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Archive for the ‘Mammals’ Category

26 Apr

An Eagle Visit

Posted by naturesnippets in Birds, Mammals. Tagged: bald eagle, eaglets, foxes, nest. 14 Comments

I photographed the foxes in our yard for the first time this year on April 15. I was so excited, I thought it would make a special day even more special to visit the bald eagle nest too.

The day was cloudy and windy. I don’t like to get too close to the nest and possibly stress the parents.

Obviously, the one on the left is young … and bigger than I expected.

There’s such a feeling to be in the presence of eagles.

This picture shows 3 in the nest. From a couple of my other pictures, there’s at least 2 eaglets.

This tree lost a whole trunk 3 or 4 years ago. Eagles will use the same nest every year until something happens to the tree. I do hope that time is a long way away.

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So I had my day with both the foxes and the eagles. Now you can to.

15 Apr

Foxes are BACK!!!

Posted by naturesnippets in Mammals. Tagged: adult, barn, kit, male, red fox, trotted, young. 10 Comments

I was talking to my best friend on the phone, came in the computer room and sat down at the computer. A little fox came out from under the barn. My speech then turned to jibberish. The card wasn’t in my camera. The camera wasn’t on the right settings. I was repeating … have no idea what.

I finally managed to say “baby fox.” By that time an adult joined the little one.

They played a little bit. The adult sensed me and looked straight at me. The young went under the barn.

The adult, which was a male, trotted to the south,

stopped and looked to the east,

to the west,

and trotted on out of the yard.

We didn’t see the fox family last year until May 9. This young looked smaller than the first ones I saw last year.

I know young foxes are called kits. For some reason I’m not inclined to call them that … maybe I’ll switch. When they’re out playing, nursing, being curious, feeding on what dad brought in, I get so engrossed, so excited … well you can see why.

”Stay tuned.” I plan to share my fox experiences.

20 Mar

Looks Promising

Posted by naturesnippets in Mammals. Tagged: barn, breed, Buffy, den, gestation, kits, nursing, red fox. 8 Comments

Things are looking promising for the fox family to den under our barn this year.

I’d been working in the yard this afternoon and sat down to rest. Orange movement in the shrubby corner of the back corner of our 2-acre yard caught my attention. About the same time my presence caught its attention. It went back the way it came. At first it looked like a cat we have in the neighborhood.

It wasn’t long before it headed back toward the barn under more shrubby cover.

The pair raised 4 kits in their den under our barn last summer. With them being so aware and on alert at all times, I had to take all my pictures through the picture window in my computer room. They would even see me in the house.

Three were nursing here and the other one … maybe it was already full.

I couldn’t fool them, even when in the house. She came to the water garden for a drink and let me know she knew I was watching her.

Buffy knew they were under there,

and wanted me to help get them out of her territory.

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I took pictures of the family from May 9-24 last year. According to my Mammals of Illinois book, foxes breed late January and in February. Gestation period is 51 days, and the young are born in late March or in April. Since we live in southern Illinois, I figure they breed toward the end of March.

I sat down at the computer yesterday afternoon, looked out the window and there was a fox coming up from the back corner of our yard! I managed, in all my excitement, to get 3 pictures. It’s cautious actions before going under the barn let me know it sensed me.

4 Mar

UNEXPECTED Visitor!!!

Posted by naturesnippets in Mammals. Tagged: otter, partial albino, strip pit. 14 Comments

I walked into the kitchen to get a can of pop. A white animal was sort of running across the parking lot of the red building that used to be a restaurant. It turned quickly around when it neared the highway. It started my direction. I ran for the camera, went out through the shop and stood beside the bed of my truck. At first I thought it was a cat, only it wasn’t cat shape. I concentrated on getting a picture.

It came across our neighbor’s yard, went toward the highway, under the corner of her fence, changed direction when got close to the highway again and started toward me. It hadn’t seen me. I had an “OH ____” moment. When it got 10 or so feet from me. I moved, and it hightailed it back across our side yard and between our neighbor’s house and garage.

