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August 23, 2007

A Week Of Wildlife - Wherever You Are

We wanted to move to the country to be closer to the wildlife. However, I've been so busy working on painting and flooring and weeding that I haven't been able to give as much time to tracking down the local wildlife.

Luckily, it comes to me.

For the first few weeks, I didn't seem to encounter anything here. Whether I was too tired from all the housework to notice or perhaps residing in an house long-vacant, I had scared away the local critters. Regardless, I saw very little outside the house during the initial days despite being in the woods.

However, there has been a change this week. Every critter seems to be out and about lately. So I decided to play a little game with myself and keep track of all wildlife sightings for this week. No matter where you are - city or country - you can do this, too. I'd be very curious to see what your lists look like so please post them below if you get the chance! The more you look, the more you'll see. Trust me.

Laurie's Wildlife Listing for the Week of August 16th-23rd in New Hampshire, and mostly in the yard. It all started with...

• A Stripped Skunk - Running across the road towards Wal-Mart (big surprise)
• A Flock of Ten Blue Jays - Flew into the yard today. Hung out for a bit.
• A Black Bear - Sniffing around the side yard at 5 am. I happened to be up.
• A Flock of Wild Turkeys - tromped through the yard. Really homely birds.
• Numerous Woodhouse's Toads - All over the garden. Don't tell Shannon.
• An Eastern Chipmunk - We have a resident one living on a garden rock.
• Various Red Squirrels - Around, but no longer living in our attic.
• Numerous Northern Ravens - All over the local roads
• A White-Tailed Deer with Twin Fawns - Sighted on a local road
• Several Turkey vultures - On the local roads
• The backsides of several unidentified duck species - Drove by pond
• A hunting heron - Driving by a bog, didn't stop to identify it
• Numerous American Beaver Dams - Nearby bog, was looking for moose...
• Various bugs including caterpillars, beetles, bees and ants. One ladybug. One locust. Various monarch butterflies in the garden.

I wish I could say I saw a moose this week. Unfortunately, I didn't. However, my dad did when he was driving to my house, so that sortof counts. It was a young, ungangly one with no antlers yet.

Anyway, that's my list. What's yours?

Posted by sorsha at August 23, 2007 8:40 AM