Summer Blooms

From our early walk this morning it was already 75F and forecast  to rise into the mid to low 80s. Whew!   We ran the trail camera trapline too so there are more critters to follow,  

There was also silky dogwood - Cornus amomum. 

 
This deciduous shrub has an open-rounded form and features tiny yellowish-white flowers in flat-topped clusters in late spring to early summer, followed by attractive berry-like drupes that ripen from white to blue in late summer.

It is typically found in moist lowland areas, such as swamp borders, floodplains, and along streams and ponds. 

The berries are edible for birds and wildlife. The berries can be used in teas or other preparations when ripe but are otherwise toxic to people. 

Lots more blooming in the pollinator habitat; and monarch butterflies, pardon the pun, are king.

Stay cool

 

Porch Birds

From the porch a couple of bird photos.

This one taken with a iPhone 14 Pro of a male house finch (left) and brown-headed cowbird (right) copping some seed at a tube feeder in the front yard.

And a trail camera photo of a female house finch indulging her sweet tooth with some grape jelly at the "oriole" feeder.  Which is also universally visited by all manner of other birds.

Be sure to come back periodically for more bird photos that are posted from time-to-time. 

I really need to spring for a good digital camera.  It would amp-up my distance shots of wildlife and nighttime photography.  If anyone has a suggestion leave a message.  You probably know how to find me.  

The Oriole Ranch

They're back; among the last to arrive and the first to depart. 

Some of the most colorful birds that visit Wisconsin backyards and birdfeeders during the warmer months put in serious migration miles.

Baltimore orioles, rose-breasted grosbeaks and indigo buntings all migrate far south. Birds may travel as far as 3,000 miles – sometimes over long expanses of ocean to return to their breeding habitat.

When you live halfway between the equator and the North Pole these birds have only begun to arrive in the last week.

To help migrating birds, turn off outdoor lights and close curtains at night and reduce window collisions with external screens and marker decals on the glass.

And be sure to check back for periodic updates; and the appearance of other migratory species... 

Male Baltimore oriole

Orchard oriole sparring with a Baltimore

A couple of female Baltimores

Indigo bunting

Male orchard (left) female orchard (right) 

Red-bellied woodpecker - female is characterized by a gray crown and red nape 

The help... 

 

 

Red Dogs

A week and a half ago doggo and I were out to finish cleaning-out nest boxes and running the trail camera trap line. 

From trail camera central set to capture short, silent, video vignettes there were couple of red dogs.

Same location one day apart.

Local resident red fox and my sidekick, Ruby, The Red Rocket...  

 

Inasmuch as both camera and background are stationary and only the animals are in motion it a terrific way to ballpark and compare relative size between a couple of adult canines.

Redheads too.... 

The Return Of The Oriole Cam

Last Monday I could’ve sworn I spied an orchard oriole. 

And on Tuesday morning the Missus spotted three male Orioles quarreling over the humming bird feed she had recently deployed.

I spotted some rose-breasted grosbeaks in the yard along with the white-crowned sparrows passing-thru on their way to Canada.  Consequently, we put out three additional feeders and I moved the rickety-old trail camera previously used to monitor the peanut feeder to a post on the west side of the porch. 

The oriole cam has been deployed.  

 

 

And a couple of the first photos uploaded yesterday....

 

 

 

Backyard Birding

On the recommendation of my pal, Braumeister, at the start of last  month I hung the contraption you see below from a branch on a red maple in our yard.  It is a bird feeder that you fill with peanuts.  Peanuts in the shell; raw and unsalted.   

I bought a big bag of nuts at a local bird food joint.  And while they're clearly labeled:  NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION I suppose if I tried one I don't think it would kill me.  But you never know.  

It took a few days for the local birds to figure-out what it's for and now I'm restocking it almost twice a week.  

In any event the trail camera I installed to monitor who might like peanuts needed to be rearranged.  It needed to have its back to the sun so that subjects were appropriately lit.  It took a couple of tries to get the focal length correct.  Trim some branches and there was the opportunity cost of losing several days of potential photos as a consequence of an improperly-formatted SD card.  Mind you, the camera is old too.  Originally-deployed during COVID in 2020 it is quite frail and could fail catastrophically just about any time.  Nevertheless, being the cheap SOB that I am I intend to squeeze every last gigabyte of digital imagery out of this old Moultrie device as I can.

