Thieves in the Night

I knew raccoons were getting in the trash, but I wanted to see how they were doing it...

Year 2 of Leftover Pumpkins

Once again, the pumpkins (and gourds) were a smash.  I may switch to a saw next year...the hatchet sounds fun but it's a lot of work.

The squirrels were in early and often.  All that is left are the stems.

Mostly toads and one frog (recent sightings/rescues)

 Nothing too exciting...just catching up on some recent window well rescues as well as sightings.  With it being so dry this year, I've noticed fewer leopard frogs.  I think about them falling 5 feet to the bottom of the window well.

Vole Patrol

 Fished this vole out of the deep egress window well.  It had a rough landing in the grass when I tossed it up and out.  I thought I had injured it.  It was lying in the grass and when it started moving, instead of scurrying away, it started eating 😀  I made sure I chased it out of the yard and it was back to normal.

Rabbit Rescue (biggest one I've had to fish out)

 I've pulled out bunnies before but this cottontail was larger and once I tried fishing him out, I could see it could almost jump up the five feet needed to get out.

Aside from feeling bad for the bunny, I was trying to protect my screen...you can see it was trying to chew it's way to safety.  I put on gardening gloves, grabbed big tub with rope handles and used Cindy's cane to lower the tub into the window well.  It was not received well and it was jumping I'm sure out of fear and survival.  Finally I scooped it up and brought it up to the grass and it took off and was skinny enough to exit through the fence.  Definitely some excitement in the day!

You can see the size here

Great Spangled Fritillary

 I was out in the yard yesterday and saw this butterfly in the grass.  What caught my eye was the color, the size and the fact that it was in my grass meaning I might have a chance to take a picture.  I always think something is wrong if it's not flying away but that was not the case.

The size is close to a Monarch.  This is a Great Spangled Fritillary and apparently can live in the area.  I don't recall seeing one in my life.  Maybe I've seen them fluttering and assumed a Monarch.  Anyway, it did finally fly away but I got these two pics...