Barred Owl

Another mild February afternoon with the temperatures in the low 50's. While I did my afternoon wildlife dive I found this Barred Owl in a pine tree. I watched the owl for 1/2 hour hoping to see it pounce on its next meal, no luck for either of us.

Bald Eagle

Another mild February day and I found this Bald Eagle in a sycamore tree scanning the open water of Wysox Creek for a fish dinner. Maybe this eagle will have better luck in another month when this section of the creek is scheduled for trout stocking.

The Warm Weather Continues

The ice was off Miner's Pond due to another warm Winter day with the high temperature at 53°F, down from yesterday's high of 64°F. A neighborhood boy took advantage of a rare opportunity to paddle a kayak on this pond in mid-February and have some geese fly by.

The Geese Are Returning

With the temperatures in the 40's-50's for the past few days, open water is starting to appear on our pond and the geese are starting to look for nesting sites.

Is It Spring ???

So far it has been a very mild Winter. Yesterday was sunny and 48°F, today's high was 57°F at 11:40PM. It may have been cloudy and damp today, but this flock of 17 gobblers were out testing their vocal cords while looking for hens.

Turkeys

It was another damp/drizzly January day as this flock of over 140 turkeys spent a couple of hours in the field behind our barn.

Cold and Rainy

Normally by mid-January the ground would be frozen solid and covered with snow, but this has been a relatively warm January. The lack of frozen ground has allowed me to dig some drainage ditches with the backhoe. It has been raining for most of today and while I was out checking on some of my recent drainage projects I found this young deer assessing the current weather.

West Hill Wildlife

As the doldrums of winter settle in, I pulled the memory card on one of the West Hill game cameras to see if there was any activity. The cold and snow doesn't stop some of the local wildlife from looking for a meal or having fun in the snow.

There are several coyotes in this area. This one looks to be returning from hunting in the nearby corn field.

It may have been cold on Christmas Eve, but I have over a dozen photos of this fox rolling around in the snow.

A Bobcat checking out West Hill.

Christmas With Reed

"We are ... Penn State ..."

A non-video game.

Operation, a game of skill. Later in the evening, at our house, I heard Reed requesting help. I entered the room and ask Reed what was wrong. His reply, "This guy is loosing a lot of blood and dying".

Another holiday tradition, building a gingerbread house.

Reed relaxing with his friend the Grinch.

Why I Hate Red Squirrels

There are several walnut trees around our barn and it's not unusual to see gray and red squirrels gathering nuts for the winter. There are families of gray squirrels that live at the end of the driveway and act like Walmart greeters, whereas the red squirrels live at the barn and have an attitude problem.

The red squirrels are destroying this plastic floor drain at the barn.

A trap was set in an attempt to limit damage to the floor drain. For several days the red squirrel was able to avoid capture and snack on the bait.

The trap was sprung ...

Victory is near ...

Within a minute, Harry Houdini the red squirrel is out of the trap!!!

Within one day, Harry Houdini or a stunt double was back looking for more snacks.

Dancing Turkeys

With the Fall turkeys season and Thanksgiving over for this year, these turkeys stopped by my deer stand for a visit. These turkeys saw my truck parked next to the deer stand and it looked like they were dancing with each other as they strolled up within 10 yards of me. After a few dances around the truck, the birds continued their dancing stroll to the edge of the field where they stayed for over an hour. Maybe the turkeys were doing their "Happy Dance" because they survived hunting season.

Deer Hunting

The rifled deer season started on Saturday. I saw several deer from my Cabin property deer stand on the first day, but didn't see any bucks that were legal. Went to the West Hill deer stand yesterday and bagged this 8-point.

Birdwatching

Today was cold and windy, with occasional snow squalls. Since the fall turkey season ended last Saturday, today was a perfect time for some local turkeys to visit our back lawn.

Rifled deer season starts next Saturday, so I went to check on my deer stand. My grouse friend was back drumming on his favorite stump, located less than 50 yards from my deer stand.

The Grouse Is Back

We got our first measurable snow overnight and I was out checking for wildlife. It appears that the grouse fight from a couple of days ago was for claiming territory and the victor was back.

The grouse was establishing his right to this territory by beating his wings to create a sound known as “drumming”.

Grouse Fighting

I was out looking for turkeys yesterday when I found two grouse fighting.

They may look like two "love birds", but they where chasing and pecking each other for 10 to 15 minutes.

They continued to fight as they moved out of the brush and into the field.

The grouse on the right was losing ground and looking for the exit ...

This grouse had enough of the fight and flew off. His opponent wasn't done with the fight and flew after him.