document the wildlife in my backyard

The local fox clan decided to use my leaf pile as their hangout joint. While they are a little jumpy they are not afraid of much and will bark at you (sounds like a dog coughing) before scampering away into the thicker woods and bushes.

We have a lot of rabbits in the area so the foxes eat pretty good. Sure they find smaller rodents too.

An update on #5 below. The hornets built a nest again this year in the same tree, but did it about 15 feet above my driveway on the lowest branch. My pest service came out and gave them the boot. That should teach them to stay in the penthouse suite.

Ok, this is an entry I would prefer NOT to have in my yard. My daughter noticed this nest the other day. It is bigger than a basketball and about 35 feet up in a silver maple tree. From the construction of the nest it appears to be a baldfaced hornet nest. Hopefully the little buggers will stay up there and not mess with the people on the ground. Not that I want winter to come too soon, but the first freeze will take care of the colony in this nest.

There are many birds that spend the summer in the lake out back, but my favorite is the blue heron. Most of the time it can be found standing VERY still and then that beak darts into the water super fast and snags a small fish. Occasionally I will catch a view of it flying around where it looks more like a 747 compared to the jays, sparrows and cardinals zipping around.

Although the herons have been around a lot this summer the picture above is from 2005 and is a favorite since the evening light really brings out the blue.

Every year in late May the turtles (correction: the female turtles) make a daily trek from the lake up to higher ground right around dinner time. They dig a hole and lay their eggs. Later on, the babies hatch and make the trek down to the lake. The rest of year you never see any turtles out and about. Picture above of Momma Turtle laying eggs near the edge of our driveway.

Yesterday in the late afternoon I spotted three crows picking at something in my backyard and the something was fighting back a little. I grabbed binoculars to get a better look and saw it was a snake. I will have to do some research to see if I can identify what type (only got a quick look). I went to get a picture and planned to remove it from the backyard and by the time I got out there it had disappeared. It likely came from the lake as the water level is high and only about 4 or 5 yards from where I spotted it.

To paraphrase Indiana Jones: “Snakes! I hate snakes”

We had a visitor in our yard, a young moose that has recently been seperated from it’s mother. We’ve watched this one grow up jumping the fences between the yards around my house feeding on the local plant life. As Hal can tell ya, it’s a way of life here in Alaska seeing this all of the time. Though even with seeing it as often as we do, it’s still fun to see. My wife has named this one Aileron. I have a few great eagle pictures that I shot in an area near my home which I may post later. One of which I hate to post in mixed company, I thought it was going to take off and instead it was getting ready to discharge the lavatory before take off and I got a shot of something though humerous, was not what I expected to happen. Then it took off and I got a great shot of that too!

I have been amazed at all the wildlife that is thriving just outside my house and I hope to use this goal to document (photos and entries) some of the animals and birds I have seen from the comforts of my own yard.

Today I was floored when my daughter noticed a bald eagle perched on our cottonwood. I have seen bald eagles many times in my life (having spent most of my childhood in Alaska, where eagles are plentiful), but I was honored that our national bird is hanging out in the suburbs – 20 miles from Minneapolis – and chose our lovely cottonwood (one of my favorite trees on our property) to rest and observe his environment for a few minutes.

I can think of no better way to start my documentation process than with the bald eagle (and a decent sized one at that). God Bless America !!!