I didn’t see it again.

Obviously, it was not a cat; it was a partial albino otter!

I called my youngest son. He said there used to be albino otters at the strip pit behind our house. I don’t remember that. The otter was heading toward another strip pit southwest of our house.

I’ve only seen otters once and that was when I took my youngest son trout fishing at Montauk State Park in Missouri. An adult and 2 young were playing in the small lake part of the park. I have seen the fish-scale evidence of otter’s feeding at 2 places.

But … I would’ve never expected to see one in my yard, much less a partial albino!

18 Jan

Manifesting Foxes

Posted by naturesnippets in Mammals, Uncategorized. Tagged: alert, backyard, barn, den, kit, manifest, nursing, red fox, sibling rivalry. 18 Comments

As some of my followers know, we had a family of foxes den under the barn last summer. Yesterday, I started going through the BIG file of fox pictures, thinking about doing another blog about them. I thought that might manifest them returning this year. I even told my husband last night that I’d like to do something to cover/hide the 2 barrels of oil.

This morning, I sat down at the computer, looked out the window, and a small fox went across the back back of our backyard and into the shrubby thicket in the corner. It wasn’t long and a larger fox came around from behind the barn, looked under the barn where the den was, and left the yard going south. Two other foxes were in the yard a little later at different times.

These are a few of the 488 pictures I took between May 8 and May 24 last year.

This was the first picture I took of them. Then I had to clear items from my garden area, since all pictures were taken from inside the house.

Little sibling rivalry here.

Meal time. The male would bring the food in

and then take it away when they were done. The little ones didn’t eat much on it. They were still nursing.

I couldn’t fool her. Four other pictures had her staring straight at me too. Here she was at the water garden for a drink.

Looked like an afternoon romp. Maybe the fourth was napping.

The prey looked about the size as the kit.

She was always on alert.

Three were nursing. Wonder if the fourth was full or waiting its turn?

Almost done with their meal.

Something was gettting to close.

They looked like they were enjoying the sun’s warmth.

Another morning out for a short time. Notice the blue on the left. They apparently started raiding garbage cans and bringing scraps “home.”

This was one of the last pictures taken of the foxes.

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Maybe if we all look forward to seeing the fox family, it just might bring them back to den under the barn again.

5 Dec

Unusual Bird Behavior

Posted by naturesnippets in Birds, Mammals. Tagged: ashes, behavior, cardinal, clean, cloud, dust bath, groundhog, meal, mites, mockingbird. 10 Comments

I apologize for total lack of quality in both of these pictures. The cloudy day, being in the house and the distance to the subjects was the way it was.

The groundhog was out for its midday meal. At least there were no longer any flowers and other plants I wouldn’t want to be a meal for it.

While watching it, I saw movement further back in the yard at the burn pile. We have 2 acres. I burned 5 sacks of paper this morning.

A mockingbird perched on a branch and flew quickly down into the pile of ashes, causing a cloud of ash, and then returned to the brush pile. It repeated this 3-4 times, with time between. A male cardinal did the same 1 time. Obviously, there were no smoldering embers.

All I could figure was that the mockingbird was taking a dust bath in the ashes. Birds take dust baths to clean their feathers and skin, and to get rid of mites. Usually they spend more time in the dust during a dust bath than the mockingbird did in the ashes

I had never seen this behavior before. This just proves that one can continually learn from nature for years and years and years.

13 Jul

Early-Morning Visitor

Posted by naturesnippets in Mammals. Tagged: active, burrows, groundhog, woodchuck. 3 Comments

Since the foxes moved on, the only mammal feeding in the backyard has been rabbits. Not early this morning.

The groundhog obviously found this cluster of resprouting trees quite appetizing. It would pull a stem out and strip the leaves, just munching away.

