Wild, wild life
Seen today:
In a broken limb of the tree outside my window, there is a hollow space that, when I looked this morning, had a confusing arrangement of squirrel parts and fluff sticking out of it. Since squirrel bodies are not meant to be segmented the way this seemed to be, I wondered if perhaps some predator had taken a squirrel apart and left it there in the tree, but I saw no blood. Then things began to move and I realized that two squirrels were partially hidden in there sheltering from the breeze, both alive and apparently well. Yay cute fluffy things!
As I left the house, I noticed that one of the dead tree branches lying in melting snow looked like it had slimy slugs slithering around it. Looking closer, I realized that it was just fungus--wet, slimy fungus.
Coming home late in the afternoon, I looked out a west window and saw a fairly large bird perched on a branch of a dead tree. Though I am not always observant enough of the things that could help me identify a species, this was pretty clearly a northern harrier; but thanks to the angle of the light, I am somewhat less sure of its sex (If I had to bet, I'd bet it was a male). Its low flight over to a neighbor's yard was amazing to watch. As far as I know, it has not yet disturbed the squirrels.
In a broken limb of the tree outside my window, there is a hollow space that, when I looked this morning, had a confusing arrangement of squirrel parts and fluff sticking out of it. Since squirrel bodies are not meant to be segmented the way this seemed to be, I wondered if perhaps some predator had taken a squirrel apart and left it there in the tree, but I saw no blood. Then things began to move and I realized that two squirrels were partially hidden in there sheltering from the breeze, both alive and apparently well. Yay cute fluffy things!
As I left the house, I noticed that one of the dead tree branches lying in melting snow looked like it had slimy slugs slithering around it. Looking closer, I realized that it was just fungus--wet, slimy fungus.
Coming home late in the afternoon, I looked out a west window and saw a fairly large bird perched on a branch of a dead tree. Though I am not always observant enough of the things that could help me identify a species, this was pretty clearly a northern harrier; but thanks to the angle of the light, I am somewhat less sure of its sex (If I had to bet, I'd bet it was a male). Its low flight over to a neighbor's yard was amazing to watch. As far as I know, it has not yet disturbed the squirrels.