and as you'll see from the photos below it doesn't take much motion to activate.

A flock of sparrows comes to eat

The flock of hungry sparrows flies away & the camera catches it

More sparrows at the feeder & flying away

Bluejay & bunny

Mr. Cardinal

Bunny checking up on supper

One of my fat little squirrels

Another bluejay

Something I don't often see -- bluejay & sparrows at the same feeder at the same time!

Solitary MODO

Sophie!!

Two Bluejays -- they love corn!

Bluejay & Dove

And here's three more great shots from early this morning....

Looks like it's getting a little crowded around the corn tray -- maybe I'll have to think about getting a small feed bunk to accomodate these larger groups!

Wild possum dash -- we've gotten a few photos of a single possum, I had no idea there were two out there!

These 2 bunnies look a little startled by the bright flash

Sunday Afternoon Birding

Today was the first time in 95 days that our temperature topped 40 degrees. Even though it was mostly overcast, we decided to go for a drive and see if we could spot any good birds. Our first stop was the nearby reservoir to see if there was any open water yet maybe attracting some waterfowl. We got there only to find that the only open water was in the ice fishing holes drilled by these fishermen. I was amazed at the number of people fishing! We watched one guy drilling through the ice and it looked to be at least 16-18 inches thick yet! But the weatherman is predicting highs in the 40's all next week, so the end of the 2010 ice fishing season isn't far away.

I was keeping my eyes open for newly arrived spring migrants including grackles, red-winged blackbirds, or maybe even a bluebird. We didn't see any of those birds, but we did have to slow down for this early season possum trotting across the road.

There were horned larks everywhere! For me, these are the most difficult birds to photograph. They are so flighty and will take off if the car comes within 100 yards of them. I managed to photograph this one after Mr. Johnson stopped the car and we waited for the flock to land on the road behind us. (The birds were still quite a ways back, so this photo isn't the greatest, and even though you can't see the "horns" of this lark, you can still see its black facemask.)

We turned another corner next to a plowed cornfield where most of the snow had already melted. Something interesting caught my eye in this field. Can you see it?

"Stop, stop, stop the car!" I ordered my driver. My window was down and I was trying to get my camera ready to take a photo. I could tell this bird wasn't a pheasant, but I had no idea what it was. I took a couple quick photos and then got my binoculars on it again to see any other field marks to help in the ID. Fortunately, on this trip, I remembered to bring my big Sibley guide along and after seeing the orange face and throat, plus the rufous barring on the chest, I was able to ID this bird as a Gray Partridge. Way cool! There were actually 2 of these birds in the field here and although it wasn't a life bird for me, it's been years since we've seen them in SE Minnesota.

A lot of the streams and rivers are starting to melt and these Canada geese were enjoying the shallow water and the chance to pick at grass on the riverbank.

On our way home, we spotted a huge flock of turkeys walking up this driveway. These birds all looked pretty healthy after this long winter.

It appeared that all of these turkeys were hens, and since we can only take toms during the spring turkey hunting season, the size of this flock shouldn't be affected by the upcoming spring hunt. In fact, with this many hens around, the future of wild turkeys in SE Minnesota looks pretty good!

Female Superpowers Revealed

I had a little money left over after my vacation, so the other day I bought a can of paint to finish the (long overdue) kitchen painting job. Since Mr. Johnson was already at work this morning and I was anxious to get the project started, I had to call upon my "female super powers" to pull this refrigerator out of the corner. My female super powers generally involve quite a bit of grunting with a few choice curse words thrown in, so I normally choose to use these super powers only when I'm working by myself. As you can see, things were going pretty well this morning.
How about the rest of you, my faithful followers.....anyone care to share a "female super power" story? Some project you've amazed yourself by completing all alone? Or something that caused your friends, a sibling or spouse to look at you in awe and say, "holy crap, I can't believe you did that all by yourself?"

And don't feel left out guys -- please share a "female super power" story about an amazing female in your life.

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In my previous post I mentioned putting out some "more appropriate" food for the possums and foxes visiting my backyard and here it is.......cheap dog food.

Not only do the possums like it, so do crows and bluejays. Plus it's cheaper and less messier than birdseed.

