Skunk

I never know what I'll find on my evening wildlife drives. This time it was a skunk, also known as a dog's chew toy.

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.