Animals roaming free

[crazyfingers]

There are deer all the towns that surround Boston. I'm particularly lucky that my property abusts a few hundred acres of both public and private conversation land.

My deer today was one of the younger ones that has less fear of people than older deer. I always make a point of scaring it off as I believe that wild deer are better off with a healthy fear of people.

Mine above was back several hours later just before dusk and I scared it off again.

 

[crazyfingers]

One critter I forgot from a few days ago. A baby snapping turtle at the frog pond.

 

[crazyfingers]

Birds that are singing straight at you always look like they are screaming at you.

Here's a gray catbird singing.


This robin appears to be attempting to clean my gutters for me but I suspect it's looking for mud for the nest.




Looks possibly like a coopers hawk. The lighting was really bad and I had to use massive amounts of brightness and contrast to get the colors out.


In my driveway a tiny mouse. Not sure if it's a white-foot mouse or a field mouse.

 

[crazyfingers]

Angle of light makes hard to tell but I think that these are red-eared sliders.


Brown Headed Cowbird


Down at the old soccer field

Yellow warbler I believe


Turkey vulture (Buzzard)


Eastern bluebird in bad light


I think that this is a purple finch


Prairie Warbler


Back home a house sparrow with caterpillars for the kids


Goldfinch on the feeder


This is a story in the making. On my road on the way to the frog pond, a 10 minute walk, is a hole in a tree and the neighbor across the street from this tree tells me that it's a racoon family in there.

I will be on the lookout for better photos but there is certainly a critter on there. It's tail was moving around. The hole is about 30 feet up in a large tree.

 

[bradw]

A great egret decimating the tadpole population at the park











A pretty bug on a pretty flower



And a large snapping turtle that I almost stepped on

 

[Rhea]

There was a flurry of birds eating flying and mating in the yard today. These three looked bright and cheerful all together.

 

[dystopian]

These days I take the train that runs right along the edge of the Oostvaardersplassen, a rewilding wetlands reserve, home to a great variety of rare birds as well wild horses and cattle. Every day I see these large roaming herds of Konik horses, unafraid of the trains as they pass by:

Sometimes I also see the wild Heck's:

Or the herds of Red Deer:

 

[crazyfingers]

I got a photo of the baby raccoon in the hole today. It briefly looked out as I was in the street and then went back in.

 

[crazyfingers]

These days I take the train that runs right along the edge of the Oostvaardersplassen, a rewilding wetlands reserve, home to a great variety of rare birds as well wild horses and cattle. Every day I see these large roaming herds of Konik horses, unafraid of the trains as they pass by:

That's quite a sight. It reminds me what the american great plains might have looked like 200 years ago. Of course not the horses and the buffalo would be most populous.

Are those all native animals?

 

[dystopian]

These days I take the train that runs right along the edge of the Oostvaardersplassen, a rewilding wetlands reserve, home to a great variety of rare birds as well wild horses and cattle. Every day I see these large roaming herds of Konik horses, unafraid of the trains as they pass by:

That's quite a sight. It reminds me what the american great plains might have looked like 200 years ago. Of course not the horses and the buffalo would be most populous.

Are those all native animals?

Only the Red Deer are. The Heck cattle and Konik ponies are imports that serve as equivalent replacements for the Tarpan and Aurochs that used to be native here; both species now extinct. Other large native species currently missing from the area are the European Bison (they're pretty rare, but might be rewilded here at some point), the wild Boar (might arrive through ecological corridors on its own), and the Elk. Beyond there's a three or four dozen bird species who came here on their own, grass snakes, beavers, and a relative poverty in that there's only 15 known fish species. Badgers are expected to also show up on their own through the corridors.

 

[crazyfingers]

At the raccoon den someone appears to be totally relaxed.



No sign of mama yet. I'm told by the neighbor that mama often sleeps out on the hole and soon I will be going out with my LED headlamp and camera on flash to see if I can get a photo of mama.

And the waiting game is still on waiting for the swan chicks to arrive.

 

[Valjean]

Give those coons a few more weeks and they'll be hard at work prising the lids off your garbage bins.

 

[crazyfingers]

Give those coons a few more weeks and they'll be hard at work prising the lids off your garbage bins.

My down the street neighbor already is dropping garbage below the tree to keep mama away from her bins. She says so far it's working.

 

[Rhea]

These days I take the train that runs right along the edge of the Oostvaardersplassen, a rewilding wetlands reserve, home to a great variety of rare birds as well wild horses and cattle. Every day I see these large roaming herds of Konik horses, unafraid of the trains as they pass by:

Those are wonderful, Dystopian!

 

[dystopian]

These days I take the train that runs right along the edge of the Oostvaardersplassen, a rewilding wetlands reserve, home to a great variety of rare birds as well wild horses and cattle. Every day I see these large roaming herds of Konik horses, unafraid of the trains as they pass by:

Those are wonderful, Dystopian!

Not my photos unfortunately, but pretty much exactly what I see from the train on a daily basis.

 

[crazyfingers]

A few photos from the last few days.

The baby snapping turtle has been in the Frog pond. Its shell is slightly larger than a US quarter dollar coin.


A baby painted turtle the shell is smaller than the snapper. Kids took it home and so we have a pet turtle again!


Baby raccoon snoozing


The red-bellied woodpeckers are very quiet these days. I have not seem them delivering food yet so I don't think any chicks have hatched.


The baby snapper again


For me seeing a goldfinch at eye level in a tree is a rare thing. They are usually on the feeder or way up high in the trees.


Still waiting


A hummingbird from it's underside.

 

[bradw]

Little green heron too busy trying to catch fish (and scratch) to be worried about the old guy with a camera creeping up on him.

 

[crazyfingers]

From Friday and Saturday.

Blue Jays are everywhere this year but they frequently don't stay still and usually hide in the trees way up making then hard to photograph. This one stayed there for about 10 seconds so I could get a shot. The wind was blowing the branch about so not as sharp as I'd hope.



Tree swallow chirping out the bird hole.


First eastern towhee of the season


Chimney swifts have shown up. Otherwise known as flying cigars.


Three cedar waxwings came through my yard yesterday. It's rare for me to see them. I might get two sightings a year if I'm lucky.


Chipmunk under my car

 

[crazyfingers]

Big day today.

Last May 24 the kids captured "squirmy", I've generally called him Fred, from the frog pond and kept him as a pet. As the frog pond dried up we figured we might have saved his life.



We kept him warm over the winter and he grew.


Today we set him free back to the frog pond.

Big day for the kids yesterday. Down at the frog pond we saw Squirmy, aka Fred. He let my boy pick him up. We let him go again. We know for certain it's Fred because of the color pattern on his shell.



Today a very large Mr. Frog.


And a new species for me. I have never seen a gray tree frog. There were actually two. One on an old board and one on a tree. Probably male and female.

 

[crazyfingers]

Not a bad couple of hours out today.

First at the swan pond there is at least one chick now.


The other adult was on the other size of the pond and flew over. Swans make a lot of wing noise when they fly.


It landed. It wasn't until I got the photos on the computer that I noticed the great blue heron on the opposite shore.


Went to the state park next. There were hundreds of these on the path by the pond. I think that it's a baby American toad.


Red wing blackbird out on the mud.


A happy looking painted turtle.


American robin on a post.


Far less common for me to see is a Baltimore Oriole


I wish the sun had been out.


Only my second ever photo of a Pine Warbler and my first photo of one that's in focus.