Random critter shots
 

I'd never seen a chipmunk's tongue before :p:

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One of our many red squirrels, ace dog sitters. If there's a squirrel around, we know what the dogs will be watching... Keeps the Pack out of trouble. :D

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Curious Ms Cottontail. Unfortunately, she keeps nesting in the fenced garden inside the dog yard. Her babies are safe while they're in the nest, but they don't seem to comprehend that there are dogs between the garden fence and the perimeter fence. :frustrated:

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More red squirrels because I find them incredibly cute!!! :flirt:

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This last one is sitting in a legacy of the goldfinches. We had so many goldfinches last winter that I resorted to throwing sunflower on the snow for three months to accommodate them all. This, of course, resulted in a huge buildup of sunflower when the snow melted, and although I raked up what I could, there was a good deal left that sprouted. All those little plants you see in this shot are sprouting sunflower! :eek: I figure if even half of them grow up, bloom and set seed, we'll really be saving a lot of money on our seed bills this fall. :o :laughing:

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A few early insects...

Tent caterpillars. Lots of people think they're icky, but I love watching the warblers go after the silk for their nests. I've heard that cuckoos eat the caterpillars, too, but I've never witnessed it...

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I think this is a Wild Indigo Duskywing butterfly. We see them every year but they can be tricky to ID:

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And this is probably a Spring Azure Butterfly--another tricky ID because the azures can look so similar.

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Pregnant doe:

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Doe feeling much lighter after dropping her fawn:

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The deer aren't too fond of madame hazel and her clicking black box, either. :laughing:

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Great pics! Too cute.:lovestruck:

I've never seen a chipmunk's tongue before either.

I just love the red squirrels too. We don't seem to have as many around here this year.:(

Love the pics of the doe, too.:cloud9:

Maybe your squirrels moved here! Holy catz, do we have squirrels!!!! Red ones, fox squirrels and a whole whack o' steroidal gray squirrels! You can tell by the size and sheer mass of our gray squirrels that they've been partaking of the bounty we put out for the birds. :D We're equal opportunity critter feeders.

Fabulous photo's, Hazel. The first squirrel, and the last doe photo's are exceptional. I love seeing all the critters that I guess you all take for granted.

great pics, your red squirrel has babies somewhere.....

[QUOTE=Melinda;1013842]great pics, your red squirrel has babies somewhere.....[/QUOTE]

She's not the only one. :D Lots of our squirrels are noticeably nursing. So was the porcupine from earlier (here's a shot of her in case you missed it, GF. Never did get a shot of her cute baby, though.):

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I never take any of the critters for granted, GF. It's always a treat to see them....well, unless it's a tick. :o

Hazel, thank you so much for sharing those pics with us, I too never tire or take for granted the wonderful wildlife we have. It is a joy to catch sight of all the fauna.....patti

(except the ticks) :laughing:

You're welcome, patti! I really wish I could have gotten a shot of the baby porcupine! Gadz, was it cute!!! :flirt: Looked like a spiny football with a face! :D

Hazel,fantastic pics,you are soo lucky to see all these critters.
I have never seen a Porcupine,I bet the baby was adorable..

As for the Chippies and the Red Squirrels,they are sooooo darn cute,I never tire of watching them,such perfect little guys:lovestruck:

The only time the red squirrels get on my nerves is when I'm sitting in the blind. Once in a while, for some unknown and totally-mysterious-except-to-red-squirrels reason, one will jump from the top rail of the chain link fence over to the blind and scrabble it's little paws as it slides down the slick material. Makes quite the racket if you're inside the blind!! :eek: :laughing: Silly squirrels! Not sure if they think it would make a good lookout or if they're playing...or maybe they know I'm hiding in there? But what a hoot! :p

Probably curiosity, Hazel. LOL. Golly, that Porcupine is so 'different' , nothing like our Echidna. I did miss any other photo's you may posted of it. I'd never have imagined that they would climb a tree.

How many babies would a red Squirrel have? I see she has at least 4 teats. You've got some awfully cute animals in the States. Why couldn't they have been introduced here instead of foxes and rabbits? :(

Your camera takes really good close up shots, what kind do you have?

Great pictures Hazel, love the chipmunk and the squirrels and of course the doe shot is great, love them all:D

[QUOTE=Goldfields;1013886]Golly, that Porcupine is so 'different' , nothing like our Echidna. I did miss any other photo's you may posted of it. I'd never have imagined that they would climb a tree.
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They spend most of their time in trees, which is a good thing. The quills are protective for the porcupines--if a dog or other predator comes across one on the ground, they're at risk for getting quilled severely in the face. The quills detach from the porcupine and are imbedded in the target. It can be a fatal encounter...and usually costs hundreds of dollars in vet bills to have the quills removed.

