Although most people are deep in a Christmas planning mode right now, we’ve just finished up a late fall pumpkin party in our backyard. What do you do with your old Halloween pumpkins? Typically we just toss them in our compost bin, but this year after cutting the pumpkin in half to expose the seeds inside, we set it out in our back woods and trained our trail camera on it to see who would come to partake. Over a…
I spend a lot of time in my yard, or at least a lot of time looking out the window at my yard – probably more than most people. But even so, there is so much time when I’m not able to observe the comings and goings of animals on my property. This is particularly true at night – when I’m asleep and many of our local mammals are more active. I can only watch for so much of the…
That’s what Punxsutawney Phil said anyway. I say 6 weeks and 4 days, since the official first day of spring (the vernal equinox) is March 20th. In early March after we’ve had a few pleasant days and folks start remarking that “spring is here” I’m always the first one to chime in and remind them that winter (i.e., cold, snow, nor’easters, etc.) is not over yet. In fact, sometimes it refuses to go away even after the official first day…
When conditions are right, spotting animal tracks becomes much easier. Wet sand or mud and fresh fallen snow are two of the best surfaces for capturing imprints. While some parts of New England received a foot or more of snow over the last day or two, here in Bourne we only received about 2 or 3 inches. With snow, less is often more when it comes to studying animal tracks. This morning, when I left the house for work, the…