17 June 2018

Turkey Poults

I was on my tractor heading to a food plot at our cabin property when I noticed a hen turkey in the driveway acting strange. The turkey ran back and forth in the road and tall grass. When I got close I could see very small turkey poults (chicks). The poults were only a day or two old and could hardly walk in the mowed grass.



This turkey poult was having trouble getting out of this rut in the lawn.



I'm not sure how many poults were in the flock since they camouflage into the background.


16 June 2018

Neighborhood Foxes

In the past couple of weeks I have noticed several foxes in the neighborhood and wondered where they were living. I now know, their den is at the bottom of our lawn. I found this young fox taking a nap in our lawn.



I decided to see how close I could get to the fox. I was about 30 yards from the fox when it sat up.



I stopped walking and start talking to the fox and it bedded down again.



When I got within 15 yards of the fox it got up and walked into the weeds.



The fox continued to watch me from the weeds before leaving the area.



The day before, I found these two foxes napping in our lawn about 100 yards from our house.



13 June 2018

Fledgling Birds

I was mowing down some goldenrod and brush with my tractor when I had a couple of fledgling birds attempt to fly out of the way of the mower. One of the birds navigated out of the mowing area, but the second bird tried to hide in the un-mowed goldenrod.



After a few photos and some bird herding I was able to get the second bird to a safer location.



Maybe some bird watcher can identify this fledgling bird.

05 June 2018

Too Much Rain, Too Little Gardening

This has been a very wet spring in the neighborhood and I have recorded almost 8.4 inches of rain within the last month. One recent storm dumped almost 2.5 inches of rain withing one hour, so Mary and I did a road trip to check for damage. A small creek in Rome jumped its banks and flooded this home.



This little tributary was dumping "liquid mud" into Wysox Creek. Photos during the storm and an after the storm photo that shows the rocks that were carried by the muddy water into the creek.



A local farm field was turned into a lake.



It has been so wet that I've only had a couple of days this spring to work in my garden. I haven't been able to plant my sweet potatoes and they continue to grow in our solarium. Unlike regular potatoes which are planted and then hilled up, sweet potatoes are planted in raised mound of soil and my garden is to wet to work in.

03 June 2018

Spring Deer Hunt

With the continuing wet, rainy weather it was too wet to work in my garden or mow the lawn so I decided to go on a spring deer hunt. Instead of using a gun to shoot deer on my spring deer hunt, I use a camera. The deer are giving birth to this year's fawns and with a little luck I sometimes find new born fawns resting in the tall grass. My first encounter was this doe that was watching me.



After about another half hour of looking I found this fawn and was able to get a few pictures before it looked for a new hiding spot. From the way the fawn could run I'm guessing it's about a week old.



I must be in a good location and within 15 minutes I found this second fawn.



I was only able to get a couple of photos before this fawn ran off.



I thought I may have found a third fawn, but it turned out to be a rabbit.