The Bobcat Returns

I've had a few bobcat sightings on our property this year. It's now the mating seasons for bobcats and this one found the bait at my game camera as it was checking out the dating action in our neighborhood.

The bobcat looked very healthy and spent almost 3 hours working on the bait. At one point the bobcat was chased off the bait by a skunk, but the bobcat returned in a couple of minutes.

Watch the last couple of frames of this video to see the skunk move in

Warm Weather

After weeks of subfreezing temperatures and snow, today's temperature was into the 50's and the neighborhood deer were out feeding early.

Deer Browsing

"Deer browsing" isn't a bunch of deer leisurely looking for a good sale in a local store. In this case it's deer feeding on tender shoots and buds of vegetation. With the neighborhood covered with a layer of hard-packed snow, the deer have defoliated several of the tasty ornamental shrubs in our lawn.

The deer have defoliated the bottom 4 feet of this golden cypress.

Deer pruning of an arborvitae.

Lower leaves and berries of the holly bush were removed.

Coyotes

Over the past weeks we've had several small snow storms and some freezing rain which has impacted food sources for wildlife. These coyotes came in to the bait I placed in front of a game camera.

This coyote looks to be fat and healthly while the second coyote was very skinny.

The Snow Keeps Falling

We've had very little snow for the past couple of years, but this year it's like living in a snow globe.

Turkeys in the Snow

The recent snowfalls have forced the local flocks of turkeys to look for alternative sources of food. This flock found some small crab apples still on a tree near our house. Several of the turkeys would land in the tree and knock off apples to other birds on the ground.

While I was standing in our garage watching the turkeys in the apple tree, these 4 birds were walking up the township road to the apple tree.

Once my hiding spot was compromised these turkeys made a hasty retreat to the nearby woods.

What Deer Do At Night

With the snow on the ground I've noticed a lot of deer activity in our back yard and some deer beds at the edge of the lawn. I set up a game camera next to a deer bed to see what the deer were doing. I got over 300 photos for the first night and created a time lapse video of the activity.

Snowplow

After a couple of Nor'easters so far this winter, the township has reactivated the old "V" plow that it had been using as a lawn ornament.

Bobcat

I checked a game camera at our cabin property today and found this video of a Bobcat looking for a meal.

International Space Station

This evening's sky was clear and perfect to watch the International Space Station (ISS) pass by. The ISS appears as streak in this 30 second exposure as it zips by at 17,130 mph. The constellation Orion is in the upper left.

The Calm After The Storm

After days of new snow and drifting from the recent Nor'easter the sky cleared and a bright sun was shinning. Time to finish up on some snow plowing. As I drove along the road to our cabin I saw several deer resting under the pine trees.

It appears that the deer were resting from a night of pawing through the snow looking for food.

As I returned from plowing the deer were out of their beds and checking my snow plowing.

After the Nor'easter

For the past couple of years we've had very little snow but now we're cleaning up from our second Nor'easter for this winter. We only got 14 inches of new snow from this storm compared to the 3 feet of snow from the first Nor'easter.

I spent most of the past 2 days plowing snow. My fuel tank at our barn.

I found this young deer looking for a meal under a neighbor's bird feeder.