Spotted a red fox under the apple tree in the back yard this morning. At first I thought it was a large cat, but then it turned its face toward the window. Definitely a fox. Looked very much like the one in the picture below, but I did not catch it on my camera. (This picture is from the internet.)
We suspect that the fox was interested in the birds around our bird feeders. (We recently added a few bird feeders out near the apple tree.)
Other recent wildlife updates:
There are active moles tunneling under the yard in various areas.
Plenty of hawks and bald eagles who, along with the owls, are probably snacking on the moles.
On the evening of Halloween, I was startled by a huge stag crossing the street in front of our house. It was the biggest animal I had seen in the wild in a long time.
Turkeys continue to march around the yard a few times each day. They have been managing to flap up into the crab apple trees to eat the little apples.
Piper was recently excited to discover the remains of a deer by the trail.
We continue to hear the barred owl almost every day. It’s quite vocal! I spotted it a few evenings ago, perched on a phone line. It was bigger than I expected. We’re hoping to catch a glimpse with a bit more light.
Piper and I saw a muskrat crossing the trail while running this morning.
I don’t remember if we included snakes on the previous list, but garter snakes are quite common. Saw a rather large one right outside the back door a few days ago.
I know that I should be posting more about our trip to Du Nord, but I wanted to provide an update about some of the wildlife that we’ve seen and/or heard at our new home.
I recently posted about the wild turkeys that Piper an I encountered on a nearby trail. It turns out that the turkeys are pretty ubiquitous. It’s a rare day where we don’t see or hear some of them in the yard or on the trails. We frequently see a family of nine strutting through the yard. Here’s a list of other wildlife that we’ve encountered recently:
Coyote (not my photo, but this is similar to the ones that I saw)
A buck with fuzzy horns on a trail behind our back yard.
Two coyotes trotting through the yard while I was taking laundry off the line. They came within 20 feet of me before noticing that I was there and scampering off into the woods.
Barred owl (again, not my photo!)
Numerous garter snakes.
We hear lots of songbirds and frequently see cardinals and goldfinches in the yard.
Hummingbirds enjoy our flowers.
Last night and this evening, we heard loud hooting from a barred owl in the woods across the street. We have yet to spot it, but have high hopes. It seems to vocalize around sunset.
We’ve also spotted lots of scat in the woods, much of which we don’t recognize yet. We’re learning quickly, though, and intend to continue developing our understanding of the local fauna.
We discovered a large colony of bumblebees living in the mulch at the back of our house. I’ve spotted other ground hives before (e.g., yellow jackets) but never bumblebees. The picture doesn’t include any of the drama, but there are numerous entrances hidden in the bark. They depart to visit the flower garden and return visibly laden with golden pollen on their rear legs.
Courtland, MN, on September 22, 2018. (Click for a higher res version… if you dare!)
At first we weren’t sure if this was a crazy looking spider or a weird mushroom with a spider under it. Turns out, it is definitely the former. We think it is a marbled orb weaver, though we’ve never seen one quite like this before. Apparently some people call them pumpkin spiders or even halloween spiders. Coloring can vary widely.
