Wild Life

The mister and I have the great fortune of living in an area that is very close to all of the creature comforts and yet far enough from town that we are comforted by all of the creatures.

Earlier this year we had a turkey tom and hen walk across our front yard and then make its way over the neighbor’s house.  A dear little Carolina Wren has taken up residence under our deck and she awakens me every morning with her raucous calls to her mate.  I think that they are on their third brood of babies. We often see and hear owls, coyotes, hawks, kites and a large variety of backyard birds. Occasionally we see fox, groundhogs and even once a bobcat who was being chased by deer. Can’t tell ya how that one worked out….

Not unlike most semi-rural places, we have a large and regular group of deer that move through this area. Some of them we recognize from season to season. One particular doe we nicknamed “Broke-Leg”. Even as a fawn she had some sort of ligament issue in her upper right rear leg and with each step her entire leg bows outward. We never thought that she would make it through the season, but nearly 5 years later she is still around (I spotted her yesterday morning) and nearly every year she has twins.

While we do enjoy the creatures (some more than others of course) we try to remain respectful of their area and don’t approach, tease or harass them. We have gratefully given over about 2 acres of our property to the wild. Every now and again they reward us for our kindness and respect.

Last weekend we were fortunate enough to spot several does with their brand new babies. As in tiny, knock-kneed, uncoordinated, freshly minted babies.

Several weeks prior to this, we had a Red-Bellied woodpecker couple set up housekeeping in a rotten tree fairly close to the house. We realized there was a lot of flying back and forth and quickly surmised that there must be babies involved. Ya know, rock a bye baby in the tree top kinda stuff. Although they were busy caring for baby, they were still elusive and not interested in forging a relationship with yours truly. I did what I could to get a couple of shots but out of respective for their space and privacy these aren’t the best.

Delight in nature, she is a lovely thing.