Wildlife Wednesday Vol 2

Here we are back with another Wildlife Wednesday! No jibber jabber, let's just get at 'er.

A couple walks locally weren't very productive. Lots of Red-winged Blackbirds and American Robins have appeared but that is so 2 weeks ago. Nice to see and hear them, just not as thrilling like those first days. One small woodlot had everyone screaming away. I wondered what could be upsetting them all so much. Hawk? Owl? Maybe a Fox? Nope, just this guy.

Pretty kitty but the woods are no place for him. I've seen quite a few cats here over the years and most eventually end up on the main road in a bloody mess. I'm not going to get into what they can and do to the bird population being all free roaming like this Grrrrrr... But don't fool yourself into thinking I don't care about these animals' well being either. I tried to help one a few years back. Actually blogged about it too. See here. Just got to warn you, it's not for the emotional types.

Another wood lot was also eerily quiet. Cold dismal day keeping everyone low perhaps? My walk ended with only one sighting.

I was finding life at home to be more productive.

Topper showed up late in the week.

Two other Skunks were present that same night, both with big white stripes. I managed to photograph one trying to squeeze through a hole in the lattas under the shed.

A Raccoon clung to one of the trees at the fence line the same evening. I recon he's met the tail end of one of these Skunks in the past.

I left for work a little earlier one day so I could go for a stroll in a newly discovered conservation area less than 10 mins from the Pepsi plant. I'd only been to the park once since learning about it last fall. I had the craziest visual encounter with a young Red-tailed Hawk (thanks for the tips on how to tell it was a young'un Sandra). The Hawk was hunting Squirrels. The bird flew from tree to tree, running up and down branches, diving to the ground after them and even tried some clever tactics like blocking them from getting to their leafy nests high in the trees. I also watched the Hawk land on a few of the Squirrel nests, pouncing on them like he was trying to flush one out, or perhaps break open the nests. The bird had little concern over my presence along the path, so it was great to be in the moment and watch this. I did not see him make a successful catch but there was 6 hours of day light left and no shortage of Squirrels here. A few photos of this unique encounter.

Looking up.

Looking down.

The chase.

Where's the Hawk?  Where's the Squirrel?  Click on the photo to make it full screen if you can't see them.

My favorite capture from the outing.

A few more Snowy Owl encounters after work this past week. Most recently being on the 12th.

What's really cool is this encounter on March 8th. Thanks to that Facebook memories, I saw one on the same road sign on March 8th in 2017. Just the opposite end.

Crap record 2018 shot.

I assure that is a Snowy on the left.

One year ago.

Angie and I got some hand feeding Chickadee time in. Always a fun thing to do.

Angie also got to finally meet our new Pigeon visitor. She's named him Charlie. I've not been wanting to give him a name but ended up calling him that on the weekend so I guess he is Charlie now. He seems to show up around the noon hour most days.

I had a reunion with an old friend who probably deserves a blog of his own soon. I've been seeing this Raccoon for a number of years now in a wood lot around the corner from our house. It's been a while.

Lastly, I had another walk through Lambton Woods. It wasn't nearly as productive with birds this particular morning but it was also lacking people. This Mourning Dove posed nicely in the light snow fall.

The oddball of the walk was a woman I observed hugging some trees. It looked to me that any tree that was getting hammered on by a Woodpecker, she went up and hugged that tree. Nothing strange there, right?

Well, that's it for this week. I know I pushed myself a little more this time around, trying to make this WW thing happen and be something worth blogging. There's stuff out there in our city, and your city or town too, all you gotta do is go outside, look and listen.

Cheers to those returning for Wildlife Wednesday! And Whisky Wednesday.