Crumbly Acres

 Sunday afternoon, Oct. 20, I could hear an ambulance roaring by. It caught my attention, since the lights were flashing, then the siren began. Still people didn't pull over. They were honking their horn to get stupid people out of their way. It turns out a man and toddler were out canoeing and fell out of the canoe. He got them to an island, but the canoe blew away in the wind. NO lifejackets. The OPP used the canoe to rescue them. Oh, city people.  

In other news, a 16-year-old girl was arrested for the murder of a 15-year-old in Perth, ON, on Friday afternoon, Oct. 25th. It has been a shock to many of us. The town population is about 6500, and lots of people know one another. We live 5 km out of town, but it still hits hard. 

 Back to nature...

The milkweed seeds are good to go!  

 We had a fisher come by.

   

The cottontail is adorable!

  

 The blue jays are happy with the feeder.  

 The mice friends are regular visitors, as well.  

Talking to a friend, she mentioned her issue with mice. It was in 2014 that Dorah would watch for deermice here. I ended up trapping some. I put them in the cat carrier so she wouldn't get into the traps. 

And we knew it was coming... It's melted this morning. This is a good thing. 

This morning we have people coming to cut down some dead sumac and elm trees cluttering the yard. We'll see how they do. I'll have some wood to stack. Thank goodness for the lawn tractor and trailer.

Saturday's Critters

BIG NEWS: April 5th: 

The Appeal for the gun range has been denied!!! 🎉  🙌  You can read what we went through to prevent this in our backyard. I am so happy. The report is 22 pages long, but this is the crucial bit:

That was a storm. I feel badly for so many. There were lots of power outages, two days later, but Hydro has brought up 312,000 customers who lost power in the storm, here and in the US.

🐇  🐈  🐸  🐭  🐇  🐈  🐸  🐭  🐇  🐈  🐸  🐭  

Saturday's Critters

Poor Frosty is cold! I gave them a little rain jacket. At this point I think Frosty is non-binary. We'll use gender neutral pronouns. When I remember! It is good practice. It is a new era of respect and understanding. 

The deer are hungry. They disappeared for the duration of our warm spell, and came back after the storm.

Before the precipitation (14 mm rain, followed by 16 cm of snow), Labbit has been in the front yard. 

Labbit run from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

There are mice friends under the back door bird feeder. Apparently there are two happy Labbits!

  

2 Labbits March 28 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

"Harley" is the visiting Harlequin Tabby. We know not from whence he came. Why know why: mice friends!

Harley & mice friends from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

It is difficult to fathom that March 28th the wood frogs and spring peepers were doing their mating rituals! They were back last night, but they cannot be happy! The frog pond is mostly melted. 

 

frog pond March 28 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Bun-bun was here so long I sped up the videos. Up above it, the bird feeder. The birds have been doing throw downs!

Munching Labbit from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

It was only last week that I realized there are two cottontail bunnies! This day, they had a buddy.

 

Cottontails and deermouse from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I shot this through the front window. I added music for fun. (Better than the morning news show!) Momma is nibbling on the lilac buds. She is good at pruning!

deer in snow from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Saturday's Critters # 538

Saturday's Critters

Back to your regularly broadcast program, critters. Saturday's Critters # 486 I am late, but there were distractions!

We still have mice friends.

 

deermouse from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Single Tom Turkey seems to have found a buddy. The group of six, I have not seen for awhile.

turkeys from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

We are on our last bag of deer food. This is it for the winter feed. Most of them have dispersed into the deeper forest, with dead grass and budding shoots to feed them. Clover will probably come back when my lilies bloom! I shall begin putting up my fence around the garden soon.

 

Joe & doe from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

This is why we stop now, before Clover tramples all my plants.

 

Clover from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Butch Raccoon has been active. They are funny to watch.

 

Butch appears from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

These are all prior to our ice storm. I have been distracted. This snow has nearly gone!

