Western Conifer Seed Bug

It's still a little cool outdoors for a lot of insects but this Western Conifer Seed Bug (WCSB) has found a warm spot in our solarium where I'm propagating some sweet potatoes. As it's name implies, this sap sucking bug is native to the Pacific coast of North America and feeds on developing conifer cones. This insect has steadily expanded eastwards and is now found in our area.

Sweet Potatoes

It's still a couple of months before I'll be able to plant a garden, but now's the time to start propagating some plants.

Some of last year's sweet potatoes grow sprouts over the winter and I'm trying a couple of methods to propagate new plants for this year's crop. This method requires suspending a sweet potato in water to grow sprouts.

Another method I'm trying is to place a sweet potato in wet soil to grow roots and sprouts. New sprouts (cuttings) are cut from the sweet potato and placed in water or wet soil to develop roots.

After a couple of days in water or wet soil the cuttings will develop roots.

The rooted cuttings are then placed in potting soil to grow.

I also had a friendly wasp that was interested in growing sweet potatoes ...

The wasp thought the new sprouts were tasty.

Bald Eagles

During my afternoon wildlife drive around our cabin property I noticed something unusual in our neighbor's field. After a short drive for a closer look, it was Bald Eagles. An adult and a juvenile Bald Eagle were feeding on some road kill.

A second juvenile Bald Eagle soon landed to join the first two.

After about 10 minutes the eagles flew off. As I was returning home I watched one of the juvenile Bald Eagles swoop down on some waterfowl on Miner's Pond. A large Canada Goose confronted the juvenile Bald Eagle and told it to go eat road kill.

Windy Day

The March winds were howling through the neighborhood and our electrical power flickered on/off all day. I drove to our cabin property on top of the hill to check for wind damage. Only a few branches down. Not much wildlife was out due to the wind.

I found this doe and her yearing laying low to avoid the wind.

These two geese were still on our pond.

Snow Goose

The springtime northern migration of waterfowl has peaked. While Canada Geese can be found on many of the local ponds, a Snow Goose is calling Miner's Pond home. This goose may have an injury that prevents it from flying since it was unable to take off when other Snow Geese left the pond.

This white Snow Goose is easy to find on the pond.

Return of the Buzzards

Just as the swallows return to the Mission of Capistrano every year on March 19, the buzzards (turkey vultures) have marked the start of spring by returning to our neighborhood.

While the buzzards may not bring on the same springtime connotations as Robins and Bluebirds, buzzards are nature's clean-up crew to dispose of winter's casualties.

Wildflower - Coltsfoot

Right on cue, the early spring wildflower Coltsfoot is starting to appear along the edge of the township road.

Birds of Prey

Many different birds of prey have been migrating through our area and stopping at my game camera bait.

The Geese are Back

It only took a couple of warm days for flocks of geese to head north but it will take some more warm weather to melt the ice on Miner's Pond.

The ice at our cabin pond is almost gone and these geese have moved in.

First Signs of Spring

We've had a few days of temperatures in the 60's that have melted the snow to reveal a mostly dull gray and brown ground-cover. Overnight little dabs of color start to appear in our lawn as crocus pop out of the ground.

The Game Camera was Busy

The warm weather is bringing out the animals to the game camera. I saw a very large bird in a tree near our cabin and later iddentified the bird from this game camera photo as a Golden Eagle and not an immature Bald Eagle.

After hundreds of photos and videos I now know there are two bobcats in this area. This would explain the multiple bobcat visits each night to feed for hours.

It looks like one of the bobcats and a skunk are now friends.

As long as there is enough meat, these two are willing to share.

A fox came to the party for an easy meal that was shared by the skunk.

Just before daybreak the fox was the last one at the table. This time of year is also the mating season for foxes and this one let out a few barks looking to attract a mate.

It's Mating Season for Skunks

Skunks have a mating season that stretches from the beginning of February through the end of March. During this time, you may notice more sightings of skunks and an increase of "skunk smell" in the area as male skunks will start looking for a female mate to breed with. If the male finds a female and she is not interested, she will emit a scent to repel the male, which is why there is an increase in skunk odor during mating season. I captured this game camera video of two skunks at our barn property. It appears that the smaller skunk, on the right, may have got a rejection notice by its reaction at the end of the video.

Uninvited Dinner Guests

A bobcat (AKA, "Bob the cat") has visited the roadkill deer carcass on our property several times recently. I have hundreds of photos and videos of the bobcat dining on a meal of venison. During a recent visit "Bob the cat" had some uninvited guests.

Since bobcat sightings in this area were rare, maybe these deer were curious about this visitor to the neighborhood. "Bob the cat" seemed unfazed by the uninvited guests.

Some local deer checking out "Bob the cat" while he/she dines on venison.

After a long evening of dinning on venison, "Bob the cat" needed to stretch some muscles.

While "Bob the cat" had no problem with deer watching him/her eat, this is at least the third time I recorded the bobcat being driven off by a skunk.