Milk Snake

With today's temperatures in the mid 40°F and following yesterday 1.03 inches of rain, I didn't expect to find this young eastern milksnake crawling through the leaves. Being cold blooded, this milksnake was sluggish when I found it, but after a few minutes in my warn hands it was ready to be released.

Bears In The Woods

Time to check a couple of game cameras at another location on our property. It had been about a month and the two cameras had over 6,700 photos, of which about 6,000 photos were squirrels. I did get some photos of bears, including this cinnamon bear (Ursus americanus cinnamomum).

The cinnamon bear is a color morph subspecies of the American black bear.

Several photos of black bears at the same location.

Blue Heron

Drove the ATV to the cabin pond this afternoon and found a Blue Heron sneaking around the pond looking for a meal.

Success.

After eating the fish the Blue Heron started to rest at the shoreline ...

The Blue Heron spotted another meal ...

Another fish. I watched this Blue Heron catch at least 3 fish.

Northern Lights

The Northern Lights were visible tonight. Some photos from the hill top at the cabin property.

Looking west.

Looking east

Bears in Bathtub

Pulled the memory cards from the West Hill game cameras today. A lot of activity at the bathtub camera this summer, mostly bears. It started out with just one bear at the tub ...

The next photo had a cub in the tub and if you look closer, a second cub hanging out of the culvert

Cub #1 wasn't happy with mommy's washing style.

Cub #2 watching from the end of the culvert.

Cub #1 swatting at momma.

Cub #1 mocking momma.

As mommy walks away, now there are 3 cubs in the tub.

The cubs continue to play at the bathtub as mommy waits.

The bears continued to visit the bathtub during the summer.

In this photo there a 4 cubs in the tub.

Young Turkeys

I was driving the ATV around the cabin property this morning when I had to stop and let these young turkeys cross in front of me. I was able to get within 25 feet of the turkeys as they were looking for a meal of grasshoppers.

Walnuts

The autumnal equinox marks the start of the Fall season and as the leaves start falling from the trees, so do the black walnuts (Juglans nigra). With an abundance of walnuts at our barn this year, the clean-up/removal of the walnuts from the lawn was complicated by a lack of squirrel volunteers. After removing more than a dozen 5-gallon buckets of the chartreuse spheres in the past week, it was time to bring in the front-end loader.

Grouse

I found at least one grouse in the neighborhood. It's hard to find/see ruffed grouse in this area and even harder to get a photograph of one.

Turkeys

Over the last couple of weeks I've encountered this family of turkeys several times during my wildlife drives on our properties. The turkeys will now allow me to get much closer for photographs and sometimes they will approach me while I'm in the ATV.

I got within 30 feet of the turkeys for this photograph.

The turkeys walked across a field and in front of the ATV for this photograph.

Bear Activity

A couple of days ago I caught a glimpse of a bear on our cabin property. Today I pulled the memory cards from the game cameras in that area. It appears that at least 3 bears have been in this area for the last couple of weeks.

Sweet Potatoes

Doing some final cleanup of this year's garden and it's time to dig the sweet potatoes. I planted 12 hills of sweet potatoes and got just over three 5-gallon buckets of sweet potatoes.

Wildlife Food Plot

On my evening wildlife drive I checked on my new wildlife food plot. The deer have found it.

Turkey Poults

I found this hen turkey and poults while I was mowing along our cabin road.

Raccoons

My neighbor gave me some fish scraps from his recent fishing trip to Lake Ontario and I used the fish scraps as bait at my game cameras. These 5 young raccoons approved of the meal.

Myra's 9th Birthday

Time to celebrate granddaughter Myra's 9th birthday. The celebration started with a party at the river property. Myra prepares the piñata.

Cotton candy!

A long line at the cotton candy machine kept Nikki busy.

Time to break the piñata.

The kids collecting the piñata candy.

Time to blow out the birthday candles.

What is a birthday party without fireworks?

Myra's second party was back home the next day. At this party Myra opened the gifts from family members.

Myra received an electronic keyboard piano.

Another birthday candle and cake, cheesecake.