Wildlife « Life On Lot 12

February 26, 2009

Things That Go Bump In The Night

Filed under: Birds, New Experience, Rural Experiences, Wildlife — Pat @ 7:39 am

Last evening, about 10pm our satellite internet connection went out so I went to see if snow on the dish was the cause (it was). While I was on the deck I heard scrabbling behind me and saw a northern flying squirrel eating sunflower seeds under the bird feeder. These are small nocturnal squirrels that are rarely seen. We often hear them as they glide in from the trees to land with a thump on the balcony or roof of our house en route to the feeder. They clamber down the chain that holds the feeder so that they can settle in for a hearty meal. They apparently love the taste of sunflower seeds.

Anyway, this little guy was on the deck and could care less that I was almost stepping on him. After I got the snow swept off the dish I ran in and grabbed my camera. he was still scabbling in the snow for whole seeds that the birds didn’t get. I had lots of time to snap a dozen or so pictures and the flash didn’t bother him one bit. I was able to get the camera within 40cm or so of him.

I have never been that close to a flying squirrel before. It was a neat experience. I wanted to touch him but knew enough not too. Wild creatures don’t like to be touched and react badly if they are. There are two things to remember, they are incredibly fast to react and that reaction usually includes biting.

And then – while I was on my knees taking pictures I heard a small commotion behind me and assumed that another flying squirrel had arrived for supper. When I turned to look instead of a flying squirrel there was an apparently confused female redpoll trying to get fly through the patio door (which was closed ) towards the light. I have no idea what woke this dumb bird, perhaps the flash on the camera. It ended up perched on the door sill so I took a photo of it.

I’m not sure what was going on last night, it wasn’t a full moon but there you have it two very unusual sitings in one night. BTW I had to pick this little bird up (it sure squealed) and throw it up into the air so that it would fly away and not into the house when I opened the door.Who says nothing ver happens in the country.

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January 27, 2009

Sometimes We Like Surprise Visitors

Filed under: Birds, New Experience, Rural Experiences, Wildlife, Winter — Pat @ 7:27 am

We live in a rural part of the island and it is fairly common to have wildlife in the yard. Our visitors range from a variety of small birds who come routinely to our feeders to white tailed deer who love the taste of Val’s flowers and my vegetables. We’ve seen raccoons, foxes, a weasel and one warm summer night about 4 years ago a bobcat who had a taste for cat meat. Poor Mulder . Bad bobcat!

White tails survive northern Ontario winters because they have learned to expend the least amount of energy possible to acquire the most calories possible. That means that if they find a source of food, especially high energy food, they don’t go far. They regularly come right to the edge of our deck to vacuum up shells from the sunflower seeds that the birds love. Deer also have big brown eyes and when they can relax they look right in the windows at us. When Val sees them and I hear “oh they look so hungry” I know that I will shortly be going out to put some whole corn down in the driveway for them. Every winter I promise myself that I won’t do it but every winter it happens.This winter is proving to be no exception and late last week I heard those fateful words and Friday afternoon I dumped a pail of mixed corn and oats in the driveway. They were immediately discovered by a pair of blue jays who apparently love the taste of whole corn. Saturday – no deer, Sunday – no deer. Monday – same thing. Just those jays getting fatter by the minute! Yesterday about 9.30 am I looke dout the window intot he yard and this is what I saw:

15 wild turkeys came walking down the driveway and right in to that pile of corn. This not the first time we have seen them but it is the first time we have had them here in winter. They stayed for 15 or 20 minutes and then headed back down the driveway. But, before they got the road them seemed to settle down as if they were just going to rest there for a while. They are very wary animals and would rather walk or run than fly.Late in the afternoon they came back and were in the cedars in front of the house. They didn’t stay long this time but we are hoping that they come back again.

