The Wild Life

I realized that I had some photos of the wild life that live in and move through our property. My husband has been telling me that we had a turtle that lives in our woods. He had seen it twice when it came out to eat some mushrooms that were growing after a rain. Last Sunday when I was on my way back from visiting my friend Peggy, he called me and said the turtle had been up close to the house eating. He caught the turtle and put it in a pool we had out front for the dogs to play in it. Of course he did empty it first. The photos below show our friend the turtle.

I do not know what kind of turtle this is, but he was glad when I released him. I gave him some lettuce which he ate before heading back into the woods.

This photo I had taken right after I started my summer vacation in June. This is a baby hawk that flopped into the top of one of our pine trees. He was learning how to fly and was not a happy camper. He screamed for his parents who were circling over head trying to get him to come to them. He must have sat there for 20 minutes before he tried to fly again. He landed on the roof of a house down the road from us and hopped around calling for his parents. We see him now and then and he did learn how to fly very well.

Here is one of my does. It is hard to get good photos of them. Even though they will let us sit on the deck and watch them eat the corn we put out for them, a sudden move as in to take a picture sometimes spooks them. I really wanted to get some photos of the babies this year, but so far, no luck on that.

We feed the deer a mixture of deer chow and corn. We also have a mineral block that they lick on.

They will even eat the sunflower seeds that we put out on the ground for the squirrels. And they like to eat the grasses that grow up from the bird seed that falls on the ground from the bird feeders.

Here are my Monarch caterpillars eating the butterfly weed I had planted for the butterflies. I love the color of these guys. We must have had over 25 caterpillars eating the butterfly weed before they cocooned themselves.

I really enjoy the woodpeckers that show up to eat the sunflower seeds.

Here is one on the ground picking up some sunflower seeds that fell from the bird feeder

After getting a seed she flew up to this broken branch.

And finally I caught a humming bird eating at my humming bird feeder.

It is so much fun watching all the animals. I need to get a good camera with a telephoto lens, I just might then be able to catch photos of the baby deer!

The Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day weekend was one of the best weekends Ken and I have had at the house. The weather was beautiful and it was cool. Ken work in our woods clearing out some more of the underbrush we wanted to do away with, although most of it will stay so the deer have a place to hide. Clearing out some of the underbrush is a heathly thing for the woods. While walking with Ikon and Seuss at the back end of our woods, I found these berries. They are very pretty even though I do not know what kind they are. I am sure the birds, squirrels and deer will enjoy them!

Below is the path in our woods that the deer travel, this is looking towards the back of our property, way down there.

In this picture you are looking down the path in the opposite direction. To the right over a fence is a small creek and more woods. Sometimes when there is very heavy rain the water will turn this path into a small creek, but it drains right off. It is very peaceful and the deer just love it. I even found out we have a turtle living in our woods, not a snapping turtle but a turtle. I hope to get a picture of it one day.

On Monday, Ken and I went out to Hempstead where our herding club gets together. We had some herding tests and so Trouble and Angelus came out with us to see if they would like to herd sheep. Below is Trouble and yes he will start his herding lessons at the end of the month. If all goes well he should be ready to show at our spring herding trial in March 2011.

Another picture of Trouble and Joy, who is not only an AKC Herding Judge but the President of our club.

Below are some of the folks who came to have their dogs tested. Sitting is our friend John, his shepherd and his step sister. We got John to join the herding club. :-)

The picture below shows Socks being pushed away from the table where we were setting up food for the lunch.

Nothing could keep Socks away from the table!! Thank goodness the food was not on the table yet.

I call this picture, "If I stare at the ball long enough...." LOL This is Lite who belongs to Joy, she is an awesome herder and ball freak!

Below is my Angelus who said he did not want to herd. Joy and I are still going to work with him, sometimes it takes a few times before the instinct kicks in.

This is John's dog, he is just a year old and has great instinct. He will start herding lessons with Trouble.

Yes even Standard Schnauzer can do herding. They were bred as farm dogs so the AKC has allowed them to compete for herding titles even though they are not in the Herding Class.

This is a new addition in the AKC, the Finnish Lapphund. The dog was bred in Lapland and was used to herd reindeer. They are great sheep herders. This pup is only 8 months. You can find more info on the Finnish Lapphund at the AKC website.

She was really enjoying herself.

Joy talking to the newcomers about herding and lessons. I think we got 4 new club members today!

And finally here is Ken fixing a panel we use in herding trials. We have a trial coming up Halloween weeken.