Turkey

I was going through my pictures when I found this one from a few weeks back. I had fully intended to share it, but it got lost in the shuffle known as my life.

Anyhoo, I saw the turkey strolling across my neighbors lawn as I was leaving my street for some errand. For once I had my camera with me in the car and I was able to stop and take a few pictures before to made its way back into the woods. I don't get to see Our neighborhood's resident flock of turkeys, so it is a big deal when I do spot them. I find them to be far more interesting than the huge herd of deer that I get to see pretty much every day.

Cold

Cold, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

The last time we saw this fellow it was reasonably nice out. Since Thursday we have had a high in the upper 70s over the weekend followed by the wintery mix of doom. I don't know if it is the same blue bird, but it is in the same spot and looking a bit put off with the return of winter.

I have to agree, I'm tired of the brutal weather pattern of late. We get one or two days of almost 8o degrees and then bam, winter is back. As I right I can hear the patter of rain/freezing rain/sleet on the skylights. The schools already have declared a two hour today, a slight improvement over this morning's 5:30 am announcement via phone.

I'm done with winter.

Blue Bird

Blue Bird, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

Blue birds are not the most common bird in our backyard and they always catch my eye. Particularly when they land on the bright orange frame of our "bounce back."

It's not the clearest picture, I really need to clean my camera's lens, but it is good enough. I was happy that our bright blue visitor lingered long enough for me to fetch my camera. Normally they just flit through and not perch for any length of time. Maybe it was the lack of activity, canine and human,in our yard that made this picture possible.

Chrysalis

Chrysalis, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

Not so long ago I shared a picture of a black swallowtail caterpillar in my parsley. Another one showed up the next day and I have been keeping tabs on them for the past week and a half. One of them went missing and I discovered what happened to it. According to this site, the chrysalis resembles a stick and I must agree. It blended in so well with the tomato stake I had in the pot that I almost missed it.

Supposedly it will emerge as a butterfly in about ten days, unless it is in diapause. If it is in diapause, it will over winter in the chrysalis form and emerge in springtime. With the brisk weather we have had the past few days, my money is on spring. I'll try to protect it until then.

Suburban Deer

Suburban Deer, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

Friday I stepped out on the deck and saw our deer were out in the backyard. I say our deer because this is the family grouping we regularly see, a couple of does with their fawns and, most recently, a buck or two.  And amazingly enough the deer did not spook, nor did the dogs wake up. I was able to slide back inside and grab my camera.

I was able to spend a good chunk of time taking pictures and moving about on the deck. The trick was to move slowly and quietly and have the camera on quite mode.

A quick aside here, the quite mode is my default. I really dislike all the bloops. beeps, and bleats digital cameras make. All I want to the simple sound of the shutter release and nothing more.

My Backyard, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

Anyhoodle, we have a lot of deer. I still think they are beautiful, but they are a nuisance. We can't have much in the way of flowering plants, they are a road hazard in the neighborhood, and they drive the dogs crazy. At this point I call them the tall rats. Even when they nicely line up for a group photo. Well except for the little guy, but kids are like that.

Handsome Fellow

Handsome Fellow, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

Rebecca announced today that there was another large caterpillar out on the deck. This one, however, wasn't as large or as gross as the previous denizen of our deck garden and was in the parsley, not the tomatoes.

Intrigued, I grabbed my camera and followed Rebecca out to the deck. It took her a moment, but she was able to find the caterpillar in question.

About an inch and a half long, it was a substantial sized critter. After a little bit of research I found out that it is the caterpillar form of the  Black Swallowtail butterfly. Interestingly enough it is also known as the parsley worm and that is exactly where Rebecca found it.

I hope it survives the upcoming winter because it's a bit late for butterflies around here and this is one of my favorites.

Tiny Lizard

tiny lizard, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

Jacob spotted this little guy the other day. To give a bit of scale, that is a nailhead on the left.

