Observing and Reporting on our Backyard!
Chip & Quincy running in the big snow!
We were snowed in today, no way to get dug out in time for work. Both of our jobs called off work. Steve and I stayed home and watched GroundHog Day after trying to dig out for a couple hours.
Later in the day, Steve cut some dog trails for Chip & Quincy
Steve was going to let the dogs out the back door today, but noticed that all of the squirrels took off at the same time. He looked around to see if he could see a hawk or something but didn’t notice anything. He put the dogs on their tie outs and they both immediately started barking and carrying on. That is when we spotted the fox. I never could get a great picture of him, he stayed on the other side of a pile of brush. Here is the best one that I had. This was the closest we’ve seen a fox. We’ve seen a pair down the road about 2 miles before though.
We had a winter storm here on Monday night. Tuesday morning I was leaving for work, and 4 ducks were in the end of the driveway. We are about a mile from the river and other sources of water. We see waterfowl flying throughout the year, but rarely in winter. Most of the water close to the house freezes over in the winter, so it was odd to see the ducks.
They came up by the house and walked all around. Steve’s friend had snowplowed these trails through the deep snow and they just walked all around the trails. Steve was home and took a bunch of pictures of them.
What a lot of changes for one week?! A new dog and now four ducks!
It was hard to keep the dogs away from the them. Quincy did chase after them and caught up to them once. She seemed curious about the and smelled them. That’s how we learned their wings were clipped. They couldn’t fly away from here. She just sniffed them though and went into her play stance like she was going to play with the ducks!
They came just a few feet from the back door!
We did give in and feed them some corn eventually. They seem to be staying here, th
ey’ve been here for a week now.
We are trying to find a home for them. They are just camped out in the front of our house by the road. We have a stand of trees near the ditch and they are somewhat protected against the wind. I don’t know how long they are going to stay, but so far they seem to be doing okay. You can see them here marching right past our feeder area.
Steve took the picture to the right. I really think it turned out nice!
It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged. For New Year’s I thought I should write some kind of blog and get back on track with this.
Update on Shadow (my found Plott Hound): We ended up not keeping Shadow. No one ever contacted me from the Michigan CoonHound Rescue despite my repeated emails, phone calls, facebook requests and Tweets trying to get their attention. I wasn’t really impressed by that. I honestly needed some help with that dog and I didn’t want anything bad to happen to her. I think she was mostly a Plott Hound. My Dad used to breed Walker Hounds and one of his buddies is still really into hounds of all kinds. He ended up taking her. He was all set up to have the hounds. He had 3 in his pack already. He hunts Bear, Raccoons and Cats with them. She turned out not to be into Bear or Cat hunting, but he is going to keep her around for the raccoons. At least she is well fed, cared for and safe. I never could have kept her from running in our unfenced yard.
Update on Quincy (My beautiful Basset Hound): Quincy has been doing really great. She is completely housebroken and spends all of her at home days now free of the crate. We ended up taking the crate out of the house and she hasn’t seemed to mind. She still gets some crate time at Doggie Day Care. Steve and I are considering getting her a new basset hound friend in the spring from the same breeder (if at all possible).
Update on the House: Steve and one of his friends covered the crawlspace in a 6 mil plastic. They used spray on adhesive to adhere it to the walls of the foundation and allow any moisture to run off and prevent it from getting stuck under the plastic. This completely solved our moisture problem in the house. It is now almost too dry!
Update on The Backyard: We’ve been keeping up with the feeders, but I haven’t had time in my schedule to participate in Feeder Watch (no 2 days in a row to be able to watch). We are seeing the usual suspects. Also, we were observing at least one bat every night until pretty late in the fall, so I am pleased to report that our local bat population seems not to have changed. Steve and a couple of his friends saw a mole in the backyard above ground this fall. That was our one notable sighting. Squirrel numbers are down from last year (only about 4 – 6 per day instead of 10 – 18). I have still been seeing pheasant and turkeys, but not in the backyard, just in the neighborhood.
Update on Steve & I: I am going to rededicate myself to this blog and some outdoor photography. I’ve been admiring a lot of other people’s nature photos on Facebook and resolve to take more of my own. We also are going on a New Year’s diet and hopefully going to get a little more active, hopefully that will include spending more time in the backyard.
So, how have your new year’s been? Any new interesting winter bird sightings? More posts to come (with pictures!).
Merry Christmas to you and your family from all of us!
Rain & Quincy
February 1st thru the 8th:
One day this week, Steve found a kill pile from a hawk eating a dove. Well, actually, Quincy led him to it. It was on the side of the garage near the woods.
Also, we spotted a Squirrel with some type of shedding disease, possibly mange or it may have been attacked by something.
Our friends, Jeremy and Steve took down the largest maple tree in the front yard near the septic system. It had to go because of its roots interfering with the septic system. We are sorry to lose the shade, but we wanted to get it out before the birds began building nests.
We went from having record low temperatures to record high temperatures.
We have lots of old seed on the ground now that all of the layers of snow have melted. We really need to get out and clean up the yard.
Steve spent 2 hours yesterday snowblowing and shoveling. I’m from Michigan and I love the snow, but this is getting to be a bit much! Quincy chased lots of birds while Steve was outside with her.
It was 27 degrees at 2pm! It has been so cold this winter!
Jan 11th thru the 15th, it was COLD! Lowest temp seen here was –16.9 degrees Fahrenheit, but it got colder than that at night when we weren’t watching. The news reported temps in Mid-Michigan of 20 below zero. We had lots more snow during these days and also troubles with blowing snow.
The patio door keeps freezing up and Steve frees it with WD40. Also, ice keeps building up on the roof on the pipe coming out of the house. Steve has had to knock it off with the snow rake. It’s been a very cold winter.
Where is the groundhog already?!
We had a few people over tonight. It was cold and snowy, but we still hung out outside in the shed.