Spycams

It's a cheap thrill, ultimately.

For the cost of a couple of pizzas, you too could set up game cameras and watch how the wildlife is wildly living. 

If you've been around the website long enough, you know I like to do at least an annual report of the on-camera doings at the Would-Be Farm.

It's a joy each spring to see what creatures are out there. The usual suspects are often good for a candid pic: a deer very close up, a coyote taking a whizz, a gang of raccoon hoodlums striding through the scene.

But as years click by I crave novelty: The Kingfisher leaving the water after making a strike. 

A daylight photo of a bear that looks kinda extra disreputable. This fella knocked over a couple of bluebird houses (and didn't even find the jelly-bean-sized eggs). I suspect he will not be moving on to the next round of Survival.

And the arty photos, like the dinosaur-like vultures going at some leftovers.

Or a downpour setting off the motion detector on the beaver pond

​Or the raven and the vulture sharing a snack alfresco.

A bobcat is always good for a second look. Handsome and crabby, I suspect.

Please note that the dates at the bottom margin of the photos are proof of time dilation in the real world. Or possibly evidence that we don't always set the clock correctly. 
And because they are our largest resident, some big beautiful bear action:

For scale, the lower corner of the cow sign clocks in at a bit under 4 feet, and the lens of the camera does foreshorten a LOT.  So 300+ pounds of hair and hunger? Thank goodness their evolution strategy, it's theorized, leaned heavily on the Flight rather than Fight during the last Ice Age. According to the theory*, this is why we don't see American Lions, Sabertooth anythings, Direwolves and Cave bears. Those megafauna leaned into Fighting, which may have led them right into the firepower of a certain bipedal humanoid species.

*https://bear.org/bear-facts/why-are-black-bears-so-timid/
​https://phys.org/news/2024-07-evidence-mounting-humans-responsible-extinction.html

Yet arguably even more intimidating, and for sure more aggressive, I bring you a squirrel.