A Wild Turkey Poult

In the fall of 2017 a group of five Wild Turkeys were seen around my community, And then they were seen again in the spring, so apparently they overwintered well here. But I am several other interested birders wondered did they mate and have young turkeys or poults?"

 YES! I saw an adult Wild Turkey and one poult this morning along Riverside Drive!

A Red Fox visiting our yard!

I had just arrived back home from my morning drive looking for birds or wildlife to photograph when upon getting out of my car I spied this RedFox in our back yard. As it saw me it ran across the highway and disappeared. I had shouted to my husband,David to come and when he came I explained that I had just seen a Fox!. And suddenly David said, "Here it comes again!" and I turned and saw the fox at the beginning of our 
driveway, but when it saw us it ran away again across the highway

. Thankfully Shakey , our cat ,was inside our house asleep on our bed. Shakey has been outdoors a lot recently during the daytime, But. "NO MORE SHAKEY! Outdoors is off limits to you for the time being!" Foxes are smart and we suspect it knows that there is a cat around here!!
We knew a fox was around as David had seen one in the adjacent meadow a few weeks ago, but we hadn't seen it since, until this morning! We had relaxed a bit and had started letting Shakey out a bit in the past few days! "But no more Shakey! Consider yourself grounded for the next few weeks!!!"
"Probably for the rest of the summer!"

A most amazing caterpillar! For Saturday Critters

On July the 24th, 2018 my husband found this monarch butterfly caterpillar on the leaf of a milkweed plant at Three Tree Creek. We had a small plastic cage with us

for just the possibility that we might be lucky enough to come across one sometime. When we got the caterpillar home we put it in a larger cage along with some free milkweed leaves.

The cage seemed quite roomy and adequate for such a little creature and we had used this cage before in 2014 and we had watched the

process of metamorphosis occur, so we were satisfied with its accommodation!

The next day, July 25th, we again added fresh milkweed leaves to the cage and as it turns out it was lucky that we did!  This little caterpillar had a voracious appetite! By late afternoon I noticed that it had eaten an entire leaf!

so I added another fresh leaf and it had eaten about half of the leaf (you can see the half eaten leaf under the caterpillar!) Interesting that I hadn't observed such a huge appetite previous years when we had also kept a caterpillar.

The next morning (July 26th) I was away until noon and when I returned home I noticed that the caterpillar appeared to be unusually active! It was rather quickly moving around the inside perimeter of the cage. From my previous experience I knew that the time would come when the caterpillar would climb to the top of the cage and ready itself for the next stage by spinning some silk to attach itself to the top of the cage. I anticipated that perhaps it was about time for this to happen, so I placed a small stick inside the cage to allow the caterpillar to climb to the top via the stick and when I checked the caterpillar again, it was laying flat against the top of the cage. Aha! I kept checking for any change before we went to bed for the night.

July 27, I checked early this morning and it was as I had assumed it would be, the caterpillar had attached itself to the top of the cage and it was hanging downward in a "J" shape.  It had now entered the pupa stage!

It was difficult to get a good photo in such a small area, but look carefully and you can see the "J" shaped caterpillar.

Things have been moving very quickly today and at about 3:30 p.m. I looked again and the caterpillar had shed its skin and was now covered with a green shiny, silken looking covering, its chrysalis.

In about 10 days time an adult Monarch butterfly will emerge and then we will return it to a milkweed patch and set it free, wishing it well on its journey to Mexico this fall and winter! 

What an amazing caterpillar this is... so programmed and filled with such intuition and knowledge that it is able to turn itself into a most beautiful and amazing adult Monarch butterfly.

 I am linking today to Eileen's Saturday Critters which can be found at viewingnaturewitheileen.blogspot.ca

Canada geesefamily for Saturday Critters

I was very disappointed this spring, summer as I had not seen any baby geese or ducks.  I was especially anticipating seeing those sweet, little, yellow fluffy Canada Geese babies... but I didn't see any. However today I was fortunate to chance upon a Canada Goose Family as the last two members were crossing the road as my car approached and by then they had all slipped into the water again. This year's young are quite grown by now... into what I call their teenage stage.

 I assume that there was a family of three young with Mamma and Papa along sheparding the young ones across the road and back into the water again.

I am linking today to Eilen's blog , Saturdays Critters which can be found at: viewingnaturewitheileen.blogspot.ca

young raccoon

Sometimes when I see something unusual and fascinating I must learn to take a picture first, no matter how far or distant it is, no matter of it turning out to be not such  a great picture.  Yesterday when I saw what appeared to be a ball of fur lying in the middle of the highway, I was curious!. That is when I should have tried for a picture!  I slowly eased  my car up until I was beside it.  The noise of my window going down was a turning point and a small, curious head appeared from the middle of the ball of fur!! What a delightful surprise that was!

.  The animal quickly stood and made its way across the highway to the roadside grasses.  It was alone and as it walked I could detect a hesitation in its walk as if there was an injury to its legs.  It stopped and looked back at me in my car.

It was a young raccoon as the black mask and striped tail were unmistakable features

As it reached the roadside grasses it appeared to be more comfortable in its surroundings. This young raccoon had obviously lost its mother somehow.  I did not detect any evidence of an adult raccoon having perished on the highway.  Whatever had happened to it, it seems as if the young kit was waiting for it on the highway.  The life of nature's young is very precarious, be it danger of being hit while crossing s highway or the loss of its main food source,: its mother. I was glad that I had frightened it off the highway as the traffic there on a Saturday morning was fairly frequent and what a dangerous location the young raccoon had chosen to have a nap!

"Fair well little raccoon ", Maybe I shall frequent that area for the next few days to oust you from sleeping on the middle of the highway if I encounter such an action again.  Be safe and lets hope you and your momma are reunited again soon..

Monarch Butterfly for Saturdsy Critters

For several years now we have been trying to grow Milkweed plants.  We have been able to grow the green leafy portion of the milkweed but up until this year we have not been able to produce anything on our own that flowers.  A few years ago we have noticed a Milkweed self starter plant growing in front of our garage step where the asphalt surface of our drive way meets at our step. This year the self starter Milkweed has blossoms on it! The plant is very hardy as I almost killed it the other day as I was getting my walker out of the garage and I knocked the walker over onto the Milkweed and the plant lay on the ground beside our garage step.  I picked up the stalk and carefully straightened it and it is still thriving!!!! thank goodness for that.

Above is the thriving self-starter Milkweed plant.

the most glorious event happened a couple of days ago!!  A Monarch Butterfly visited our Milkweed plaant.  The butterfly did not stop long enough for me to be able to get a good picture of it! and it was too hot at 34 degrees Celsius,  for me to sit outdoors and wait for it to return, however here are a few Monarch butterfly pictures of when it was buzzing around our own Milkweed plant!

                 

I am linking this morning to Eileen's Saturday Critters which can be found at  viewingnaturewitheileen.blogspot.ca

Have a most wonderful cool weekend everyone.

more deer

I took an early morning drive this first Sunday morning in July and saw a red Fox and a female white tailed deer in a meadow

.  the deer was feeding very close to the road and when I stopped my car beside it, it didn't run off. I thought it was an unusual pose to see that its ears were turned down  As I was leaving I saw more deer in the meadow further back and they were both looking in my direction.