Cautious and checked around the backyard

We’ve had groundhogs under the barn over the years, usually in late spring, and just for a short time. I would plant flowers during the day. The plants would be gone the next day. The ground hogs would run under the barn if I caught them out.

In the summer groundhogs (also called woodchucks) are active early morning and another hour later in the afternoon. The rest of their time is spent in their burrows. Apparently they use strip mines across Illinois for their burrows. Just so happens we have one behind our house. All we see of it from our house is a pine-covered hill.

Groundhogs don’t usually climb trees. Buffy and I rounded the corner of the weed patch last summer and caught this young one out in the open. It went up the nearest possible place to hide.

I took several pictures. It never moved. Buffy kept standing on her hind legs, trying to reach it, giving me looks like I should help her.

31 May

Last of the Fox Chronicles

Posted by naturesnippets in Mammals. Tagged: adult, experience, red fox, tail, territory, young. 6 Comments

I’m sad to say the fox family is no longer living under our barn. I knew this was coming, because they only use dens for raising their young. Here are a few pictures from the few times I saw them last week. I didn’t see them every day, and some times it was so dark, I couldn’t tell how many were out. I start the pictures with one taken before last week, one with good light. It was taken when I was seeing them daily.

A morning romp with mom

She had to hold her hind leg up to nurse the 2

They were active this evening

Like I said, they were ACTIVE that night. Three in the picture.

Look at the size of her tail!

Not wound up yet

Notice the white tip on the one’s tail. One morning 3 of them were tumbling around together. Their tails were wagging all over the place. I kept finding myself watching the white tail tips. They showed more in the low light than they would in brighter. I figured there must be a reason for the white tail tip, like distracting prey while the “business” end gets ready.

Shows size comparison between adult and young.

Another stare

The last picture I took

I knew they would be leaving anytime. I had a repeating image of the whole family together, walking out of our yard with me watching. It didn’t happen. The last time we saw one was when we could barely see a head sticking out from under the barn. Since we’re obviously in their territory, and since they successfully raised young here, I hope they return next year to raise young under our barn.

And I SO enjoyed sharing my fox experience.

22 May

A Fox Stare

Posted by naturesnippets in Mammals. Tagged: observing, photographing, red foxes, routine, stare. 2 Comments

I take most of my fox pictures through the picture window by my computer. With them staying so close to the barn for some reason now, I also take a few from a window in my husband’s bow room.

My son-in-law suggested I put a blind where I could get closer for my pictures. That would never work. The mother sees me by the window. I have to wear drab clothes and move slowly. My husband even said last night that he’s thought about making a hole in the back of our old concrete block garage. It would put me much closer. That wouldn’t fool her.

I’ve taken 7 pictures with her staring straight at me. I can feel her stare, and I’m sure she feels mine. We must have an understanding of some sort. Here are 2 of the pictures.

Her stare from the water garden at 29 yards

This stare is from 58 yards. I stepped them both off.

She’s aware of our routine daily activities. I get used to their routine, and then it changes. It has changed since hot weather has returned. She knows we have a big dog, and Buffy’s never had anything like them in her territory.

I’m satisfied observing from this distance, and they seem comfortable with it.

21 May

Fox Family Pictures

Posted by naturesnippets in Mammals. Tagged: family, nursing, red fox. 6 Comments

The foxes have changed their habits slightly and are making picture-taking more challenging. They come out most mornings for a short time between 7 and 9 a.m. Then they stay close to the barn and in the shade. My picture window faces east, and window glare can be a problem.

Our weather’s turned hot again and that limits their time out in the afternoon to almost none. My husband has an archery target at the back edge of our property. He usually shoots until it’s too dark to shoot. Since the foxes have been here, he and I both come in early to give them time to come out and play … and us a chance to watch. They didn’t come out last night. The night before they came out when there was just enough light to see them. So, here are pictures from this and yesterday morning.

These are from yesterday (Saturday) morning.