Bill..those howling coyotes were LOUD!..it's quiet here and I would definitely hear them if that ever happens..

Dean..Lol..we've tried to stop buying nuts but it doesn't last..once I bought a 25 lb bag of "shelled peanuts" at a feed store..not much cheaper really..we saved about $1.25..our squirrels are friendly and come close..I put some on the sidewalk and I swear he looked at the nuts and then at me like "what the heck is this?"..he was used to Aldi dry roasted unsalted peanuts..after those were gone we went back to Aldi..

First time I heard the coyotes go through the yard it was a bit frightening.

We fed birds for a couple of winters but the more we fed, the more birds came. Then the rough neck birds like blue jays and gross beaks would start running all the other birds off. We just figured it's survival of the fittest and let them fend for themselves. :-)

Gotta love the wild life....here's one of the marshes a short walk from my house....The woods surrounding the marsh are alive with fox screams...we don't get many around the houses during the day but at night they sure come alive...

alley_cat..what a peaceful place..where do you live?..

You can't feed too early or too late around here or your guests will be bears. Neighbors have had their bird feeders tore off the posts and destroyed by bruins looking for a snack, usually in the fall but sometimes spring.

Hi Nicholsworth, I live in Calvert county Md...Been here most my 65 yrs....
I live on a strip of land with the bay on one side and the marshes on the other...
Here's the bay across the street...

Bill..I love wildlife but would draw the line at bears!..I wouldn't be feeding birds at your house either..we don't feed late..we never fill the feeder..it has rectangular stones at the bottom inside the food bin to keep the seed/peanuts out on the side trays..we put the food on the feeder trays and the sidewalk..small amounts 2 or 3 times a day..

alley_cat..awesome views..what a beautiful place..there's a reservoir around the corner from us..we live within walking distance of Eagle Creek Park..if you have time look it up..I think that's why we have wildlife visitors..

Hi Nicholsworth, I did look you up.:)
beautiful location! Also loved the raptor photos in your prior post!
Awesome!

thanks alley_cat!..we've been here 15 years in March..we love living in a forest..

Going through some old pics from my 'country life'. :-)

There would be 25 together at times.

October snow:

Then there’s the coywolf. I don’t feed my cats outdoors. First they eat the cat food then they eat the cat. I’ve noticed a decrease in deer population and feral cat populations lately.

Coywolves

Or not coywolves

This was spotted in northern mn about 3 years ago. ;0))

Secure site: https://www.parkrapidsenterprise.com/entertainment/499105-animal-planet-%C2%AD-tv-show-asks-does-bigfoot-roam-northern-minnesota

There was a set of albino twins this spring. Here's one of my grandkids trying to sneak up on one...

Albino deer would make all the car insurance companies ecstatic!

zkathy..coywolf was a new name for me..

Bill..I saw a bigfoot in my backyard too Lol..

alley_cat..did your grandkid get close?..

We thought we saw a chupracopra in our back yard

but realized it was a mange coyote

we are too far from Mexico anyway

ron

plantkiller..chupracopra?..I learned something new from you too..

There's 'Piebald' deer around the country also, you just never see them, or hardly ever.

Piebald Deer (secure site).

Bill..Piebald Deer?..never heard of 'em..I'm seeing new things on this thread..

I've only seen 3 piebalds in my life...
One had a poachers arrow in it about 5 yrs ago and luckily survived. It was spotted again a couple months later. Sadly their life expectancy is short . Here is one from last summer one of my daughters drove by and got a photo of.

chupracabra it is spelled " the goat sucker "

couple years ago a sheriff got dashcam vid.

google it

ron

Bill, That is a real interesting article...
I remember how I felt when I found the one with an arrow.....I was really hoping it would make it. Seemed like such a special animal. I was within 15 ft of the deer.
I was elated when a friend called many weeks later to tell me he had seen her and she was getting along fine.

There's an area in Wisconsin they seem to be more plentiful. One deer seen there was mostly white on one side and mostly brown on the other.

Some states they're protected.

Piebald is also a characteristic of domestication. You could argue that the more visible the deer the more likely it will succumb to predators or the more likely it will be seen on the side of the road and avoided by motorists. Win one, lose one.

The deer are most vulnerable to predators, in my neck of the woods, is late winter when the snow is deep and the sun is strong enough to partially melt the snow on the surface. This causes a hard crust to form, a couple inches deep, as it refreezes during the night.

This deer with their weight and hard pointy hooves cannot stay on top of the crust so they break through with maybe 2-3 feet of powder underneath. The wolves and coyotes, with their soft padded feet, run on top of the crust without breaking through, giving them the advantage as the deer quickly tire out, trying to run away.

The other danger is in the late spring, when hungry bears prey on the fawns.

Mr Black Snake sunning in spring on dawn redwood branch:

And, Mr Turtle:

Great shot of the snake!

That looks like a younger 'Snapper'.

Not a great picture but a Pheasant walked east to west along my tree line at the end of the yard yesterday. It doesn't show on the picture but a neighbors cat was ~100 ft. in the background (left side out of view) like a statue, hoping the bird would walk in his direction. By the time the wife took the picture, the bird had already walked broadside to the cat and I think aware of the cat by now, started picking up the pace and was heading west away from the cat. :-)

pretty..

Really like the pheasant. When I was a kid (many, many moons ago) on the farm here in Michigan they were everywhere. Seldom see any anymore.

as much wildlife that I've seen I've never seen a pheasant..

We don't see pheasants very often around here either, sometimes along the roadside when out in the country.

Now that snow is melting and the ground is opening up again, the wild animals are foraging for something to eat. Could explain why he was here.

While on a walk this morning...
'Snowy Egret'

Nice shots.

tj

another

Buffalo. :-))

A ranch I go past between where I live and my land in the country. A good 100 yds away so not a great pic using my phone cam. Around 200 head.

The dominant bull (white mane).

Meals on wheels...

meals on heels

ron

or spurs

Bill, love the pheasant. I grew up in the Philadelphia area and we had woods on two sides of our property. We would see pheasants in the lower yard most mornings. So cool.

Nice turkey, alley-cat. Feeding on those sweetgum burrs? :)

Al..not a "poor image" at all!..great photos..tell us how you tamed a chickadee..they're so adorable..

Al..wow!..they're even more tame than what I was thinking..I have an ideal backyard to try this..it's roomy and wooded with a nice bird population..some neighbors have feeders but they're not close to my backyard..and I have all of the birds you mentioned..my husband should be the "server"..I could take the pics..he's a softie when it comes to animals..actually both of us are but I'm afraid I might get nervous and make a sudden move..or maybe I'd be calm because they're so adorable and I'd be enamoured of them..thanks for describing this method..I'll let you know if we have success..we have tame squirrels..they're a pain in the you know what!..

I used to "tame" hummingbirds. I'd sit in chair next to feeder a couple times a day for them to get used to me, then put the feeder in my lap. Didn't take too long before they were feeding out of it (cautiously), and eventually one or two would be poking/probing around my hair and ears or hovering right in front of my face "looking" at me. It would get to the point of being hard to keep from laughing...

Cooper's hawk in the yard a couple days ago.