Not much new in the yard of the Aerie today.
Yesterday's bears did come back around 8:30 PM but the feeders were all safely inside by then. The four searched the yard and, perhaps found the remnants of the suet block one of them pried out of the feeder. Not finding much, one came up onto the deck to see if those feeders had been removed. (They were.)
When I heard her (and it became obvious that it was a "her" and not a "him") out there banging the tray around, I shone a flashlight out the window. That sent the bear into a panic and over the deck rail. Somehow it rotated so as to hang by the rail for a few seconds with it's belly facing the house. (That's how I could tell it was a "her.") Then she inched and shimmied down part way until only her forepaws were on the deck. She then let go to drop the rest of the 10 feet to the ground. Soon after, they all left.
Tonight I brought all the feeders in early.
Birds today were pretty much the same-old-same-old.
Birds Actually Seen
- Blue Jay
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Downy Woodpecker
- Tufted Titmouse
- American Goldfinch
- Dark-eyed Junco
- Mourning Dove
- White-breasted Nuthatch
- American Crow
A Northern Cardinal on a branch.
An American Goldfinch on the feeder.
Cardinal and Goldfinches share the feeder.
A White-breasted Nuthatch picks up seed spilled by squirrels or, maybe, bears.
A Black-capped Chickadee cracks open a sunflower seed.
While I didn’t see any bears or deer in the yard today, the squirrels were in attendance much of the day. Right after dark an opossum walked through the yard and a cottontail hopped out of the standing goldenrod.
The opossum is a rarity for us. In six years I've actually only seen three or four, this being despite the carnage autos and trucks wreak on the roads for these creatures whose instincts (playing dead) don't serve them well when faced with a ton or more of steel.
The cottontail is hardly a rare sight. I'm sure some of the semi-feral cats and the neighbors' outdoor cats do some good in keeping the rabbit population down. As do the occasional hawk, fox and owl. Haven't heard any coyotes about in a long time.
[UPDATE: I just went out on the deck at 8 PM and had a Red Fox come trotting into the yard. THat's a first for the Aerie.]
Allow me to close with a view from the Aerie's deck.
This is looking north-northwest from the front deck.
The notch is the path of the Tioga River as it flows north. Along the sides runs Route 15 which will soon become I-99. US Highway Route 6 runs from left to right in the valley below and the college town of Mansfield is down there nestled behind some small knobs.
No comments:
Post a Comment