Monday, 1 May 2023

Crumbly Acres Critters

First, things are getting complicated over and near the Black Sea. Poland and the USA's FORTE 12 and navy planes were snooping around. People are watching them and it is good to know they have eyes on the activity. 



It is awful, the bombings in Ukraine, and now Sudan has a civil war. My only problem today is getting the garbage out in the pouring rain. I cannot complain.

Back to Crumbly Acres

Josephine named the baby porcupine (porcupette) Charlie! I don't know if you remember him from last year. I spotted it on a warmish winter day in February, but s/he looked so wee last year. They really are interesting creatures. Spending hours foraging for grass.

 

Charlie has grown a tad.

Porcupine from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.


The Northern Flickers are still nesting. And toodling around the yard. This is the dead elm where they are nesting. I've heard the banging around the yard. I didn't realize it was the Northern Flicker! The Yellow-bellied sapsuckers do this, as well, but bang on the satellite tower.

flicker from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

This is the flicker's nesting tree. Soon we'll have sun and leaves, and they'll have little flickers flying about!

  


Our 'visitor' cat, Pepper, prowls in the night.

Pepper Apr. 27th from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I had some doubts about this critter↓. I posted it to the trailcam Facebook group, and the consensus is FOX!  It's black socks don't show up in the dark. At first I thought it a weasel.

fox & raccoon from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

We found a dock spider a couple of weeks ago, and we put it outdoors. There was another one in the house! Go at it, buddy! I couldn't catch it as it roared behind the TV stand. 


The first Robin's egg of the year has been laid! I'm still using my late father's car visor mirror, attached to the paint handle, to verify them. Momma was off foraging, and I peeked.

Horse chestnut tree is budding and leafing! This is what they look like in the sun. We've had two days of rain, and photos would be awful, hence another couple of archive photos! So far, since Saturday, 60mm (2.5") rain, and still falling. I'll need a raincoat today, to put out the garbage...

  


And still the rain falls. The storm is moving counter clockwise, and seems endless. What a way to begin the month of MAY! We have five tulips, and we'll see how they do.


11 comments:

Tom said...

...I only see porcupines laying in the road, sad.

eileeninmd said...

Hello,

I have never seen a porcupine in the wild, cool. I would like to see a Flicker's nesting here. Take care, have a great week.

Patio Postcards said...

I am so glad that Pepper the cat is still doing well. I've had a few sightings of the Flickers in our area, ours seem to spent more time on the ground than in the trees, maybe because there are so many ants! I would like to have more sightings of live porcupines.

Barbara Rogers said...

Charlie is so cute in his/her video. And a fox strolling by too! Sorry you're going to have wet feet today. Our rain came briefly last night and the sun woke me up!

Jeanie said...

Isn't it nice to see the world waking up? I hope the cats have never tangled with the porcupine! (Our collie did that once. It wasn't pretty!)

RedPat said...

The sun has actually come out here this morning which is a surprise.

William Kendall said...

Charlie is good company.

Elephant's Child said...

The state of the world worries me. Thank you for sharing your critters - most of which I will never see or hear for myself.

Divers and Sundry said...

Exciting critter reports!

David M. Gascoigne, said...

It's years since I saw a porcupine. They are quite endearing in their own spiky way!

NatureFootstep said...

lovely to see the porcupine, we have a similar one but I rarely see them.

So. keeping spiders as pets? Cool, but it is beautiful actually. :)