My house is located just rural enough to have several deer munch on some of our perennial flowers. But my wife enjoys the deer and since we don’t garden they really have become part of the neighborhood. Mothers bring their fawns by and since we no longer have a dog we are able to view them on the game camera.
I object to armadillos that dig up the yard and I have open season on them. There is one big one I have seen under the automatic light in the backyard. He is a monster but never around in the daylight, so he still exists and it looks like he merely travels by, which extends his life. I can recall when we first began to see them in northwest Arkansas back in the late ‘60s. I spoke to a farm group in southeast Kansas and told them they could look forward to seeing them. They laughed but I know its true because of the dead ones along the road.
I used to have a ground hog present. He’d rear up in the front yard eating clover like he owned the place. It raised young for several years, which were cute to watch as they ran.
My wife fed a red fox pair some dog food and we took some pictures of them over several years. They came by every evening but we never saw their kits, except a quick glance.
Previously, I told you about the lynx. At one time my brother-in-law, the hunter, pointed out her paw prints in a sand pile leftover from a construction project. He swore a cougar made them when it passed through our yard. But on three occasions we saw her and that’s why we bought the game camera – so far she has not been photographed. Each time we’ve looked up to see her plod across the yard like she owned it. I think she weighs 60 pounds and has huge paws, a greyish white coat with some faint spots in it. Her ears have long black hair on the tips indicating she is not a bobcat. Definitely the times we saw her she was suckling kittens but she is very photo shy.
I have several flash shots of passing bobcats with spots on their ears, which are twice the size of a house cat. I was surprised by how many times they come by. The opossums visit my yard nocturnally, both big and small. They mosey by the camera’s lens.
There is a vicious looking coyote/dog cross that makes it on the small card. He really looks tough, but I have never seen him in person. He is not large and bares his teeth in all the pictures. Real ugly carnivore but he does no damage that I know about.
I have several bird feeders and raccoons do tear them down despite my efforts to prevent that. So I live trap them and transport them far away, I mean 20 miles is hardly enough distance according to some folks I know who spray painted them and found they had come back. They rate high on my don’t want list since they are very destructive to the feeders. And with the price of skins so low they have really had a population explosion. Why a collie dog would tree them, there are so many. I can recall doing that with good hounds, it was sure fun but that was in my more youthful years and the idea of scrambling over barbwire fences and climbing mountains does not hold any great rewards I want to earn.
My photo project this week has been four young coyote pups that have been playing in my backyard. I hope for some clear ones. They are well fed and very much clowns. ‘Till next time may the good Lord bless and keep you, Dusty Richards