 

coyote from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Saturday's Critters

 It's critter day everyday, here! I get up, feed cats, feed fishies, and hope for the best. There was a big snow over the last few hours. This afternoon I shall dig us out. There isn't a lot of big critter action, other than the deer. 

We had some sun yesterday, and she had a nap.

Trudging down to the trailcams I found out: Who goes there in the night?

 

coyotes and deer from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

They really whack away at it. They can smell some food under there.

Fuzzy fawn from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Feb. 26th, mice friends going after scattered bird seed. In the daytime, red squirrel comes along. It's great cat TV!

mice friends from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Thanks to Eileen for hosting! Saturday's Critters # 481 

Book Review: Camera Trapping Guide

 I follow a Facebook trailcam camera and video group. The author of the book, Janet Pesaturo, is one of the administrators. She posted information about her book, and I bought it for myself for my birthday, Dec. 26th. (That's how we roll here!)

There are a lot of books out about critters. It is often difficult to choose which is best for you. I have general guide books about eastern birds, moths, insects, and mammals. I've interesting books, like my latest on animal scat! Scat Finder I've books specific to deer, owls, and bears. 

Janet explains that when she began setting out camera traps, she would go out with her mammal field guide, a tracking guide, and a summary of the critter's behaviour. She took the initiative to write this book to help us understand how, when, and where to place cameras, and she provides good information on 35 mammals, 5 birds, and alligators. Now, I don't need to know about alligators, but it was fun to read.

Amazon provides a preview, and the table of contents lists the critters. Each chapter is devoted to one animal, and follows a consistent format: physical characteristics, tracks and trails, diet, scat and urine, habitat, breeding, then rounding it off with specific camera trapping tips.

Chapter two
Eastern Cottontail

If I have any constructive criticism, it is that the durn maps end at the Canada/US border. I've been researching woodland voles (meadow voles, as Janet calls them), for example, and learned a lot about them. I still don't know why they are going into the mouse hole in the house, and that remains a mystery. 

It helps to understand a species to know where to place a camera. It pays to track them, and understanding paths that they follow. My frogpond trailcam, for example, is a heavily trodden path between the wetland and the pond. Many critters prefer to stay on dry land whilst making their way through their habitat. What I notice is that in winter, when the frog pond is frozen, they avoid the camera. Little twerps!

Janet wrote a blog called, One Acre Farm, all about homesteading. She has a new blog, Winterberry Wildlife. There is so much information on them. 

I do recommend the book. It is full a lot of excellent information not found elsewhere. 

BTW  I learned how to refine my camera trapping skills from my photographer internet buddy (we've never met!) who has a video from last year with the buck losing its antler on film. He camera traps in a large forest and writes about wildlife photography. 

For me, camera trapping has been hit and miss. I've learned a lot by my mistakes. 

Today, we begin with - 30 C. temperatures. There won't be much on the cameras today. 

The birds, mourning doves and starlings nestle in the evergreen.

From large to small, we film them all!

backyard deer from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Richard Deer has lost his antlers, he'll regrow them in spring, but he still wears a figurative crown.

bossy Richard deer from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I've been experimenting on the front porch, where the birds scatter seeds from the feeder.

American Tree Sparrow from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

mice and cats from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

For more critters: Saturday's Critters # 477. 

Host family, ditch diving

 The international news is awful. It's all anyone can do but weep at the atrocities. I found a lovely moment in Ottawa.

The news documented a family who escaped Ukraine March 4th, and arrived in Ottawa this week. The family hosting the desperate people live across the street from our old Nepean home. Caitlin spotted the house on the news. It was home to a wonderful senior couple back when we lived there. Mary and Ray were just a hoot, and looked after our cats when we went away. Mary had a heart of gold, and died from a brain tumour after we moved away. She would have been so happy to see this lovely family seeking refuge in her old home.

