Wildlife from the Deck

Wildlife from the Deck –

The bird feeder near our deck often gets our attention. There are several squirrels that think it is a squirrel feeder but luckily they share pretty well. We never get tired of watching the sparrows, Towhees, finches, flickers, goldfinches, junkos, jays, sap suckers and others that visit our feeders. We have sighted a few hawks, Osprey, one bald eagle and several turkey vultures flying by our deck.

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Pileated woodpecker checking a tree

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A couple of raccoons frequent our area and sometimes sleep in nearby trees, but as they are most active at night they are not as easy to watch. When we visit the nearby wildlife refuge we enjoy larger birds like cranes, herons, tundra swans, hawks, an occasional bald eagle, and many varieties of ducks. We keep looking for the river otters which are in the area but have not yet spotted them. The beavers and muskrats are fun to watch, too.

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Frequent visitors seen from our sun room

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Our neighbor’s free-range chickens were often spotted near our sun room but when he started working the soil and planting his organic garden the chickens are usually kept in the barn. It has been a pleasure to spend our first spring in this house and observe all of the different flowers and shrubs spring to life. We have been documenting plants and doing some relocating. The apple tree that had suffered from years of neglect received a major pruning and seems to have survived. We will have to wait and see if we get very many apples.

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Two racoons getting ready to spend the day in the tree...