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April 15, 2008

Crossing The Line

Filed under: Border Adventures, Cheap Gas, Stories, Wildlife — Pat @ 7:52 am

We occasionally cross the border into the US for various reasons. Yesterday the primary reason was to pick up a package that contained a toy for Arlo. Val bought it on eBay and had it shipped to an address in Sault MI. The other attraction is lower priced gasoline. More on that a little later. Crossing the border into the US at this crossing is not a real big deal either in terms of the amount of times it takes or the degree of scrutiny you are normally forced to endure. While it can be slow due to volume if you pick your time of day and avoid the obvious busy days it does become fairly routine to the point where you have to remind yourself that you are entering a foreign country. This becomes glaringly clear on occasion. Yesterday we drove into the US Border Protection Agency plaza and right up to one of the booths. I handed the BPA agent our passports and answered the usual questions.

Citizenship?

Canadian

Where do you live?

St. Joseph Island

Whats the purpose of your visit to the US?

To get a gift for our Grandson and buy a tank of gas.

This should have been the point at which the officer said something like “Have a nice day.” and handed back our passports. Instead I noticed that he was looking at his computer monitor and then heard the words that have become more common recently.

“You have been randomly selected for a secondary inspection. Pull under the canopy on the right and remain in your car.” With that he slapped a yellow piece of paper on the windshield and handed me our passports. We pulled under the canopy and waited as instructed. Out came two BPA agents who, while I don’t know them, I recognized. They instructed me to turn off the car, leave the keys in the ignition and take our passports and go inside. We followed the orders and when we got inside another agent took our passports. After perhaps a minute the two agents who were inspecting the car came inside with smiles on their faces and not looking at all like they had found any contraband hidden the vehicle (there wasn’t any). One of them came up to the counter and uttered a sentence that I never expected to hear.

“William, (the first name on my passport) why are you importing corn into the United Sates under the hood of your car?

With apologies to Dave Broadfoot, when I regained consciousness I started to laugh. “That would be our red squirrel that did that.”

BPA guy, “well you have 10 or 12 kernels of corn stashed under your hood. You should make sure they don’t start chewing the wires. I left the hood up so you can see. Here are your passports. Have a nice day.” We walked out chuckling and this is what we saw.

Hidden Corn

A brief stop to pay the bridge toll and we headed to the Walmart where Val found several bargains. The next stop was at the Admiral gas station. Unleaded regular fuel yesterday was selling at US$3.489/US gallon. If you do the math that translates to C$0.94/L. On our side of the river yesterday gasoline was selling for C$1.229/L. Our car took 49.9 litres of fuel for saving of $14.42. At the same time we bought two gallons of milk at a savings of $2.00/gallon over the current price on our side.That saving paid the bridge tolls. In total worth the trip. After a short stop at the Goodwill (no real treasures this trip) and picking up a great toy for Arlo we headed back across the border. We drove up to Canada Customs, no waiting today and were asked

“Where do you live”

St.Joseph Island

“How long were you out of the country?”

“About 2 hours”

What is the value of items you obtained?”

“$58.97 cents and a tank of gas”

“Have a nice day.”

Safe on our side again.

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Spring Sitings

Filed under: Birds, Wildlife — Pat @ 6:21 am

Yesterday morning we were headed to SSM about 8Am. In mid April it is nice and bright by this time of day. As we pulled around the corner onto the highway there were three wild turkeys in the middle of the road and as we watched they walked into our woodlot followed closely by a white-tailed deer. Good siting. About 10 km further on I spotted movement in the left side ditch and up onto the highway came a red fox with a rabbit in its mouth! Ah, nature at its finest. A half hour later, along a newly opened stretch of the TCH where there are several osprey nests on power line towers right in the highway right-of-way. In the first one, two osprey heads. Wow! in the next one perhaps 1 km. away another head. Double wow! Ospreys are fishing eating raptors that are easy to identify because of their white head and very distinctive crest. Along the way there were pairs of Canada geese and sandhill cranes. I love spring as critters become more active and birds return.

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