I LOVE having a phone camera just for reasons like this!!!
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agree. there have been time when I forget to take and kick myself because there was a good pictureā¦I make a point to bring it whenever I go out nowā¦
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Weāve got huge turtles down hereā¦there are at least 4 or 5 that I see regularly sunning on a log by the creekā¦this guys is the size of a hub capā¦itās some kind of water turtle, not sure whether itās a softshell or whatā¦whatever he/she is, itās been around for a whileā¦
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āOurā otters are back. They make a circuit - cleaning out ponds of fish as they go! I saw them playing and spinning in the lake on our property the other day . . . and Iām sure weāll find piles of fish scales on the trail around the lake very soon! No pictures. Youāll just have to take my word for it! 
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I used to think otters were cool until I saw a nature show about them. They really are river weasels. Few redeeming qualities.
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I had an interesting observation today. My resident white tail deer came through the back field last night and started eating a patch of thistle Iāve been gradually trying to dig out and eradicate. Now that I stop to think about it this makes senseā¦as thistle is tough as nails and stays green under the snow all winter. Just goes to show you everything has a purpose, even if it doesnāt fit in perfectly with our plans sometimes (thistle is a bear to step on with bare feet!)
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Found this guy over the weekend. Pretty sure itās a banded water snakeā¦itās always a little unnerving when you live near water and come on a snake, first thing that comes to mind is water moccasinā¦this poor guy just wanted to be left alone. Looked like something tried to take a bite out of his tail, guessing a birdā¦
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I think that is a cottonmouth! The wedge-shaped head is the giveaway for vipers; the cottonmouth is a little more subtle from what I recall.
Didnāt get a good look at the eyes, thatās a dead give awayā¦water mocs have the vertical slits, water snakes round pupilsā¦in my experience the heads of the water mocs are much more angularā¦like in this picā¦
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I have seen them in the past that look more like your first picture above. They even did the rattle the tail on nearby leaves thing. But I will definitely admit that itās been almost 8 years since I left cottonmouth territoryā¦ I did always have to remind the field techs I worked with to not go after them to kill them. Best to just leave them alone.
Around here that snake looks more like a cottonmouth than that lower picture does. The are almost black and difficult to see the mottled areas. Also they are more short and fat than that stock photo. You really donāt want to look an alive cottonmouth in the eyes. They will fight you in a heartbeat if they are trapped.
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I think thatās the dreaded copper-headed water-rattler.
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I kill them. .410 shotgun shell from a 2 1/2 inch barrel on the Governor. I dont really like to even see them but when i do i shoot them. They get big fat and black in the Florida swamps and i juat aināt having them visiting my place.
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Thats great. Here we have wrens, hawks and pidgeons. And some sweet songbird I have yet to identify.
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I need to work on some too, milled a bunch of rough cut 1x and brought it to the work shop last fall. Our blue bird population at the orchard site was down last summer, but that may have been due to the hawks nesting in the tree line.
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Just wanted to mention a surprising (to me) thing I noticed over the last few days. About a week ago I did a lot of winter pruning throughout my orchard. I basically just threw the cuttings on the ground under each tree with plans to get rid of them in a few days. Then we got about 4-5 inches of snow, which isnāt very common here. Well, today I was walking in my orchard and noticed something odd. Almost every single limb from apple trees had the tips and a lot of the bark eaten off by rabbits. In fact, there were countless rabbit tracks around each small pile of apple trimmings- you could tell rabbits had worked the apple cuttings hard and often and the results to the cuttings were very plain to see. However, the peach and plum trimmings had not been touched. Not a singe tip had been eaten off, and no bark was chewed away. SOme of them had fairly good buds on them too- which I would have expected to be a rabbitās delight. Both the apple cuttings and the stone fruit cuttings were spread out all through my orchard, and this same patten held everywhere- they had devoured the apple but left stone fruit limbs untouched.
I know this isnāt some huge revelation and probably has no real practical value, but I had no idea that rabbits preferred apple so much more than peach and plum- even when the latter had more buds. So Iām left wondering if this is always the case or if my place is somehow different. If, in fact, rabbits only like apple, it could make it a lot easier to do winter protection of very small seedlings/trees if I only have to protect apples from rabbits and not worry about peach and plums. But surely Iād have read that if that were the case. ANyway, just an observation.
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They really like pears too. I give bundles of cuttings to a friend who raises rabbits, Iāve even seen fruit cuttings for sale in pet stores. Noticed today they started working on Persimmon seedlings, I guess thatās what they get for sticking up out of the snow.
Come to think of it one harsh winter rabbits ate my raspberries, peach seedlings and all the bark off the bottom of a young apple tree. Trying to save that tree I (fell down the rabbit hole) started grafting.
Moral of the story- if they are hungry they will get around to eating it. Steaks first hot dogs later.
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I love these turtlesā¦the other day I counted 5 up on this logā¦the big guy is always at the topā¦the smaller ones usually dive into the water when they hear me comingā¦this guy clearly doesnāt careā¦
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Came across this dove the other day, it was sitting in one of the mulch bedsā¦at first I thought it might have been injured because it didnāt fly away when I came near it, but it would keep moving out of the wayā¦I know theyāre not supposed to be very smartā¦I guess smart is a relative term when youāre talking about birdsā¦
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