For the past week, my trail camera has been watching a corner of the small pool in our woods. The water was frozen over, and I had noticed some tracks on the ice, so I set up the trail camera there, thinking it was possible that a creature could pass that way again. I didn't actually think the camera would see much of anything, but I figured it was worth a try at least. So I was pretty well surprised when I checked the camera today and found several videos of furry passersby, and quite close up, too. I had no idea the ice on this small pool would make for such a popular pathway!
The video compilation here shows: (1) a cautious Eastern Cottontail Rabbit; (2) a Raccoon reaching into the water -- and is it making sounds? (3) two Raccoons, one after the other; (4) a brief appearance by a sleek Red Fox; and (5) a Gray Fox. Judging from how many times they've shown up on the trail camera in these past couple of months, Gray Foxes seem to be especially frequent visitors in our woods. I'd never seen a Gray Fox at all before moving to this house, and I'm very happy to have these beautiful creatures around.
The ice on the pool is now melted, but I'll leave the camera at this spot for a little while longer to see whether any animals still pass this way. I'm very much enjoying these glimpses of the wildlife in our woods!
Back in January of 2018, I set up our trail camera along the trail we made in our woods. The trail itself was an enlarged deer trail, and the many hoof-prints in the snow at the time suggested that the trail was still in heavy use, so I figured it would make for an interesting spot for a camera. And it definitely was! Over the past year, the camera has made many, many videos of creatures walking on and across our trail -- mostly lots and lots of deer, but some other creatures, too -- at both day and night (except for a couple of months at the end of the year when the batteries ran out sooner than I expected and I neglected to check it). So here are a bunch of video clips of animals in our woods from the past year! The first few months of videos were all of deer. Even though deer are super common around here, and we see them frequently from a distance in our meadow and woods, it's still very cool to get to see these big animals up close. This first video compiles some of my favorite clips from the beginning of the year: a deer lying down on the path in the snow, a deer walking up the path during heavy snowfall, a daytime grooming session, a snowy portrait, a very fuzzy little deer (the previous year's fawn?) in very early spring, and a heavily molting deer up close in May.
Suddenly, in April and May, the camera started showing a whole slew of other creatures besides deer; I don't know what was going on here, but there was a greater variety of animals in these two months than we saw on the camera all year. The next video compiles clips of April and May's diversity, most of the clips at night: a rabbit taking a stroll in the woods, a raccoon searching for a meal among the leaves along the path, incredibly a Gray Fox (the first Gray Fox I've ever seen) with its bushy black tail and low/long body, a glimpse of a larger canid that surely must be a Coyote, and a flock of turkeys (I find that last turkey really funny).
During the rest of the year, the camera went back to mainly producing a ton of deer videos. Lots of interesting things happen with deer in the summer and fall, though, and some of these videos were especially amazing. Here's one last compilation of clips: a mother deer with the tiniest twin fawns I've ever seen, so tiny and unsteady that I think they must have been no more than a day old; another mother with her slightly older fawn, stopping in front of the camera for an extremely sweet grooming session; fawn zoomies!; at some point, the twins' mother got a very bad looking leg injury, but she and the twins continued to show up on the camera through the rest of the summer (the last time I saw her was in September, but the camera's battery also died soon after that); and the final clip shows a buck with an impressive set of antlers (I wonder if he made it through hunting season).
I'll be moving the trail camera to a new location this year, as soon as I figure out another likely place to try. The first year of trail camera footage was definitely a success, and I'm curious to see what creatures show up this year in other areas of our property!