I have only briefly seen this particular species (Eastern Fence Lizard) before, most likely due to its diminutive size. I'm used to seeing the five lined skinks, particularly in the juvenile form with the electric blue tail. This little guy is not nearly as showy with its grey scaly skin.

However it is very cute

Well Hello There

Tomato Hornworm, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

Yesterday I was breathlessly informed by some of my children that there was an absolutely enormous caterpillar om one of our tomato plants. This warranted further investigation. I had my suspicions on what they found, so a quick trip outside was in order.

They were not exaggerating, it was huge, possibly the biggest hornworm I have ever seen.

In my previous life I was a lab tech, one of the labs I worked in had tobacco hornworms. From what I learned we had a tomato hornworm, which is very similar to the tobacco. Both will feed on tomato plants, so it's no guarantee that you have tomato hornworm on a tomato plant. I also learned that these were the critters that had been eating the odd tomato. I had blamed the squirrels, but now I know better.

Oh Deer

Deer, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

When I say we have a lot of deer in the neighborhood, this is what I'm talking about.

Normally we have just a couple of does and several fawns (one doe always seems to have twins, it must be something in the water). Very rarely will there be a buck. This year, however, we have seen a buck fairly often with our resident does. This small family grouping is part of a larger herd that I was able to photograph last week.

The photo quality is terrible, but in my defense it was twilight and the deer were not going to stay still and let me get close enough for the flash to work.  That said, you can plainly see the buck, he is on the right side of the herd. Also this may look like a lot of deer, but quite a few had left by the time I got outside with the camera. This is just a small portion of the deer popution in my neighborhood.

So yeah, gardening is kind of pointless with this amount of deer in the area.

Worrisome

worried Dell, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

Dell had a very tough start to the week. Monday morning I got the dogs ready for their big walk around the neighborhood. As always they wee raring to go and dashed ahead of me as we went through the garage to the side door. While I was getting a poopy bag from our collection of plastic shopping bags we keep in the garage for such purposes, the red boys whipped around the van to wait at the door. I wasn't very far behind them and soon I was at the back of the van only to be shocked at the sight be for me.

A two foot long copperhead snake was coiled directly behind my van, pressed tightly against the closed overhead garage door.

Dell was nowhere to be seen and snake was pacing about om the other side of the snake. He was clearly interested, but oddly silent and wary. After repeatedly telling John to "Leave It" I got him to stand down. Now I had a puzzle, how to get the dog away without either or us getting bit or losing track of the snake. As I surveyed the assorted tools and brick-a-back available I settled on our garden spade, it was just the right size to cover up the snake enabling me to call over John.

Once I had John in hand I put him back in the house. I had to off the snake and there was no way I could safely do that with a loose dog such as John. He would pretty quickly figure out my intentions and would rush in and "help." Once the dog was secure I had to decided on my instrument of doom. I settled on the spade, again, due to it's relatively sharp edge and long handle. The first whack was a failure, but with the second I nailed it right behind the head and thus I had an exsnake. I scooped its mortal remains into a bag and gingerly tied it up and put it on top of the trash can.

At this point I saw a very frightened Dell. He refused to go around the back of the van, I had to coax him around the front amongst the bikes. The poor boy was limping, this front left leg being held awkwardly out from his body. He clearly had been hit by the snake in the leg.

Dang.

I called the vet and told them what was happening and I would be coming in. Having gone through this with Crunch (he got nailed in the ear) I knew it was life threatening, but he would still need treatment. At the last minute I tossed the dead snake in the back of the van. I was 95% sure, but it would be could to get confirmation.

The one funny part of this whole ordeal was when I was at the vet's office. I asked the vet if he wanted to see the snake and got an enthusiastic yes. Once I brought it in the vet confirmed the species and gave an impromptu lecture on copperheads to all the techs and myself. When he was done he asked if I wanted it back.

Ah no, he was welcome to keep it.

