Urban Wildlife

And this morning I saw a flock of herons flying over the pasture. I've never seen more than one or two together, but there had to be at least 10 flying high.

WOW!!

GIANT bullfrog visiting the puddle behind the barn. I couldn't get my phone before he left. He had to be 6 inches from nose to butt.

That is huge.

Good eatin' on the crop of mosquitoes that hatched with our recent rains.

Our birds are eating us out of house and home! Told mom they're fattening up getting ready for that loooooong flight south for the winter.

That reminds me I've got to refill the feeder.

Our hummies are leaving. I think some are visiting on their way south, but the feeders aren't emptying as fast.

Ours are emptying out very fast so must have a lot of little tourists coming through on their way south.

I had to fix the electric tape fence around our big pasture. The deer have been climbing through/jumping over. I think they don't pay attention if they get zapped. The good thing is that my fence just needs to be adjusted so it isn't grounded out, so I just had to walk the perimeter of the pasture and pull the insulators up/push them down on the fiberglass posts. The wildlife sighting was baby frogs sitting on the tape. They were so tiny. Go froggies! Eat the skeeters!

Wish I could've seen those tiny frogs! I haven't seen or heard one around me all summer long.
The hummies seem to be gone. We have huge flocks of geese in the yard every morning now though.

Our hummies are gone too. We are being overrun with frogs of all sizes. The toads seem to be getting sleepy for winter, but the frogs are still hard at work. They're quieter now that it's chilly at night.

With all the skeeters you have after all those storms the frogs will be very fat and ready for winter.
Some of our other birds are gone now too, haven't seen a goldfinch lately at the feeders.

They're all here. We have loads of them all winter long. They aren't bright yellow. They're more olive colored. They eat our feeders empty every couple of days in the really cold winter.

I had a small house finch sitting at my feeder, keeping dry while it rained/drizzled all day long Sunday. Smart bird, I have a large clear plastic bowl over it as a roof to keep the seed dry. This bird figured out he'd keep dry too sitting there.

That sounds cute. You're right, smart bird.

Aww! We haven't had much rain. I have some houses set up under eaves, but no one seems to have moved in yet.

I'm leaving my birdhouse in the tree for the winter. When the weather is bad someone can room in the for the night or the week. Everybody else takes theirs down.

We leave out a few too. I usually clean out the old nests as long as I haven't seen any signs of someone living there.

Today, I saw a couple baby raccoons in the pasture. At first, I thought they were beavers, but then they peeked up out of the grass. No mistaking those eyes. I went out to shoo them into the woods. Even though they are cute now, they're troublemakers. If they stick around long enough, they'll get into the barn and make a mess.

I know what you mean, I've seen what they can do to feeding stations.

I've seen what they can do in garages.........

I saw the finest baby walking down the road in the rain today. I think their mom must be gone. He was alone and looked kind of miserable. As much as I think they are pains, baby raccoons are kind of cute. He didn't know he was supposed to be afraid of me and just gave me the most pitiful look.

I hate seeing orphan animals.

I'm thinking of getting a trap and bringing him to the wildlife rehab people.

That's a great idea.