Mama

I got a three picture burst of this doe the other day.

This profile is a very good view of how pregnant she is.

She's huge!

Should be getting some fawn pictures very soon...

Extreme Kayaking

This guy goes over the falls in his kayak and lives to tell the tale.

It's a good thing most of the kyaks I see are safely attached to the roof of a vehicle.

That way nobody can possibly get hurt...

Coy Doe

Two words.


Coy doe.

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Bumper Stickers

Off-the-wall liberals and conservatives seem to always get carried-away with their bumper stickers.

It would seem that the sheer weight and force of an abundance of stickers will shift the sway of public opinion.

At least in their view.

Me?  Maybe a discreetly displayed sticker from Pheasant's Forever, the National Wild Turkey Federation or the NRA.  That's it.

On the way to archery night recently I found myself in traffic behind this guy.

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While these are technically bumper stickers - they're obscuring the view out the rear window of the topper on the pick-up.  African Lion - Lying African, Vegetarian - Indian Word for Bad Hunter, I Hunt Whitetail Year Round (cross hairs on a stripper's ass) and all the NASCAR.

Go figure...

About The Dogs

The routine is to get-up at the crack of dawn and feed the dogs.  Let them out to do their business.  Back to their respective crates for a nap and to digest.  This is key - never exercise a large breed dog on a full tummy.

For me it's back to the sack for 30-60 minutes of shut-eye.  Up and with a steaming cuppa joe a check of the news, email and some day job routine.

Then it is time for our morning stroll.

Now that Sister is making her way through therapy her walks are getting longer and her exercise routine is involving more activity.

After the walk is pool time.

A cheap kid pool filled to the top with water is irresistible to a Labrador retriever.

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Parts

One of my favorite retail establishments is Mills Fleet Farm.

As I have said over the years to anybody willing to listen - Any store that smells like tires can't be all bad.

I purchase almost all of my hunting dog stuff at Fleet Farm.  Same for canning and freezing supplies.  Even sausage casings.  You like Carhartt clothing?  Just say Fleet Farm.

In the Pet Department you will find an entire isle of dead animal parts.   Everything from femurs, to knuckles, to elbows to hooves.  Pig ears too.

The dogs love this stuff.

Which is why you have to be careful while padding about the house barefoot in the dark.  You might just step-upon a bone.

Ouch!

Last week I stopped at the Manitowoc Fleet Farm for dog food and bones.  I stocked-up on beef elbows which Girlfriend and Sister just adore.  A baked elbow will keep them occupied for days.

I also made an impulse buy.

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These are called Windees.

They're beef trachea.

The dogs love these too....

Star Wars Battle Vehicle

It isn't a Wookiee ornithopter, a skyhopper, sand crawler, self propelled heavy artillery platform, hailfire or homing spider droid.  Or a walker.

This thing rolls along, spreads its wings and sprays poison gas.

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Very creepy...

A Regular Visitor

Every week images of this young male - or buck - deer are captured on this camera on this particular trail.

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If this deer remains true to his movement patterns it will be fun to watch his antlers grow out.

There again - someone might want to tell him NOT to become too much a creature of habit.

A crafty archer might pattern him and, well, you know...

Nocturnal Deer

A doe and her fawn.  Last year's fawn.

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I've captured images of these two deer before.  That's a small fawn for a yearling.  Probably a late bred deer.

The does should start dropping this year's fawn any time now.

Pagoda In The Woods

Cornus alternifolia - alternate-leaf dogwood - is a common tree found in the understory of Wisconsin's forests.

Often cultivated for landscape purposes it is a true native.

Unlike other dogwoods - characterized by leaves attached opposite to one-another - the leaves of this species are unique as they're attached alternate to one-another.  The branches are also distinctive - reaching out horizontally.  Temple-like.  Just like a pagoda. 

They're in full bloom right now and those blooms will yield berries for the over-wintering birds.

The Frau thinks that the pagoda dogwoods along the creek are ones we planted almost two decades ago.  The size would be right if that could be proven.

Trouble is we didn't keep really good records back then.

