Black Bear Mating Season

Black bear mating season is at peak activity in June and July, and I found this bear near my hunting stand this morning. Male bears travel extensively during mating season to find females. This bear was within 60 yards when I first saw it.

Bears In The Woods

Ckecking the game camera near my spring turkey blind. Some deer and turkey photos, it did have photos of 2 different bears. The bear photos were 1 week apart with a big size difference between the 2 bears.

Mushroom Hunting

After a very wet spring the Chanterelle mushrooms are starting to appear in the woods behind our house.

Grandson Reed and I were out early this morning picking mushrooms.

Reed enjoys picking mushrooms and his container is the full one on the on the right.

Not bad for 15 to 20 minutes of picking.

Baby Birds

Grandson Reed and I were at our cabin pond today looking for "Free Range" turtles when we noticed a pair of red winged blackbirds making several trips to some tall grass. Thinking there may be a nest in the area we went over for a look. We didn't find the nest but did find these 3 fledgling birds in the tall grass.

Bird #1

Bird #2

Bird #3

Another Bear

A couple of our neighbors saw a bear near our cabin road this morning. After several trips around our cabin property I had no luck finding the bear until our evening wildlife drive after a rain shower. As we approached the entrance to the cabin road we saw this bear in the neighbor's lawn. The bear walked off into the woods and I found this bear foot print in our cabin road. Grandson Reed got to see his first bear of his Summer visit.

Killdeer Chicks

Today was the big day for the nesting Killdeers, the eggs were hatching. By 10:00AM 3 of the 4 eggs had hatched.

One of the Killdeer parents and the baby birds.

Our grandson Reed taking photos of the Killdeers. Reed had arrived here on Wednesday for his Summer vacation, just in time to watch the eggs hatch.

After waiting a couple of hours for the fourth egg to hatch, I couldn't find the last baby bird or egg. One of the parents approached me and I noticed something hanging down along the bird's right leg.

The forth baby bird was up under the parent's wing.

Within hours, 3 of the 4 baby birds were out of the nest looking for food.

Spring Fawns

Seeing lots of fawns. Found this one along the road to our cabin.

Countdown To Hatching

The Killdeers have been on their nest for 3 weeks and the chicks should hatch within the next 5 to 10 days. The nest and eggs are in the upper right of photo.

Neighborhood Bears

After seeing a bear in our lawn yesterday, I checked the game cameras at the "Bone Yard" which is almost a mile from our house. Yesterday's bear hadn't been there but a much larger bear had made 3 visits to the "Bone Yard" in the past 2 weeks.

Bear In Compost Bin

I had just pulled into our driveway at 8:30PM when I saw a small bear walking along the edge of our lawn. I watched and followed the bear as it walked to our compost bin where it only stayed for about 10 seconds before heading to its next house call.

Newborn Fawn

I had my first newborn fawn encounter today. As we were returning home we watched a doe slowly walk across the township road and then wait for its wobbly legged newborn to follow. The doe then walked up the steep bank along the road, but the fawn got stuck in the ditch and didn't have the strength to climb out of the ditch. After watching the fawn struggle in the ditch, I gave it some help up the bank. After the fawn was on its feet for a while, it was able to rejoin its mother.

Bear Encounter

It's another cold/rainy day and I was in the side-by-side checking for drainage issues behind our barn when I encountered this bear in some brush. I was within 50 feet of the bear at first, but as I've told people before, the best way to scare off a bear is to try and take a photo of it.

Killdeer Nest

After visiting the Killdeer's nest several times a day, the birds are letting me get much closer to take photos. The bird got off the nest when I arrived today, but as I got within a few feet of the nest the bird came back sat on the eggs.

The Birds Are Back

Last year a pair of Killdeers (Charadrius vociferus) nested near the pipeline valves on our property. The birds are back again this year and built their nest in the exact same spot as last year. The birds have laid 4 eggs over the past few days and hopefully there will be some little chicks in 3 to 4 weeks.

The birds appeared to have adjusted to me last year and are allowing me closer access this year (as long as I bring bird seed).

Turkey Hunting

It was a wet first day of spring turkey hunting, but by 11:15AM I bagged this big (wet) tom turkey.