May is just zooming by! The second week of May brought more avian visitors to our yard, and the resident birds have been busy establishing territories and raising families. Our Eastern Phoebe neighbors have babies in their nest now! I haven't seen the chicks myself, but I've watched the parents travel back and forth from the nest with food, so I can only assume there are hungry little creatures hiding in there:
One of the adult phoebes perched for several minutes near one of our windows, giving us a great chance to admire this handsome bird:
That's definitely some sort of small meal item in its beak:
Even aside from the fact that there are Eastern Phoebe babies on the back of our house, it's been such a treat to have these adults constantly flitting around and catching bugs nearby. I do love these charismatic little birds. I've seen a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird perched on the power line along our driveway a few times now; this looks like such a strange setting for this tiny bird:
But I guess it's a nice vantage point from which he can survey his territory and flash around his super-bright throat feathers:
The Barn Swallows are back (probably nesting in a neighbor's barn) and I love watching them zoom around in the open air above the fields:
Swallows are so cool (and so hard to photograph!):
Speaking of birds in flight, this adult Bald Eagle made quite a sight wheeling over our yard:
At ground level, I watched an American Goldfinch nip a dandelion stem so it fell over:
He then proceeded to munch on the dandelion seeds; I didn't know that goldfinches made use of this extremely common and early seed source, but it's cool that they do:
Song Sparrows continue to sing their frilly songs:
And I was delighted to meet this gorgeous White-crowned Sparrow, an uncommon visitor to our yard, and presumably just passing through on the way to its northern breeding grounds:
Veering off the topic of birds, at least two Eastern Cottontails have become regular visitors along our driveway. I was surprised at how long this bunny stayed put while I walked by before it finally bolted:
The rabbit in this next picture is desperately hoping that you can't see it:
What a flat bunny:
I can't believe May's already more than half over! I'm very curious to see what happens in the rest of this awesome month.
Between migrating birds and increasingly active residents, the beach certainly is an interesting place to watch spring take hold! Here are a few sightings from my visit to Silver Sands State Park yesterday morning. Several male Red-winged Blackbird were busy staking claims in the marsh, and I guess the boardwalk is part of this fancy fellow's territory:
Sing it, Mr. Blackbird!
A Greater Yellowlegs graciously posed for a few pictures:
Those legs are quite striking!
I was pretty tickled to find that the stretch of boardwalk that was rebuilt last summer is now a roosting and courting (and possibly nesting) spot for Rock Pigeons. It was a little strange to hear cooing sounds coming from beneath my feet!
And there's a rabbit again! I'm surprised at how bold these creatures have gotten at this park; this rabbit was even near a path where people and dogs frequently walk:
I was happy to return to Silver Sands State Park this morning for the start of a new season. As I have for the past two summers, I'll be monitoring this beach again for Piping Plovers and other potential nesting shorebirds this year. This will actually be my last summer in Connecticut -- big changes are coming in the next few months -- and I plan to take full advantage of my proximity to the Long Island Sound while I still can.
Today was a perfect beach day: warm and sunny, and with plenty of spring-like things to see. I'm assuming these Ring-billed Gulls were feeling appropriately amorous, judging from their strange balancing act (which was accompanied by loud calls but no actual mating as far as I could see):
Behind the marshes next to the beach, a few Red Maples were just starting to bloom, looking particularly dramatic against the bright blue sky:
A pair of Mourning Doves walked right past me on the path. I've never noticed the splash of iridescent gold highlights on these birds' necks before, and it's kind of amazingly pretty:
(How is it possible that I've been keeping this blog for more than three years now, and this is the first time I've posted a picture of this common and placid bird? Mourning Doves clearly deserve more of my attention.)
In the fields at the back of the park, many of the bushes and trees had been stripped of their bark up to a couple of feet off the ground:
And a few minutes after I stopped to look at the bare trees (and to watch a couple of American Robins tussling in the grass), the culprits came bounding into the open:
These rabbits must have gotten hungry with all the snow we had this winter, but at least there's always bark to nibble, and they seem to be thriving now! A few of these creatures were chasing each other in and out of the underbrush, and I felt lucky to get to watch these wild bunnies being so active.
As I was driving out of the park at the end of my visit (no plovers yet), I came up behind a curious trio of pedestrians on the shoulder of the road:
Wild Turkey crossing:
How crazy and cool that we have these dinosaur-creatures just wandering around. Oh, you strange and awesome bird:
All in all, this morning was quite a wonderful start to a new season of beach visits. Hooray for warm weather, sun, and sand!
So today was one of those days where it seemed like we might have skipped right over spring and into summer. It got up to 80 degrees this afternoon, and it was an extremely pleasant 70 degrees when I visited Silver Sands State Park this morning. Quite a change from the 40-degree temperatures I encountered at this park last week!