Dell then spent a miserable day at home, barely able to hobble about. He did perk up and dinner, but shortly afterwards staggered into his crate for the night. The next day, Tuesday) Dell was much improved with just a minor limp that diminished as the day wore on.  Buy Wednesday he was pretty much back to normal.

However, he is very leery of walking past the back of the van.

Turtle Crossing

Turtle Crossing, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

Twice this week the dogs and I have encountered rather large turtles during the morning dog walk. Both times the turtles were red eared sliders and were roughly the size of a bike helmet. I'm pretty sure they were different turtles since Thursday's turtle had a scar on it's shell, most likely from a boat's propeller, and today's turtle had an unblemished shell.

Both times the dogs completely lost their collective biscuit. Once they caught sight of the turtles they were howling and lunging against their leashes. Thus I couldn't get very close for a proper turtle picture. The closer I would get the more obnoxious the dos would become, driving the turtle away far us as fast as it could.

Hopefully the two I saw will not return to the roads and stay low. It would be a pity to have them picked off by a car.

Special Delivery

mailbox nest, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

Once again a pair of birds have taken residence in the newspaper/junk flier slot beneath our mailbox. this time around we have bluebirds instead of the usual wren that we have had the past few years.

Sadly one egg has been lost, we found it on the road, beneath the mailbox. Dell of course ate it, but it was clearly cracked before the dog gobbled it up. At least one egg is left, so we hope that the nest hasn't been abandoned.

It's a good thing we don't get a daily paper.

Busy Bee

Busy Bee, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

The bees have been all over the wisteria blooms in our backyard. Bumbling from bloom to bloom they make quite a racket, a low buzz can be heard when you step outside and off the deck.

The bees are so intent on their task at hand, collecting nectar, they never really noticed me nor my camera. I was able to pretty much shove my camera in their direction and snap away.

Silly old bees.

Artist of the Week: Helpful

Helpful, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

It's that time of year again when I vacuum the crab apple tree and Nate by dint of his helpfulness is this week's artist.

Nate had been bugging me to clear out the tent caterpillars in my beloved  crab apple tree. I've been putting it off until the flowers were past their prime and no longer attracting bees and yellow jackets. Tree vacuuming is not high precision work and I don't want to risk getting myself stung by an irate insect.

Sunday was the day and Nate wanted to help. I got him all set and let him have at it. He did a great job, by climbing the tree he was able to get to quite a few spots that I could not reach. He found the whole process very entertaining and is more than happy to tackle this job again. It looks like I have an eager assistant.

Suburban Graffiti

fork, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

Or when middle class kids go crazy.

Yesterday while heading out on some errand or other I noticed a large amount of plastic-ware jammed in the ground by the entrance to my subdivisions pool and tennis courts.Intriguing as it was, I didn't have time to stop and take a good look. That would have to wait until thge next day.

This morning on the dog walk I did have time to stop and try to suss it all out. After a few moments it hit me, only forks were used. Ah, it spells out FoRK. Admittedly the F looks a bit more like a P and the O is tiny with all of the forks placed  tine end into the ground. My guess is that it was done hurriedly in the night by more than one teen. The end result I find to be very funny. The only way to improve it would be to have the forks spell out spoon.

It'll be interesting to see how long it lasts.

Project MCP: Spooky

Webbed, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

The final challenge for this month is "spooky," a fitting subject for the close of October.

I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do until this morning. It was damp and misty morning with the sky  brooding grey in advance of the upcoming "frankenstorm." Hooray, moody weather was just what I needed.

On the morning dog walk I kept an eye out for spooky subject matter. About halfway along I noticed little spiderwebs in the grass. Perfect, the webs had trapped some of the mist and were clearly visible. I resolved to search my own yard once I was back home.

Weaver, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

I love the top picture, with the dark tress in the background it looks downright menacing. I had to mist the web a bit with a spray bottle to accentuate the web. It had dried out and was only faintly visible.

