Critters

Despite the construction activity in the subdivision, there was quite a bit of wildlife around.  The usual deer were hanging around our property.  One of the females seems to have an injury.  There is a small gash on her flank and her belly seems to be hanging.  She doesn't seem to be any worse for wear, as she runs around normally.  I saw two of the bucks, both with little nubs of new antlers starting.  The woodchuck is back in our woodpile, and the chipmunks have come out of hibernation.  We saw the red fox a couple of  times, and on two occasions there was a Spruce Grouse, scratching around our yard.  Its really nice to see all this wildlife around.

This photo was taken shortly after I arrived at the cottage and opened up the shutters.  The deer seem to know, and they come wandering over within minutes of my arrival and stare at me, hoping for some feed.  In the depths of winter when survival is a struggle, I feed them.  In the summer months, particularly once the bears have come out of hibernation, the feeding stops.

This deer has been around for a while.  Late last summer that big wound on her flank was fresh, bloody and raw.  I suspect she survived a cougar attack, as there is a smaller scar on the opposite flank.  It appears that a cougar leaped onto her from behind and tried to drag her down.  Its nice to see that she survived.  The wound is nicely healed up now, and I think she will be just fine.  There was another deer around a couple of years ago with a similar wound.  Obviously there are cougars in the area, and there have been occasional sightings.  I have never seen one and my game camera has not captured any activity.

Here are two of the bucks, in the yard behind my cottage.  There were four bucks around last year, and I saw them all, late in the year, as hunting season was winding down.  So far this year I have not seen more than two together at a time, so it is difficult to say how many survived.  They are rather hard to tell apart right now, but once they get antlers, it will be easier to differentiate and get a more accurate count as to how many we have.

This is not a very good image, but it is quite concerning.  I saw this White Tail Doe running around the subdivision a couple of times.  I also captured a few shots of her on my game camera.  There is a deep gash up on her flank.  This one doesn't look like a cougar wound though...  More like a vehicle impact or some other injury.  Her belly is hanging down really low and loose, almost like the udder on a milk cow.  I suspect that she may have lost her fawn, perhaps as a result of that injury.  This may kill her, or perhaps there is some hope.  I will continue to watch for her.

When we first bought our property out at Nordegg there were almost no birds around.  Then once we cleared our building site, a lot more sunlight made it into the forest, the bird numbers increased a little. In the fall and winter we had three Whiskeyjacks that used to come around.  They were very tame and would come and eat out of my hand.  I found a really good brand of wild bird seed that includes hulled sunflower seeds, peanuts, dried cranberries and suet balls.  Ever since I started putting this mix in our feeders we have had small birds around like crazy.  At times there is a group of Dark Eyed Juncos that must number around twenty.  They can be seen hopping around on the ground, flitting around the tree branches, and making regular forays to and from the feeder.  We also have lots of Black Capped Chickadees, Downy Woodpeckers and some Red Breasted Nut Hatches.  They are all very aggressive and territorial over the feeder.  This is one of the Juncos...

In late April when I stayed at the cottage for nine days, there was a Spruce Grouse hanging around.  Hailey and I actually saw several of them on the side of the road when we took our day trip up the Trunk Road to the Blackstone River.  Later this one was hanging around the yard.  I think it was the same one, but I saw it on two different days.  The first day it was at the edge of the trees near the road, and then the next day it was in the woods behind the cottage.

For the past couple of years we have had two Woodchucks hanging around the cottage.  There was a lighter colored one and a dark one.  The girls called the dark one Marty, and referred to it as a "him".  The neighbors saw "him" on a regular basis too, but they called "him" Shadow.  It turns out "He" was a "She".  Marty had babies in our wood pile last summer and I previously posted some images of her with her little ones.  I suspect that the light colored one was actually the male.  A short time later, as the youngsters got more mobile, they all disappeared.  We assume that mama moved them away from her den for protection.  We never saw them through the late summer or the fall.  And, from the time the babies were born, the light colored one was not around either.  Then recently, Marty showed up again on the woodpile.  I was sort of hoping that I could finally get to splitting all the logs in this big pile this summer.  But now it looks as though she has returned to her den.  I may have to leave it alone again, and turn my attention to other supplies of firewood.  It's not like there is any shortage, and we are about to create more on the lot next door, once construction gets underway.