Fall Turkey Season Starts Tomorrow

Today was another damp, dreary day, but with the fall turkey season starting tomorrow it was a perfect time for a drive around our property. These turkeys and deer didn't seem too concerned about my presence as I followed them into the field.

Still not much of a reaction from the turkeys.

"Listen carefully! Starting tomorrow we run and hide from this guy that is following us."

A Rainy Fall Day

The temperature was in the low 40's most of today as a light rain fell all day. The neighborhood deer seemed to enjoy the weather and were out grazing or resting in the fields all day.

I found this group of deer bedded in the field next to our barn. They were chewing their cuds after a morning of grazing in the field.

Shaking off the rain.

The Fall Colors are Disappearing

I did a quick fly-over of our West Hill property and the corn field this weekend. Most of the maple trees have dropped their colorful leaves while the oak trees are still hanging on to multiple shades of brown leaves. This year's early killing frost and dry weather has turned the corn field brown and ready to harvest. Several of the West Hill animals (squirrels, deer, bears, turkeys ...) have already started to harvest the corn.

Signs of Autumn

More unusually warm/dry weather. It was 80°F here yesterday, but many signs of Autumn are here. I was mowing our lawn (and leaves) along the township road today while a flock of turkeys was crossing the road looking for a meal. The turkeys were in no hurry and spent several minutes watching me take pictures of them. Fall turkey season starts next Saturday.

Bald Eagle

We were driving past our barn property today when we noticed a very large bird in the top of a walnut tree. I didn't have my binoculars but the bird did let us drive close enough to get a few photos for identification. It was a juvenile Bald Eagle.

This bald eagle is about a second year bird. Bald eagles get their distinctive white heads when they are 4 years old.

Turkey Visit

It was in the low 30's this morning when the neighborhood flock of turkeys stopped by looking for breakfast. These turkeys roost in the neighbor's woods and tend to take a different route each morning.

The turkeys didn't take too much time checking our front lawn before heading to the back of the house on their way to the small stream.

There's always one bird in the flock watching me. It's only 17 days until the start of fall turkey season and it looks like our backyard is a good location to hunt.

Another Beautiful Fall Day

Grandson Reed and his dad are visiting us for a couple of days. Today was sunny and clear, with the temperature in the upper 60's. Mr. Reed spotted this deer relaxing in a shady area along the road during our drive around the cabin property.

It was a nice day to fly the drone. I gave Reed some flight time at the controls and took this picture of us with the drone.

Some drone photos of the fall leaves before they disappear for another year.

Cooper’s Hawk ?

I'm not good on identifying some birds of prey and need help on this one. It appears to be moulting and I'm guessing it's an immature Cooper's Hawk. Most of the time it's hard to get close to these sharp eyed birds, but this one flew out of a field and landed on a telephone pole near me. The bird then flew to a nearby power pole near our barn and landed.

I was able to drive to the power pole, get out of my truck and walk within 10 yard of the pole to take pictures. This bird watched me take several pictures before flying to some trees 100 yards away.

Wildflower Seeds

It started out as a project to collect some seeds from the Moth Mullein wildflowers for propagation and sharing. I soon found myself collecting more seeds than I planned.

Buckets and coffee cans of seeds to process.

In the end I collected and processed the seeds of a dozen wildflowers.

The main target flower was the Moth Mullein which produces multiple 1/4 inch seed capsules that contain up to 100 very small seeds, the rectangular dots in the photo. These seeds are much smaller than a grain of sand.

The first two jars on the left are Moth Mullein seeds. One jar of seeds for the white flower and one jar of a mixture of seeds for yellow and white flowering plants. Not shown is a small jar of just yellow Moth Mullein seeds. Some of the other wildflower seeds collected were: Deptford Pink, Butter and Eggs (Common Toadflax), Siberian Iris, Orange Milkweed (Butterflyweed), Scarlet Beebalm and Wild Bergamot (Beebalm).

Turkeys

I was doing some work at our West Hill property when a small flock of turkeys decided to check out the work by doing a flyover.

Good News/Bad News

It's a case of what's bad news for one could be good news for another. It was bad news for an opossum that didn't look both ways before crossing Joyce Road, but this was good news for a turkey vulture that was in the neighborhood looking for a meal.