The bottom picture, however, is my favorite. The soccer goal netting in the background really adds to the composition. I had a hard time selecting pictures and in the end I decided both were worthy for submission.

The Unexpected

John and Dell, like all dogs, have different barks for different events or things. The soft whine when they want to be fed, big blustery barks when deer are espied on the lawn, the bark-bark-bark when chasing squirrels, and so on. I can pretty much guess what is going on by the type of bark I hear.

Today I got to hear the "Oh my gosh what is this I want to get it but I'm not sure if it's safe" bark from John while I was puttering about. It didn't quite sound like "I've found a snake" so I wasn't in a big hurry to pull on my boots and tromp down into the woods and find out what all the fuss was about. Eventually I made my way to John with a leash in hand since I wasn't too keen on having to carry a squirming 28 lb mass of dachshund back to the house.

turtles, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

It wasn't too hard to find John and I was happy to see that it was not a snake. It was in fact a couple of Eastern Box turtles and, well, they were very busy. First priority was to leash John, who emboldened by my presence to charge at the turtles. Once I had the dog under control I took stock of the situation. I was very glad I had my phone stuck in my pocket so I could capture for all the world to see what one friend called "a very private moment."

Once back inside, with a now very sulky dog, I looked up the mating habits of the Eastern Box Turtle. It turns out that the breeding season lasts from April to October, with the eggs lain late in the season overwintering in the underground nests. Who knew dog ownership could be so educational.

Watermelon Butterfly

watermelon butterfly, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

I found this picture from a few weeks ago on my hard drive. I don't know why I never posted it before, but now I have.

I love this particular species of butterfly, the velvety black wings with the bright blue spots make a striking combination. This particular fellow is a bit battered, but still able to fly.

Originally there were three butterflies, however they fluttered away by the time I came back with the camera. I'm glad I was able to capture this one. It took several tries before I got a picture with the wings down/open. Thank you butterfly for staying put.

Something Extra With the Paper

Newspaper holder, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

This is the newspaper slot below our mailbox. Nothing fancy, just grey boards nailed together with the mailbox attached to the top. For the past few years we haven't gotten the paper, the local paper is not that exciting and I can never keep up. So excepting he occasional flyers promoting various lawn, home repair, and house keeping services the slot remains empty.

Although sometimes in the spring it is not.

A few days ago I saw a bird flitting about the mailbox. I didn't think much of it until I realized it was nesting season. I peered inside and could see way in the back a soft little nest of moss, down, and lawn clippings.

Stealth Nest, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

Our little bird tenants were back.

A few years ago a nest appeared, but sadly the chicks didn't survive. Some sort of predator got to them before they had fully fledged. From what I could see the chicks in there right now are still quite young, if you look carefully you can just make out a beak. There are at least three chicks in there, maybe four.

I'll try to keep tabs on them, but in a low key manner. I don't want to overly disturb the parents. At least they are used to our daily collecting of the mail. Hopefully this brood will do better than the previous one. It's fun having a secret nest under the mailbox.

Goose Invader

Goose, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

Yesterday Dell and John successfully repelled an alien invader on our property.

The red boys were peaceably lounging about inside when they set up an almighty fuss. I initially thought it was a squirrel was cavorting on our deck  and was all set to let loose the hounds  when I saw the goose standing on our lawn. This was a picture worthy moment and I grabbed my camera. In that short space of time the goose settled down on our lawn. I had to take my picture through the window since I knew the second I opened the door the dogs would fly out and the goose would fly away.

In the twelve years we have lived here this was the first time a goose has shown up in our backyard. There is a pond in our development, but it's far away from our property. We have friends with lake front property and the geese are an awful nuisance, honking about and pooping everywhere. The last thing I want is another creature pooping in our yard. So I was happy that John and Dell, aka home land security, did their job with a great deal of zeal and noise. I'm not sure why the goose stopped by, but I know it will not be returning.