Swamp Buttercup

Ranunculus hispidus - commonly known as swamp buttercup. 

A perennial native it likes shaded bottom land.  It's growing all over the place along the creek 

That's it in the center of the picture.  Better yet - it's surrounded by native, blue flag iris.

The wild iris is a very showy wildflower.  I'll post pictures of that as soon as it blooms.

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Gone Fishing

My pal Sid spent some time turkey hunting this weekend.  He heard little and saw nothing.  I had a late season bonus permit too but with the gobblers all henned-up I saw little need to hunt with so much gardening to do.

Of course if someone were to suggest fishing - like Sid suggested - turkey hunting and gardening both go out the window.

With walleyes on our minds we hit the bay.

And hit fish.

An almost perfect day - sunny and hot - but a bit of a breeze.  Unable to anchor and jig we trolled.

As the sun lowered on the horizon the pelicans flew in to shore.

Life is good...

Meatball Farming

I put in a food plot yesterday.

Having killed the grass and weeds about three weeks ago with a 6% solution of glyphosate I disced-up the strip in preparation for planting.

Not much science to this.  Which is why it's called meatball farming.

Disc, disc disc.  Broadcast seeds, fertilize the heck out of it (19-19-19 from the Door County Co-Op), disc it again and drive over it with the big, fat, tractor tires to create a good seed to soil contact.

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Pray for rain.

I planted 30 pounds of seed - much of it free, second-hand stock.  Grain sorghum, corn, buckwheat, millet and sunflower.  The plan is to leave all of this grain stand over the winter to feed the resident birds.

Hope I have adequate germination to make it all worthwhile.

Just Like Running A Trap Line

The weekly walk to swap-out the memory cards with fresh ones on the trail cameras is a lot like checking your trap line.  Although if I had a trap line I would have to check it daily.  But then I would have to be retired in order to do that.  And I'm not - so I won't. 

I digress.

The recently relocated camera along a well-worn deer trail is seeing a great deal of action while the camera that sits in the same location for years isn't getting much of anything the last few weeks.  I may have to be relocated.

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That's Sister and The Frau in the background.

Giant Swarm of African Killer Bees!

Last weekend I was out working in my vast garden and had to interrupt my progress to fetch a tool from The Frau's potting shed.

Rummaging-about the old pump house - now potting shed - I heard a rumble of buzzing. 

My first thought was that there was another nest of hornets above.  Between the ceiling and the roof.  Better fetch the hornet bomb - I was thinking.

It grew louder!

Exiting the shed I was startled to see a humongous swarm of thousands of honey bees milling about the apple tree.

They moved to the shed.

From there to above the shed.

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And vanished to the east.

Amazing!

*I was kidding about the killer bees.  These were honey bees.

The Garden Chronicles

Last weekend work in the main garden continued.

There was clean-up of sunflower stalks that were left standing over winter for feeding of the resident birds.

This patch of dirt is slated for reseeding back to grass but as long as it is clear for the present I'm going to till it up and plant something into it.

Not sure just yet - maybe gourds or pumpkins.  Maybe something else.  We'll see.

The new raised bed got a dose of a couple bales organic peat moss and four bags of organic manure compost.

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Tilled it in and planted four and a half rows of onions - one row of sweet and the balance yellow.  Cabbages went in too.

The raised bed garden is at three-fifths capacity.  Four rows of potatoes, four and a half rows of onions and a half-row of cabbages.

Hardening-off the tomato and pepper plants. 

Beans, cukes, lettuce and more are on deck...

Still Predictable

Relocating one of the trail cameras to this new deer trail has worked-out just fine.

This young buck is showing-up as a frequent user of this short-cut.

Remarkable to see the deer moving about in daylight hours.

Very nice!

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Old Location As Predictable As Ever

The camera that hasn't budged from it's present location for a couple of years is as predictable as ever.

Deer and turkeys moving through here naturally on virtually a daily basis.

Including mama and last year's fawn.

The little one seems awful little for a yearling.  Must have been a late-bred situation.

