Wildlife: Still and Moving

We are just the caretakers of the Would-Be Farm. Oh, we pay taxes and insure against disaster, but the land is its own, really.  As the springtime photos reveal.

Even the game cameras have some autonomy. For instance, the crossroads camera chose to take video this winter. 

Ooh, look, bobcat!

A few new players appear on camera this year.  Like Pekania pennanti, the second-largest member of the weasel family. Commonly known as a fisher-cat, this somewhat alarming creature goes about three feet long with retractable claws and sharp teeth. We are grateful to know they tend to be shy by nature.   

Likely the same fisher on a different camera.

The fisher, as I learned fifteen seconds ago, is the rare predator that feasts upon the porcupine. 

"Nature red in tooth and claw," as Tennyson wrote (I grant you, of the 133 cantos of In Memoriam, this single bit is all I retain).

Our largest predator is Ursus americanus. The male Black bear has a range of something like 25-50 square miles, so it's not a surprise to see these big guys popping up on camera from time to time.

Wish the camera had chosen to continue rolling film a bit longer.

Around the corner, on a still camera, more than one bear showed up in the frame...

The stars of the show for me this year are the pair of foxes that are frisking about all over the Farm.

I suspect the shortage of coyotes this year (possibly the result of the natural 7-year cycle combined with the neighbors' willingness to speed that cycle along) has encouraged the foxes to be out and about.

I have high hopes for fox kits this spring.

Love is in the air for others as well. 

There's more, but I have wood to cut and chapters to re-write (squee! the new book!). 

Until next time...