There were tons of creatures out and about today, and I even got to see a few cool animals at unusually close range, mostly because these creatures felt safe in their brushy hiding places next to the path. I got some good practice with my camera's manual focus this morning!
A group of Wild Turkeys picked through the brush next to the beach, apparently confident that none of the people walking by just yards away would try to chase and/or eat them:
In another part of the park, two White-tailed Deer were also extremely close to the path, but on the other side of a fence that must have made them feel safe from passing people. One deer was lying down in the shade (looking very comfortable), and the other deer was grazing -- both looked up at me, but didn't seem particularly concerned:
A few feet away from the deer, another creature bounded into view, and then froze when it saw me. This Eastern Cottontail Rabbit looks like it's in the process of making a nest -- look at all that dried grass it's carrying!
Yay, I love getting to see wild rabbits! My own pet bunnies have given me a whole new appreciation for these funny little creatures in recent years. This one didn't seem to want any snuggles, so I moved on and left it (her?) to resume the nest-building project.
If you're a predator, you don't need to stay under cover so much, and I saw a few of these larger creatures on the hunt this morning as well. It's always cool to see herons and egrets stalking prey, and this Great Egret made a striking sight with its statue-still pose:
And I saw an Osprey (or possibly more than one) several times this morning, often with a fish in tow. One pass low along the shoreline put this awesome bird on a course directly toward me (I can't get over the huge reach of those wings!)...
...And then right over my head:
Wow, what a creature! And what a day!
This very eventful walk will have to be my last in Connecticut for a little while, because tomorrow I'm leaving for a grand adventure across the ocean! I'll be back in a week or so, most likely with stories and pictures of strange and exotic (for me) creatures in tow. Until then, enjoy the increasingly-emerging spring!
For the first several days of our recent trip to Florida, we were living in Disney World, land of enchantment! With so many people, and such a carefully-maintained environment, I wasn't sure how many wild creatures I would see there, but I kept my camera at the ready just in case. As it turned out, there was quite a bit to see, even aside from the normal (and generally awesome) attractions!
It wasn't just the fantastical architecture and perky employees that made Disney feel like a world apart, it was the animals, too. The common wild birds in the park, especially, were pretty different from what I'm used to seeing in urban areas in the north. There were House Sparrows, yes, but we saw no pigeons or starlings, and instead there were Common Grackles all over the place. And there were no gulls, but rather White Ibises and Great Egrets wandering the pathways and cleaning up dropped food.
And it wasn't just birds that were different. There were Brown Anoles (Anolis sagrei) everywhere:
We figured out that basically every tree had one of these lizards guarding it -- often a male like the one in the picture above, flashing his brilliant dewlap and doing push-ups to intimidate onlookers, but we saw plenty of smaller, plainer females as well. And the lizards weren't just guarding trees. Other, less natural structures served as guard posts for these little reptiles, too:
Brown Anoles are actually non-native (they're from the Caribbean), and are quite invasive. They certainly have colonized Disney World extremely well. Despite their invader status, however, they were fun to watch, and more than a little pretty, with lots of variation in their overall brown patterns. Some of the smaller individuals had striking stripes down the middles of their backs:
And of course the males' displays were stunning (which is the whole point, I believe):
OK, little guy, I'll stay away from your patch of sidewalk, don't worry!
A few of the creatures wandering Disney's grounds seemed remarkably (coincidentally?) suitable for the park's warm-and-fluffy atmosphere. How appropriate, to see a mother Mallard (or possibly a hybrid or domesticated breed of the species) and her fuzzy ducklings paddling around a small pool in the Magic Kingdom:
(You little puffball!)
And almost too perfect to be true, a dainty Eastern Cottontail browsing through a garden outside an English cottage in Epcot's World Showcase:
This rabbit had absolutely no fear, not even of the pre-teenaged girls pointing and squee-ing at it from a few feet away. Apparently it trusted the fence surrounding its little flower-filled haven to keep the dangers away, and it let us watch it quite close up:
What a lovely place for such a lovely creature! And, mmmm, but don't those blue flowers look tasty:
(Nom, nom.)
So Disney World really does have something for everyone! I had a great time doing the more normal things in the park, of course, but it was a nice bonus to get to see some cool wild creatures as well.