So, here's an update

Yours-truly wrangling and wrassling the gizmo one of countless times to get it situated 

Blue jay

White-breasted nuthatch

Red-breasted nuthatch

Pileated woodpecker

Downy woodpecker

Black-capped chickadee

And a hairy woodpecker

Altogether a nice collection of some of the year-round bird residents.  The migrators are beginning to arrive so it will be interesting to note if any of them like peanuts.

Stay-tuned....  

 

Update On The Peanut Gizmo

On the recommendation of my pal, Braumeister, at the start of this month I hung the contraption you see below from a branch on a red maple in our yard.  It is a bird feeder that you fill with peanuts.  Peanuts in the shell; raw, unsalted.   

I bought a big bag of nuts at a local bird food joint.  And while they're clearly labeled:  NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION I suppose if I tried one I don't think it would kill me.  But you never know.  

It took a few days for the local birds to figure-out what it's for and now I'm restocking it almost twice a week.  I figure before too long some other undesirable critter is going to discover it; so it's hung on a branch (likely limber-enough to NOT support a large mammal) from a carabiner using a length of army-surplus metal cable parachute rigging connected to the feeder.  It might just be raccoon-resistant.

These four photographs are a bit of an experiment.  It's an old trail camera on its last legs and the position is all wrong as it's aimed generally into the sun.  I'm thinking I'll have to reposition the cam 180 degrees and relocate the feeder - if the tree and its branches allow.

Photos are from this morning.  Chickadee, white-breasted nuthatch, blue jay and a downy woodpecker.

Stay-tuned....

 

Trail Camera Update

A funny thing happened to the trail camera supply chain this winter.  There wasn't a Moultrie trail camera to be had.  Nothing in stock locally.  Nothing on Amazon Prime.  Nada.  Was it a chip shortage?  A consequence of tariffs?  A shipping container that fell from a ship and is bobbing-around somewhere between China and a California port?  I have no clue.  What I know for sure is I've been wanting to acquire two more cams and I'm not used to being denied for 3 months.

Since they don't need to be cellular-equipped I know I should be able to snag them for under a $100 apiece; only they've been unavailable.  Other brands and models, yes.  Moultrie. no.  Pardon me for brand loyalty but it is what it is.  It's a boomer thing.

Anyway, after waiting for months, the Missus announced they were back on Amazon and that I should check-out the selection so she could include them on our order.  In short order they arrived - a couple of A-900 bundles including SD card and batteries - free shipping too. Set me back about $90 a camera.

I deployed the first, replacing the last of two A-25i models deployed April 24, 2020.  Its twin succumbed in 2025 and after five years of continuous use this cam was nearing the end of its useful life and will be held in reserve or maybe finish its tour of duty as the 2026 Oriole Cam this year.  We'll see.  Bottom line is I have one new camera still in the box and one old cam in reserve for the present.

Here are the last two pics from the old trail camera... 

Prepping and deploying the new camera...

Stay-tuned for some new photos before too long....

Active Scrape

Several weeks ago the Missus and I were out for a walk and found an active deer scrape near a trail camera.  Naturally, the camera was aimed away from the scrape.  It was a small matter to rotate the cam on the tree in the general direction of the scrape.  

This cam is located just south of the middle guard tower.  

Last weekend I uploaded some photos from that cam to review who was visiting.  I took the first pic a couple of days ago when out with the dog to provide a sense of orientation. Date and time stamps are visible.  

The scrape is the darker patch in the turf located in front of the dog and slightly to her left - centered near the bottom of the photo.

 

Threesome

Whitetail triplets are hardly common yet hardly unknown.  I've blogged about it here from time to time as a consequence of trail camera evidence of the same.

Type Fawn Triplets in the search tool in the upper left corner of the blog homepage to see what you find.  

And there was this short video clip records at the end of last month.....

   

The Oriole Cam

Backyard bird report.

It would appear that the redwing blackbirds have left for the season.  Same for the tree swallows.  Off to southern coastal states, Mexico and Central America.  Jill spotted bluebirds in the bird bath.  The robins continue picking-about in the yard.  Cardinals, kingbirds, hummers and goldfinches are everywhere, warblers are passing-thru. It's been the best year in memory for indigo buntings, purple finches and orchard orioles.  And with all the dead and dying ash on the landscape woodpeckers rule the world around here.

The orioles are still hanging-around but they're not long for this neighborhood and will be departing before too long.  And the porch camera will likely be redeployed somewhere in the woods.

Meanwhile, the grape jelly has been removed as it's been attracting bald-faced hornets; and those buggers are sociopaths.

Last batch of photos.....