Black Vultures

I have seen this pair around here for the past week. The dogs have also been rolling in something very smelly. These were taken today, Thursday April 15, 2010 around 6:30 pm. Sunny day.

Foxes in the night

6:30 pm. I just got home with the groceries and two four footed fluffy tail creatures dashed in front of where we park our cars and one ran up the lawn in front of the house, the other ran across the frozen creek to the island. As I was gathering and walking the groceries up to the house this god awful scream was let out by the fox that ran up the lawn and into the woods. I have to saw I was a little scared, and so were they, but I am very happy to see two of them in the area. I have only ever seen one sunning himself/herself on the island years ago.

Female Wood Duck and family

Seems she has 6 babies this year. They are very shy and hard to get a photo of for they hug the island tightly.

Braconid Wasp

A wasp with a very long end... My best guess it that this is some sort of Braconid wasp. Josh found it yesterday in our porch next to the kitchen.

Snake in a tree

This is a garter snake. There is usually one or two around in the rock walls around the house. I have been swamped with puppy poop lately, so my photos of wild life have drifted off. 6 foster puppies are moving very slowly. This snake was right outside the laundry room dog as I was going in to feed and change their paper. I had never seen one in a tree!

Red Tail Hawk

4/22/09 8 am ish. Red tail hawk...

Green Winged Teal

Horrible photo, but I don't usually see these guys around.

Why wood ducks are called Wood Ducks

Here is a couple of wood ducks up in a tree. Luckily this was close to my house and they didn't frighten quickly.

Vireo - Which one?

I can't figure out which type of Vireo this is! I saw it while there was a large flock of robins passing though.

Swallows dinner time...

I took this photo last night, as all the swallows came out to dance and feast on the creeks assortment of yummy bugs.

White Bird - Immature Little Blue Heron

When I cropped this photo to focus on the bird the color saturation thing made the legs more green than yellow. The only white egret or heron that I can find with legs like this is the Immature Little Blue Heron. He is probably 1-1/2 to 2 feet tall. I took this photo around 9:30 this morning. It is a beautiful sunny day out, and now at 10:30 the weather.com site it saying it is 80 degree.

Male Mallard with an itch to scratch

Update & Kingfisher & Osprey

So a few things have happened since my last post. My baby is now a toddler, walking and running and so it is much harder to type and get on the computer. It is early morning and he is asleep with Dad. I have a new camera, a Canon EOS 40D, with more megapixels and zoom etc, so my iphoto library is full and crashing with around 10,000 photos! So for now until I clear it out, I am using my husbands computer. My mother also just died, so that took me away for a month. She peacefully passed in her sleep in the hospice house in Concord, NH after a long 2 year battle with cancer.
On the bird front I have many photos of the Osprey. I see him/her almost every day. I thought he/she would migrate by now. I took a canoe ride the day before Thanksgiving and saw a strange nest, but considering there were many squirrel nests around this nest, it is probaby another squirrel nest. But I should really look closer. It is in a sort of flat pine tree. The flatness of it though would seem to be a good osprey site. I just stepped outside this morning to pull in my canoe for it was still on the creek, tied to the wall and I believe I saw the osprey again. He must be hungry this moring for the waters are high and very muddy. He/She was high up, but had a curve or bend to his wings which makes me think it was the osprey, rather than the red tailed hawk that is around sometimes. Speaking of the red tailed hawk, there is a nest on Cider Mill Rd. on the right as you come from 422, before you get to SEI. I wonder if that is the hawks? or someone else. It is large and no leaves like a squirrels nest.
These photos were taken the day before Thansgiving. It was nice and sunny and warm!

Groundhog mowing the lawn.

"Well, someone has to mow the lawn."

Rudbeckia laciniata, Cutleaf Coneflower Asteraceae

This plant is over 5 feet high. I would guess 6 to 6 -1/2 feet high.

Two Osprey

Just when I was thinking, it is a shame I have only seen one Osprey. This morning at 8 am the pair were checking out the sandbar! It is sunny and warm again today.

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

I took a short walk with Josh today to find about half a dozen of these birds eating some of the new buds on the trees.

Mallard Hybrid?

Some sort of Mallard Hybrid? Now I will be looking at the other mallards more closely. This fellow came up when I fed the geese this morning around 9:45 this morning. Is it 44 degrees out and sunny. Usually the mallards keep there distance. If anyone knows what he is crossed with I would be interested in hearing opinions.

Froth

There were three large froth blogs going down the creek this morning. Someone please explain to me how this is natural. Bert is in the photo so you can get some perspective on how large they were.

On the bird side of things I see the Green winged teal couple daily.

Green-winged Teal

Interesting waterfowl passing through... I assume. We shall see who stays and who goes. I think there were two male Green-winged Teals. I did not get a good shot of the second one, nor do I have binoculars yet. They were hanging around with this mallard couple. The size difference caught my eye when I was out trying to get my dog Bert back in. Luckily I had my camera with me. It is sunny out today. Snow still on the ground. It is 41 degrees out.