Coming up: Some sights from the final days of our trip, in which we traveled outside of Disney World and things got even wilder!
Yesterday afternoon, with all that clear blue sky and 50-degree temperatures, I decided to take a trip to the beach. Silver Sands State Park in Milford, when I got there, was practically empty of people and just gorgeous -- it was a great day for an adventure!
I'm starting to understand why birders hang out at the shore, especially in the winter. My recent walks in the woods have been mostly quiet, a time to relax and ramble and see cool things every now and then; by comparison, this place was bursting with activity. Besides the hundreds of gulls flying around everywhere, there were several other interesting creatures out and about, like this flock of Brant, a small goose that breeds in the summer at the very top of the continent and comes down here to spend the winter:
This is the first time I've seen these birds in Connecticut, and it's always fun to meet new visitors.
Speaking of new birds, I watched a group of dippy little Sanderlings foraging on a sandbar at low tide -- I like how there's one bird taking a bath all the way on the right of this picture, while the rest of his friends are hard at work:
I'm sure I must have seen Sanderlings at some point in my life before now, it's just that this is the first time I've been able to call them something more than just "little dippy birds".
At a pool near the beach, a Belted Kingfisher was doing his thing -- no orange on his sides, so this is definitely a "he":
I have never met such a bold kingfisher before! There's a female Belted Kingfisher who lives at the lakes in Naugatuck State Forest, and I see (and hear!) her just about every time I visit there -- but almost without fail, she stays on the very opposite end of a big body of water from me. This guy had no such reservations. He wasn't about to come land right next to me, but he didn't fly half a mile away when I walked by his tree, either:
I think Belted Kingfishers are quite majestic (appropriately enough), but they can also look a little goofy, if the wind blows their big fancy crest the wrong way:
This kingfisher was making good use of the pool. I watched him dive into the water, snatch up a little fish, and then do a victory lap (or at least, that's what it seemed like to me) while he swallowed the fish in midair:
I love how he got perfectly arrow-shaped as he cut through the air:
So that was awesome -- I don't know when I'll get to hang out with a kingfisher like that again!
On the bank of the kingfisher's pool, a Song Sparrow was hopping around in a small tree, and that drew my attention for a little while. By random chance, though, my eyes wandered down from the sparrow to a thick tangle of brush below the tree, and then I realized... there was something in there looking back at me!
Hello! You're a bunny!!
I always wonder how well wild rabbits get along in the winter -- my own pet bunnies are here running around their comfy apartment, eating a constant supply of fresh hay and pellets, and what do the wild rabbits have to eat now? Twigs and bark? (To be fair, my bunnies like those, too.) In any case, though, this bunny probably isn't doing too badly, especially with such an excellent hiding place and superior camouflage on its side. I really never would've noticed this creature inside that mass of branches if the light hadn't been at just the right angle, and if I hadn't been standing in exactly the right place:
(Incidentally, I don't know for sure what species of rabbit this is, but my guess is that it's the more common of our two Connecticut rabbit species, the Eastern Cottontail.)
My final sight from yesterday's beach trip has to do with gulls. I still mostly think that gulls are boring, but I'm finding that the more I pay attention to them, the more I notice them doing cool things. Down at the edge of the water, where the sand was all fine and muddy, several gulls, including this Ring-billed Gull, were doing a bizarre dance that I've never seen before (and I apologize for all the wind in this video):
This behavior is officially known as "foot-paddling", and from what I've been able to find out (the internet isn't providing me with a lot of material on this topic, other than a name), it seems like this is probably a way for the gull to stir up little creatures out of the mud so it can eat them. I'm sure the gull's dance is useful, whatever it's purpose, but I can't help also finding it kind of hilarious -- I inevitably break out laughing about halfway through this video. (Paddle paddle paddle paddle!)
Between the sounds of little gull feet flip-flapping in the water, and more gulls dropping shells from the air onto the rocks, it was quite the percussion concert at the water's edge! And I guess gulls aren't so boring after all. :P
So many cool things! My favorite place is still the woods, of course, but more and more I'm coming to appreciate what the shore has to offer. It's nice, every once in a while, to take a walk on the beach.
