Yearling Buck

While at our cabin property I found this confused looking yearling buck sneaking around behind a shed. This is a transitional stage for yearling bucks as they disperse from their birth area to find a new adult home range.

This young buck has also produced his first set of antlers which will soon shed the furry velvet covering.

The young buck has an urge to do something with his antlers and this sapling tree.

What Bears Do In The Woods

I disposed of some fish cleaning scraps at the "bone yard" and got over 400 photos of bear activity on a game camera. The photos reminded me of a song about bears and I created this short video from the photos.

Antler Envy

I sometimes capture a sequence of photos with game cameras that explain/demonstrate how wildlife learn knowledge and skills from adults. This sequence of photos starts when a young fawn, assumed to be a male, meets with a mature buck and receives an introductory lesson on sparring, an activity to establish dominance and build social bonds.

The buck and fawn size each other up. The buck is 3 to 4 times as big as the fawn.

The buck and fawn agree to a sparring lesson.

First step in sparring, come in quick and low ...

Next, use your antlers to disable your opponent's head and neck movement ...

Now, practice and repeat ...

After the sparring lesson the fawn shows signs of antler envy.

Bathtub in the Woods

After remodeling our bathroom a few years ago I placed the old bathtub in our woods for the wildlife to use. I checked the game camera at the tub today and this bear loves it. This bear has two ear tags (ear bling for bad bears) and must have been caugth and released by the PA Game Commission.

Gardening Thumb

Some gardeners are known to have a "Green Thumb", while others tend to have a "Brown Thumb", my gardening efforts have rewarded me with a "Purple Thumb".

As the Summer gardening season winds down, I started working on garden projects for next year. One project was to establish a new asparagus bed by repurposing an old raised bed garden that needed some repairs to the wooden sides. The repairs involved nailing pressure treated wood over sections of rotted railroad ties. Since I would be driving large galvanized nails into railroad ties, I remembered Newton's second law of motion (F=ma) which states, force (F) equals mass (m) times acceleration (a) and selected the heavier mass of a 28 ounce framing hammer to generate more force. The first couple of nails went in easily with the framing hammer until complacency took over and the misguided framing hammer couldn't distinguish a thumb nail from a galvanized nail.

It brings new meaning to the phrase "May the Force be with you".