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New Location Pays-Off

Amazing the number of deer that are moving through this trail.  Thirty nine pictures over the space of six days.

Sure, many were duplicate shots of the same whitetails.  Nevertheless, that's plenty of critters.

Including this (yearling?) buck mugging for the camera.

It's going to be fun watching his antlers grow.

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Kayak Season

As predictable as the blooming of spring daffodils, lilacs and apple blossoms is the appearance of kayaks on the roof of a vehicle running down the highway.

I haven't seen a single kayak on the water yet but there seem to be plenty of them racking-up the highway miles...

Rats

If I were a betting man I'd bet that a muskrat is building a home in my pond.

I have no other explanation for this unnatural structure.

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New Location Pays-Off

The camera misses very little.  Deer movement patterns are not only during dawn, dusk and mid day. 

Deer are also moving through this location during we wee hours.

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New Location Pays-Off

The weekend before last Girlfriend and I situated one of the trail cameras on a very worn deer trail.

Plenty of traffic at this location.

Interesting to note deer movement during mid day hours too.

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Turkey Wing

The turkey wing is a strange talisman.

The deer have given it a wide birth.

This is useful information if I want to repel vampires or zombies.  Dead turkey wings might do the trick.

Not so much for Labrador retrievers.

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Finally - The Orioles

While out working last weekend I found a Baltimore oriole (Icterus galuba) nest on the ground alongside the creek.

It's a sock-like nest constructed of spider webs and other woven material.

And it was in reasonably good condition having weathered the seasons since it was last used. 

So I hung it on the wall.  One more nest to add to the growing collection.

In any event I was wondering if the orioles were ever going to show-up.  Both a nectar and grape jelly feeder have been out for a month following a rumor that the orioles and humming birds had returned.

Weeks have past with no sign of either species.

Yesterday a flash of color caught my eye.

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They're back.  Last to arrive and first to depart.

Note to self - Don't listen to the rumors... 

Turkey Wing

It is entirely possible that the turkey wing is not an attractant that anybody wants to eat.

It is an object of curiosity that it would appear the deer want to avoid.

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They're curious - but they're giving it a wide detour.

Another Experiment

In keeping with my bad habit of scattering dead animal parts all over the landscape Girlfriend and I decided to take the wing from a dead turkey and put it in front of one of the trail cameras.

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There was just enough residual flesh on the the joint that there was a possibility someone might be attracted to it.

We'll see.

Giant Swamp Gas Eruption

Researching the history of our abode at the County Courthouse I have learned from the official Government Land Office records that it is suggested that we have likely built our house on a swamp.

As evidence of this I present to you a landscape panorama of pictures taken last evening at sunset.  My hunting and fishing buddies will recognize these shots as taken from the back porch facing NW and panning to the right to true N to NE.

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Very spooky....

No More Pork Bones

When I checked on Friday the pork bones were gone!

Girlfriend gave the location a good sniff - but there was not a molecule of pig to be found.

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You're probably thinking - Why didn't the camera capture whoever it was that carried them off?

And the answer to that is the delay function on the device. 

When the motion detector triggers the camera it is presently programed to take three pictures and then go into sleep mode for another five minutes.  As near as I can figure something triggered the camera and then some critter made-off with the bones when it was sleeping.

On the other hand - there are aliens....

Pork Bones

About those pork bones.

The deer are certainly interested - stopping by to give them a sniff.  But they're not eating them.

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So far nobody's eating them.

More Trail Camera Experimentation

As I pointed out yesterday - one of the ways to capture wildlife on your trail camera is to position it where the critters travel.

Another way is to use something to attract the critters.  Some sort of attractant.  A scent perhaps.  Or something to eat.  Or maybe something that just might be an object of curiosity.

Bait.

Last weekend Lawyer and I had made some plump little breakfast sausages and I ended up with a double handful of pork bones when we had completed the task.  Rather than just put them in the garbage I thought I'd put them in front of a trail camera.  Someone was bound to come along and eat them don't you think?

You can see them here:

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Bottom/middle of the photograph just above the end of the date.