Recently a group of deer have taken to visiting in the evening, usually a doe with two fawns, sometimes three. They have only in the past few days lost their spots, which has not inhibited their playfulness.
This particular evening as they were departing down the driveway, they met the flock of young turkeys coming up, to the consternation of the birds.
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As the fawns pronked toward them, the turkeys got all in a flutter and decided perhaps they wouldn’t pay us a visit after all. Nor have we seen them since, as it happens!
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Deer are very aware of being watched.
Even though I remain at my desk, the doe looks at me and doesn’t flinch when I wave, although she would if I was to stand up and move toward the window.
I sensed she was communicating:
“Kids! They are such a worry!“
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A squirrel caught my eye the other day. I’m never sure now whether what I am seeing is real or just another optical illusion, so I picked up the camera and activated the zoom.
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For once my eyes had not deceived me. This was a squirrel with a quite unusual colour scheme and a very white tummy, which is what had caught my eye, I think.
No doubt it will stay around for a few days or weeks, perhaps, and then depart permanently without so much as a backward glance. It’s what they all do. We have had a parade of squirrels and their fancy clothes over the years.
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On the porch, one afternoon, I felt I was being scrutinised and looked down into two large black eyes.
Two bird feeders hang on the porch and inevitably seeds drop to the ground and eventually germinate. Sometimes we get sunflowers but mostly it’s sorghum which we discovered was popular with goldfinches, so we just let it grow and that is where this grasshopper was hiding.
Perhaps he’d been chewing that leaf.
Bidding him good afternoon, I left him to get on with it.
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Another day, when I went to fill the seed trays, I found this furry fellow in one of them.
According to my app, a yellow woolly bear caterpillar that will become a Virginia tiger moth.
Which is white.
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According to folklore, Woolly (or Wooly, depending on the source) bears predict the coming Winter.
Based on this, we should have a mild one? No. You have to consult a regular Woolly bear!
Which turns into an orange tiger moth.
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AI is not as clever as it purports to be.
It identifies this image as a Macrosiphum (aphid).
But I know for a fact that it is a:
Bungicus chordica.
The covering of a bungee cord.
The gate to the wildflower plot is held closed with one and I found this there the other day.
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Interestingly, WP would not allow me to attach a photo of the reverse side which AI identifies as a bristle worm, or Amphinomidae.
“The web server cannot generate responsive image sized for this image. Convert it to JPEG or PNG before uploading.”
I did what I normally do when I get this response, but it makes no difference. Perhaps the great intelligence doesn’t like being shown up!
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So I’ll finish off with a very damp dandelion.
An infinitely more complicated image than a bit of bungee cord!
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The squirrels in our back garden (just two of them, Tom and Jerry) also have very white bellies. Though Jerry is half the size of Tom, he or she is a voracious forager and will take nuts, fruit, bread crusts, and drink copious amounts of water during the day. I have bought them some new peanuts in shells today, as I enjoy watchinng them nibble away until the peanuts inside emerge from the hard outer shell.
Best wishes, Pete.