Scrawny Deer

It's either the same scrawny yearling that has been showing up on a trail camera more than a quarter mile to the north or it's another starved-looking whitetail.

Seems pretty spry notwithstanding appearances.

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A Bee Pays a Visit

An insect pays a visit to one of my trail cameras.

Sure looks like a bee to me...

The Big Pecker

For a couple of weeks there has been a persistent hammering coming from the woodlot to the east.

I'm not kidding.

This hammering goes on for hours on end.  All day long.  For days on end.

Actually this is the beginning of the eleventh year since we’ve actually taken notice of this noisy neighbor.

I already had a pretty good idea of who might be the maestro of the anvil chorus emanating from the woods - but I hadn't had an opportunity to confirm the identity.

So yesterday morning while the girls and I were out for a walk I thought it might be a good idea to see if we could determine the source of all of the racket.

Check this out.

A big old mostly-dead maple - almost completely hollowed-out.

At the base of the tree was a sizable trash heap of wood chips

And while I didn't catch him on the job - this is the bird that is responsible.

photo - Ohio DNR

A pileated woodpecker - Wisconsin's largest woodpecker.

The name derives from the Latin pileatus - "wearing a cap".

This bird is about the size of a crow and announces its territory by drumming on hollow trees, chimneys and utility poles.

Its favorite food is carpenter ants and it will carve oval holes up to several feet long in tree trunks. It feeds its young regurgitated insects.

Yum!

Me and My Girls

Just me and my girls.  Out fetching memory cards from the trail cameras...

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Curious Hen

It seems that months can pass without a picture of a wild turkey on one of the trail cameras.  Lately it's the norm.  Almost as many turkey photos as deer photos.

Are turkeys naturally curious about camouflage devices strapped to trees?

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Purple Haze

Purple sunset tonight.

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The color of the sunset has to do with the way light from the sun enters
the atmosphere. When the sun is overhead and the angle that the light
enters is small, the shortest wavelength light (violet and blue) are bent
slightly and are scattered by the air molecules and dust in the air to give
us a blue sky. If there is a lot of dust in the air, more light is
scattered making the sky appear less blue and sometimes even close to
white.

So where's all the dust coming from?

Spring planting.

Farm machinery is running day and night lately...

Talking Turkey

Another hunter arrived last night - Six Deuce.

Told him he's likely to see both hens...

And gobblers...

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