I have posted here before that my favorite mammal is a woodchuck (groundhog). This stems from my childhood and part of my childhood was spent checking out book called "Bozo The Woodchuck".
My grandson Jacob is quite the artist. He likes Pokemon and some fans of Pokemon like to create their own characters inspired by that style of drawing. So I asked him if he would draw a groundhog for me and explained the significance. Here is what he created and I love it!
I saw (and mostly heard) a Carolina Wren...but I didn't know it at the time. I was out with Ky like I always am when she goes out in the yard. It was a fairly still afternoon and I heard this song over a few houses and it caught my ear. I thought "now what is that?"
I watched it fly into the woods and I was really trying to get eyes on it. It was a small bird but I could see it was roundish and had a longer bill so I ruled out a type of finch or sparrow. It moved three different times singing the entire time. I pulled out my phone and recorded what I was hearing. Not being sure if it would pick up I found myself mimicking the song in case. It did record so I was able to play back.
I sent the audio file to my nephew Jon and after ruling out a Pine Siskin he landed on Carolina Wren. I matched up my recording to something on YouTube and we had a match!
So no picture of mine...just a nice story about collaborating with a trusted source :)
Here is a picture from the internet...
Here is a night image and a day image.
Getting a coyote on camera over the last 10+ years is not very common even though I know they are in the area. People are getting more and more daytime images of coyotes in the metro. I would think backing up to the woods I would see more but always grateful when I do. And they don't seem to stand around like the deer so getting a good image is hard. This one appears pretty big.
Sounds like the beginning of a joke. Just some early December activity.
I haven't seen a coyote for a while so good to see one here. The buck in the fog/haze is impressive. My son-in-law Steve said he's good enough to shoot which means he's a "nice one".
This is an email from my brother Dean who I credit for being interested in birds and animals...
It may not be Sawyer’s Landing blog worthy but Jonathan and I have gone to the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge the Sunday before Thanksgiving the past 7 years in hopes of spotting a rare migrating Whooping Crane. This year we hiked about a half mile into a dried up marsh to catch a glimpse of the flocks of Sandhill Cranes and we finally spotted a Whooping Crane in amongst a group of Sandhills that were landing by the marsh. It was so bright white it clearly stood out from the dull gray Sandhills. Unfortunately the cattails were so tall and thick we could not observe it after it landed but we have recorded on our bucket list as a Whooping Crane sighting.
That is always the fun question and the racks tell the story...