Pitch In

Our local lake association encourages us to pick up in the spring. They track who picks up and where to try and cover the area. Tim Horton's donates the bags for citizen garbage detail. 

Tuesday afternoon I went ditch diving again, having done it on the weekend. Just one bag full, that is all the energy I had. I was at this spot (below), when I noticed a white SUV stopped up above me on the highway. She opened her window, and the passenger yelled at me, thanking me for picking up the junk. I told her I was on bag #3, and just about done for the day.

It is ironic, that most of the crap was fast food garbage, including Tim Hortons cups. They know they are a problem. There were lots of beer cans, too. Sadly, several beer bottles were chucked out of the vehicles, and smashed on the rocks. I prefer the cans.

I am not done my duty, but it is pouring rain today, perhaps 20 mm rain. This is still left (below). I'm probably over half done, although it is endless. No sooner do you finish then you see more... I could have dragged this bag home, but I didn't have the energy. Maybe it will inspire someone.

🌷The yard

The goldfish pond is melting! The sun warms it quite nicely, and it was 18 C. on the front deck Wednesday. 

Mourning doves resting and having a drink.

🐻SNUGGLE Bears

I brought the bunnies up for April. They became reacquainted with the bears!

Another job done! The anchors had worn out, there was a hole in the wall, and I couldn't figure out how to reattach the curtain hook. I screwed a piece of wood to the stud, and that worked.

We still have mice friends. I wonder if this is the same mouse, or a tribe? They aren't sure about the camera. 

mice friends from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

What a range of precipitation!

 May I complain about the weather? I suppose it is preferable to a rant about all the horrors in the world. That said, I cannot complain. I managed to get the garbage out at 6:30 a.m. and it was almost warmish. Almost! The rainy snow didn't start until later. For that I was grateful. 

Our deer were nowhere to be seen. They were hunkered down in the forest, I am sure. We had warnings of freezing rain, etc. It just snowed, then rained. 

I put some bird seed down on the sidewalk. Of course, You Two came along for a visit.

There was some sun. Cinnamon was babysitting the veggie seeds!

The sun did its thing. Lots of melt. It was warm for March, which was very joyful.

By the evening it was snowing on my pristine, and lovely, clean sidewalk!  

I let the cats out after dinner. Just for fresh air. Nutmeg thought she'd look for the red squirrel. DRS was in bed by this time.

Mice friends have been at the back door. Squirrels, too, but I only put the camera out at night.

mice friends from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Cinnamon was a busy boy!

Cinnamon from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Secrets of the fall

This is a post I began last year in the fall. I kept hanging on to it, thinking I could get the little things on trail camera. Spoiler alert: I was wrong. In the meantime, we've had knee-deep snow. Yesterday, we were at 16˚ C. and have lost a great deal of snow. I haven't set a camera up there, as the walking is too difficult for me right now. We had 9 mm rain on top of the snow.  

These little holes intrigued me. I think they've been here at least a few years! They have to be a rodent of some sort. I could tell they are active, and while there used to be two, now there are four holes under this tree. 

I set up the trail camera on the tripod, which has been capturing many critters. The two trees on the right, the camera on a tripod.

The one hole on the left was the first one. I am so curious! You'll see the middle hole was either filled in, or was being excavated. 

Then it was opened.

I've been watching the hole:  Oct. 13.

I tried to see what came out of the holes. I may have given up!

We had a ton of rain, so I wasn't confident. I don't know if they like the rain or not! Most rodents have multiple entrances. So, they may just fool me. 

They keep working on this hole!

Oct 23

Oct. 28 – all covered up. Maybe they knew it was going to rain heavily?

Oct. 29 – one hole is opened up!

Nov. 1st – still nothing on the trailcams.

Nov. 2

Nov. 29

Dec. 4th – a little circle of frost!

 

Eventually, the knee-deep snow covered them up, and there are zero tell-tale signs of them. I hope they sleep and dream of spring. I can see no signs of activity.