Tag Archives: wildlife cam

Look at Sybil’s beautiful apple blossoms.

The tree is now four years old and last year we had nice handful of apples to enjoy.

Check out these monsters going to town on our cute little tree! One night they were out there chomping away for over ten minutes.

Deer sightings in the yard were rare but for a brief spell they were happening every night.

I love the deer and wildlife in the yard but eating my apple tree is too much.

I bought some deer repellant which I thought would be a joke but bought anyway because: desperation. I also bought a motion controlled sprinkler.

I sprayed the tree, tomatoes, and roses the minute I got home. I also set up the sprinkler but it didn’t work right out of the box and my initial attempts at troubleshooting didn’t get far.

I have a youtube clip bookmarked and intend to give it another try.

Meanwhile: the spray seems to have worked. These two wandered around for a minute, took some unsatisfied nibbles and then left. I don’t think they’ve been back.

Look! The deer are fighting over the fly through feeder.

I lost some of my enjoyment with the fly through feeder because the squirrels have been parking in there face first and not leaving until every corner is licked clean. I tried mixing the bird food with pepper flakes and then they licked every corner clean except for one where they left all the pepper flakes.

The feeder is presently taken down and in the garage. I’ll probably put it back closer to winter.

Here’s a nice hoof print in the middle of the garden. They have enjoyed the full buffet of my backyard.

Bad picture but you can see where some rose bush leaves have been stripped.

And here under the bird feeder where they trampled and made lots of turds. I wish there was a way to let the deer know that in my tradition we find them very yummy.

I’ve been doing this for how long and I still can’t remember how many “c”s in raccoon and “p”s in opossum.

I saw evidence that there was activity around the shed again so I rigged the trail cam on a bucket so I could move it around easier and I set it up by the shed “door.” ALL THIS WAS FROM JUST LAST NIGHT. First, Raccy stopping by, sniffing around, and deciding this isn’t the place for him.

So, I have a ton of photos I intend to post here (hopelessly out of date at this point) and half-written posts in various apps on my phone and scribbled on tiny pieces of paper. I have a stack of print photos sitting here ready for the scanner.

But I am working on other projects and can’t seem to get it together here. Maybe for daily posting in November. (HAHA, sure.)

Then, Skunky returns! I had a clip of 2 of them earlier in the week but not close-ups. I haven’t seen them in the backyard much this summer. I did have a Bunny appearance one night but not a good enough clip to post. Look at that tail!!

Last, Opossum waddles along and also slips through to the shed burrow. I love thinking of them as roommates, exchaning stories about their nights and what sort of goodies they found to eat.

I moved the bucket to the back of the yard. Look at these cuties brawling.

I had a test (regular medical thing, nothing to worry about) at the clinic and while I was in the waiting room I had to fill out a form on a clipboard.

Then while I was waiting I read a book on my phone that involves vampires, were-beings, zombies, and a human nurse who is dealing with some stuff.

When the technician arrived she held out her hand and I was so spaced out, I tried to shake it.

She pulls back so then I offer her my elbow. 😂 So then she offers me her elbow and I realize that DOH! I’m supposed to give her my form.

She takes me back to get into the gown and I somehow space out the entire instructions – couldn’t remember open in the front or the back. Left my underwear on.

I told her: I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m normally an A+ when it comes to following directions.

A hilarious clip of a unhappy customer.

Bob went to a different grocery store that didn’t have my regular yogurt.

I’m going to interrupt my own story for a second to absorb that idea that I am writing a post about yogurt.

When I used to get back from visiting my parents, I marveled at how much time we spent every morning talking about yogurt. Dad’s yogurt. Mom’s yogurt. This yogurt. That yogurt.

Why is there so much talk about yogurt?

And here we are.

Bob bought the store brand plain non-fat Greek yogurt. I can’t figure out why I hate this yogurt so much. It has no taste. It’s like a non-food. It’s not really bad. It’s just like nothing. Every morning I drag my feet when it comes time to make my breakfast. I only have one scoop left. Let’s never buy it again.

Since we’re here, my favorite yogurt is Nancy’s plain, low fat, purple packaging. I don’t like the sweet yogurt.

I also don’t really like Greek yogurt at all but it has more protein and my doctor is after me about eating protein throughout the day. So I occasionally will eat a 2% Greek but my favorite is Nancy’s.

I got a new fly-through birdfeeder and barely the first night and a raccoon was casing the joint, trying to see what it could get. You can barely see in the back ground.

Bad raccoon!

Then it heard (?) smelled (?) Stinky and came dashing over to see what that was all about.

But Stinky stood its ground with super smooth moves.

There was a full-on showdown but it’s not clear whether anyone won. Mostly a lot of hilarious posturing.

Here is a clip of Opossum, slipping under the shed.

I have the whole shed blocked off except that one spot because I don’t want to seem welcoming but I also don’t want anything to die under there. The motion light was supposed to discourage wildlife but apparently they think it’s a handy porch light.

For the record I have seen other animals sniffing around that spot: cats, raccoons.

There’s a lot going on here and I’ll get back to it in a second. Don’t let it distract you from watching the porch light come on and a grand entrance from Skunky.

So, do they live together under there? Are they like The Odd Couple? Do they divide the under shed area into “skunk side” and “opossum side.” Are they friends?

I have so many questions.

Back to the clip, we have Raccy getting a little sip and then when Skunky comes out, it looks like something leaps across the lawn and I kind of think it’s Bunny. But it might be another Raccy.

There were several days where I didn’t get very many clips and I thought things had calmed down. No way. Bunny spent several hours one evening tripping off the camera and Opossum did the same thing the night before last.

Edited to add: according to my dashboard — this is post #3000.

I forgot that when you change the batteries in the trail cam, you have to reset the clock.

The camera went off during the day and took close to 500 clips of squirrels with some birds at the feeders mixed in. That’s not an exaggeration. There were almost 500 clips on the camera card. I went out and made the bed and folded a basket of clothes while they were downloading.

We don’t get a lot of crows in the backyard. I want to be a friend of crows but I don’t want to scare off my blue jay friends so I don’t encourage it.

This is a screenshot sampling of the thumbnails from my 500 clips. I deleted about 492 of them.

I haven’t seen a peep from the blue jays in days. Bob said one dive-bombed his head when he was taking out the compost.

I know they nest in the hedge next to the compost so I bet I know what they’re up to.

What an eco-system we have in that hedge.

via GIPHY

I always say whenever I get a cold, I always get a cough that lasts a month. It feels like I’m exaggerating but it was 4 weeks from the day I went down sick, that I got through my first day without a cough drop. My body just loves to hang on to a cough.

All good for now. But I’m paranoid that my Fisherman’s Friend supply is so low. Only 2 1/2 bags. I need to stock up. Just in case.