Leftover pumpkins...no problem!

 What to do with leftover pumpkins from Halloween/Thanksgiving?  Feed them to the deer 😊  You need to cut them in half or smash them open to expose the soft and spongy parts that they like the most.  But they will eat the entire pumpkin.  I set out 5 last week (all gone now) and within 15 minutes had a customer.  We also drew the attention of an impressive buck.  Here are some pics courtesy of my trail camera behind our house.

Here is my son-in-law's comment on the buck...

Possibly the biggest buck we've seen in the eight years I've put a camera out.

A hat trick to start the holiday week

 Busy start to the holiday week.  I checked my camera and it said I had 153 images so I felt it was worth checking.  A "hat trick" to me would be a buck, a coyote and a red fox.  I'm holding out for a bobcat but these are my big three right now and I had them all in a span of three days/ights.

I'm posting them in chronological order.  You'll see we had a fox two different nights/mornings...

Coyote first two pics

Red Fox

Finish with a fox

Fox...it's been a while

 I haven't posted about a red fox since January 2018.  And finally here are two images from two different nights this past week...

Saw a bobcat and a Cooper's Hawk yesterday

I don't take anything for granted on what I might see even though we live next to the woods and close to a major river.  I've seen Bald Eagles return and I always stop to watch.  I was outside yesterday and heard a Red-tailed Hawk overhead.  Alway special.

I was off work yesterday and driving home mid-morning and saw bobcat run across the road in front of me.  But not running fast...just getting to the other side and at one point kind of paused to look around.  This was near the intersection of Beaver Ave and Lower Beaver Rd.  This was the second time I've seen one with my own eyes but the first time in daylight and so close.  I'm also excited because that means they are in the neighborhood!

At the end of my evening walk with Kyanne, I saw a Cooper' Hawk swoop up to a light pole.  I watched it for a minute and then it swooped to another light pole.  I thought to myself maybe hunting hasn't gone so well that day and trying to shake something loose.  As I was opening the garage door I saw it again and the flight pattern reminded me of a Barn Swallow...it was clearly trying to create some movement with potential prey.

Not a bad day in the neighborhood.

Sunday morning coyote

Images of coyotes are not that common even though we know they are out there and a daylight image is even less common but here is one from Sunday morning...