(USDA) usually uses stainless steel bands with imprinted codes like letters or numbers. Those bands are not that type. They appear to be a private owner.
Purple i think means it is a Michigan bird
This website has tons of annoying ads but is a good resource How to Read a Bird Band— A Handy Guide
There are lots of rabbits this time of year. This is where the orchard meets the windbreak. If you look very closely in the bottom photo he is between the trees on the trail. He came hopping down the trail while i was grafting. Two deer jumped out and ran through the orchard a few days ago. The rabbit i photographed using zoom. The grass is greening up on sprinkles and dew.
This baby deer crossed our fence and came in backyard. Stayed about 10 minutes looking for exit and then jumped over fence. Looking little wet due to the rain.
In Kansas turtles are very common. They frequently live and nest in my orchard and gardens that are not plowed. In Kansas every last inch is plowed by corporate farms. The others frequently raise cattle. Neither one is great for turtles. We raise hay on about 75% of my land. We could raise hay on 100% of my land but i dont believe in that. Diversity with orchards, ponds , brushpiles, woods etc. are needed to preserve the land for future generations. These turtles and many birds etc. Depend on me and my friends or others in the community to live. Imagine if every field was bailed 3 times a year for alfalfa instead of once for brome. Imagine if every field were sprayed so heavy as to eliminate everything but alfalfa. Imagine if every field was plowed 2 or 3 times and double cropped every year. This common box turtle would dissapear. In my property they multiply like crazy. Blackberries are a great food source for them. Many birds like thrushes and quail populations increase here. In this case this turtle as you can see is in the pear orchard. Notice the dirt on that turtles back? He over wintered in my orchard and recently came out. Imagine the euphoria a fruit eating turtle feels at my property when it finds windfall pears bigger than it is. If you look at these old photos Clarkinks older fruit and vegetable growing Projects in Kansas you will see me feeding other turtles. Who knows maybe this turtle is the ones i fed the grapes they couldn’t reach. Perhaps this turtle is a product of those grapes that turtle ate. Sometimes when im raising cantaloupe i have to relocate these turtles to the blackberry patch because they are bad about eating holes in my melons!
Not wildlife, but a domestic turkey hen who leaps over fences and other barriers my wife has put up to keep her out of a garden.
First photo allows you to play the game “Where’s the turkey?” The second photo gives you a big clue.
How did it get up there? Do they actually fly?
They can fly a few feet in the air for a short distance, but first she found weaknesses in the fence, then she hopped up onto a perch on the gate, then she knocked over some barricades to hop onto the gate. She is not broody, but I did find some eggs under her. She will be shut in the henhouse tomorrow.
Apple Fruit Weevil - Tatianaerhynchites aequatus
Caught it yesterday on a tiny apple fruit. Is only a few millimeters long.
Your enemy !
I believe this is an assassin bug eating a twenty-spotted ladybug. This species of ladybug (woman beetle?) spends all day grazing on powdery mildew, so these are both beneficials.
My garden is next to a small river. I see snakes every day.
While I was grabbing water from the river.
That is a winning photo!
Way back when I was a kid I had snakes & always was fascinated to see the breathing tube extended while swallowing. A red-tailed boa took a half hour to swallow a young rat that weighed about the same; didn’t move for nearly two weeks afterward!
These nests are very common on my property. Many have said they are orioles nests. Seems i never see the occupants.
looks like it. here they make them out of reeds and cattail fronds. mom sits pretty low in the nest so you likely wouldnt see her unless she was entering/ exiting at the time.
