Wildlife

It has been a very long time since I shared pictures captured on our trail camera with you. There haven't been any creature spectacularly new, and winter time is typically quiet on the animal front. But the woods are coming alive again, and although there haven't been any baby deer as of yet, we have seen plenty of Coyotes, both day and night...

Racoon...

and this mysterious creature...

Too small to be a Cougar, too un-marked to be a Racoon, and look at that tail... too long to be a Bobcat! It was moving so fast that the pictures are all blurred. Our only guess is that one of the members of our Beaver family was out for a jog.

And of course there are always pictures of my very favorite woodland creature...

All furry and moving like stealth through the trees. He looks right at home out there in the wild, and I often have to pick leaves and sticks out of his hair and off of his clothes when he returns... at least he returns at all, right? That must mean I have him at least partially tamed.

As far as birds go, there has been some excitement lately... two newly-identified species, and a photo capture of the elusive American Goldfinch, which until now has only been sighted along the driveway...

This Black-Headed Grosbeak showed me a glimpse of his yellow underarms, which I previously didn't know existed...

And new to me is this House Finch, with his lovely strawberry-colored feathers...

Also new, and not nearly as sweet, is the ornery Brown-Headed Cowbird caught harrassing our collection of Band-Tailed Pigeons...

I really need to stop shooting pictures through our storm windows. My new lens is ashamed that I am showing you these pictures at all. I can hear it, sitting behind me on the shelf, complaining about how badly I am mis-representing its abilities. Oh well.