Nocturnal Backyard Visitors

Remember those fox tracks I've been watching in the snow all winter? Tonight we actually got to see the foxes -- and yes, there were two! One ran away shortly after Mr. Johnson turned on the backyard light, but this braver one stayed around for quite a while eating seed under the bird feeder.
It didn't even seem to mind sharing the dining area with this big ol' possum.

And here's one more bad close-up picture.

I definitely need to do some seed clean-up in the backyard once it warms up this weekend, so while I'm out there, I'll try figure out a way to put out a feeder with "more appropriate" fox and possum food and maybe a little closer to the house for better viewing and photo ops.

By the way, my backyard possum population is increasing too -- just a few minutes ago, I saw a total of four of them out there!

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.

Friday Fun

I've got to use up my 4 days of PTO before my job is done at the end of February, so I'm slowly easing my way into unemployment by taking every Friday off, with yesterday being my first day off. Wow, what a fun day I had. It's great to be home with just me and the pets, doing whatever we want. I knitted and watched a movie (Transsiberian) in the morning with Sophie and Penny sitting next to me on the couch. I washed a bunch of clothes and hung them out on the line to dry.

I had a visit from my friendly neighborhood possum. Here, the possum tried out the mineral block that the deer have never touched.

Then Sophie saw the possum in the backyard and got pretty upset, so I let her out, knowing exactly what would happen. It's funny to see her reaction when the critter immediately "dies" and she doesn't have anything to chase.
I finally dragged Sophie back in the house and went back out to be sure the possum was OK. I think because it was a little chilly and windy, the possum took a bit longer to "wake up, " but within 5 minutes it was showing signs of life and it finally resurrected completely and scuttled away to the safety of the brush pile.
This poor little half-bald squirrel also showed up in the backyard yesterday. Does anyone know what might make them lose their hair like that? Can they even stay warm enough to survive the winter with only half their hair? I felt kinda sorry for this squirrel.
Here's something that I almost never see--2 male cardinals this close together. In a few more weeks, territory skirmishes will begin and I'm sure one of these males will be banished to a more distant part of the backyard.
I was happy to see this pretty little male Common Redpoll heading down to the nyjer feeder on my deck.
Later on in the afternoon, I happened to look out the kitchen window because I noticed some bird activity on the ground next to the "treestump" feeder I have out here. (I've been putting seed on top of the treestump all winter, but lots of it has blown off and the ground around the stump is covered with seed.) A closer look with the binoculars revealed lots of Common Redpolls! Check it out! They blend in really well with all the seed on the ground. This is what I saw on one side of the stump......
.....and here's what I saw on the other side (I added colored arrows to make it easier to spot them). I was amazed to see I had so many of these cute little birdies in my yard!
Now, I'm on the lookout for White-Winged Crossbills. They've been spotted in counties east and west of us, so I'm hoping some will be stopping by one of the pine-cone laden evergreens in the backyard soon.

Sunday on Monday

So I meant to post these pictures yesterday, but after spending a couple hours in an unsuccessful search for the Snowy Owl and then Super Bowl viewing, I ran out of time, so my Sunday post becomes a Monday post.

Check out this awesome picture I got yesterday afternoon of the Cooper's Hawk in the crabapple tree right outside my dining room window. This bird was perched about 12 feet away from where I'm sitting right now at my computer. I was able to grab the camera and crawl slowly to the window to snap a couple of pictures (this one was the best). Be sure to click on this one to "supersize" it and take note of those talons and also the way those fluffy white feathers on its tummy were blowing in the wind. Five seconds after I took this picture, the hawk flew off the branch and headed around to the other side of the house--hopefully to catch a house sparrow.

We drove about 96 miles in search of the Snowy Owl, but were not as lucky as Cindy and Vern. We did, however, see a fair number of Horned Larks and I managed to get this picture of some of them pecking for grit on the edge of a gravel road. I think they're pretty neat little birds.

And here's one more look at my backyard possum. I tried to scare it into "playing possum" by running up to the ground feeder tray it was eating from, but I only succeeded in getting it to slowly waddle out of the tray. It finally stopped under the evergreen tree and allowed me to snap a couple of pictures.

Up close, this possum looked to be a little bit smaller than Penny (my cat). Again, click on the picture to enlarge it so you can see its amazing whiskers and cute little pink toes. I would dearly love to try and feel how soft that fur is, but I've seen their sharp teeth and was probably pressing my luck just by getting so close to take this picture. Fortunately, they're still moving pretty slow in the cold weather.