Luckily, porcupines tend to be very mild-mannered critters. We've had two setters go up to a porcupine clinging to a tree trunk a foot or so off the ground and sniff curiously at the tail. Had the porky been in a grumpy mood or felt too threatened, the dogs would have had a nasty surprise. But in both cases, the porcupine just waddled further up the tree and the dog escaped unscathed. Heaven help a dog that tries to bite a porcupine, though! :eek:

[QUOTE=Goldfields;1013886]How many babies would a red Squirrel have? I see she has at least 4 teats. You've got some awfully cute animals in the States. Why couldn't they have been introduced here instead of foxes and rabbits? :([/QUOTE]

Red squirrels have between 1 and 7 babies in a litter, up to two litters in a year according to my venerable old wildlife book. So they can increase in number pretty quickly...and they can be pretty destructive. They like wires and air filters under the hoods of cars and can do some major damage to dry wall if they get into your attic. They also do a number on bird feeders and aren't above taking a bird or two out a nest when the opportunity arises. So they likely wouldn't be much better than rats when it comes to introducing them into an area where they aren't native... :o

[QUOTE=lindapalm;1013889]Your camera takes really good close up shots, what kind do you have?[/QUOTE]

Nikon D90 with a VR 70 - 300 mm zoom...so I'm really not that close. I get as close as I can, zoom in and, if I've gotten enough resolution, I'll crop an image to get in close. (In other words, I cheat :D)


[QUOTE=Claudia36oh;1013890]Great pictures Hazel, love the chipmunk and the squirrels and of course the doe shot is great, love them all:D[/QUOTE]

Thx, Claudia.

:eek: So I suppose it's panic time if a porcupine wanders near your dogs, and a very good argument for having a brilliant recall? Golly, they must fire the quills hard. What do they feed on up the trees? Ours of course are Spiny anteaters, so they just fossick around on the ground, in the forest over the road it isn't unusual to find a few meat ant nests ripped open by Echidnas, but you can never find the echidna, they're extremely well camouflaged. I tried to pick one up that was in a horse paddock, but it started to dig itself into the ground and even a canvas winter horse rug doubled wasn't enough to
stop the spines digging into my hands. They don't fire their spines at you though.
OMG! Squirrels have LITTERS, not just twins or quads. :eek: What happens when there is a plague of them? Is there a big cull? We've never had rats here(in our area I mean) and sounds like we don't really want squirrels after all, regardless of how cute they are . I'll admire from afar, with pleasure. :D Rotten things, eating baby birds.:mad:

When the squirrels get overpopulated, there's a sudden increase in hawks, owls, foxes and coyotes. All in balance :D

Porcupines don't fire their quills--they use their tails to bat at an enemy. They can whap pretty hard, which imbeds the quills deeply. The quills do detach from the porcupine pretty easily, though, so even a gentle touch might dislodge one from the animal. But they don't propel them, except by tail power. The dog has to be close enough to be whapped by the tail or to get a mouth on the animal to get quilled. Some dogs just sniff and leave safely. Some get quilled once and learn a lesson. And then there are others who just seem to get madder every time they get quilled and keep going back for more! :eek: Unfortunately for the last group, porkies tend to be pretty slow moving on the ground and look like easy targets.

They feed on buds. The one in the pic was budding on the young shoots of an oak tree, but they eat a lot of different types of buds. Fun to watch them--they eat so delicately! :D

Hazel, those are really nice shots, especially the ones of the red squirrel and of the porcupine. I wish we had some, but here in the city we have the gray and black squirrels and they seem to chase the red squirrels out.

Red squirrels are the bane of birdfeeders, so it's probably a good thing you don't have any, obc. When we lived in Eau Claire, any time we saw a red squirrel we knew there would be chewed feeders in the near future! :laughing: They're not so bad on the feeders here, probably because they have a platform feeder easily accessible to them and our hopper feeders are all made of metal. :D

Red squirrels like evergreen trees, so if your area has primarily deciduous trees, you won't have that many red squirrels. Eau Claire was in the middle of jackpine territory and we have a fair number of pine plantations nearby here, so both places had a fair number of red squirrels!

Oh, I forgot to mention that the red squirrels in EC seemed to have a taste for aluminum. :o They chewed all the aluminum ties off our chain link fence! :eek: We had to have the fence retied with steel instead. Go figure! :shrug:

Just wanted to say thanks for sharing those photos! All great shots! I love the chipmunk ones :)

Diane

You're welcome, Diane! hazel loves to share her critters :lovestruck:

The "tongue in cheek" shot is so adorable and love the before/after of the doe. :cloud9:

I cheated...I don't think it was the same doe. :o But she [I]had[/I] just dropped her fawn. :D

[QUOTE=hazelrunpack;1014005]I cheated...I don't think it was the same doe. :o But she [I]had[/I] just dropped her fawn. :D[/QUOTE]

:laughing::laughing: I still love before/after shots! :thumbs up

[QUOTE=hazelrunpack;1014005]I cheated...I don't think it was the same doe. :o But she [I]had[/I] just dropped her fawn. :D[/QUOTE]


Awwww...lol, we have a fawn right now in the woods right behind us, mommy gets very upset with the dogs for getting to close, she was out there this morning just snorting at us :laughing:, hope we get to see it soon.

Our dogs get snorted at a lot, too. But mostly it's cuz the deer come here to be entertained and if the dogs ignore them instead of going crazy running and barking along the fence, the deer get frustrated and start snortin', trying to get a little action going. :D

A few more critters
 

Raccoon:

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And as I was processing images this afternoon, I came across one of a couple of crane flies mating in the pine tree--Porn in the Pines, I guess :o but I thought it was rather striking... :D

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Love the super close up of the Raccoon :lovestruck: