Sunday, April 10, 2011

Weekend Wildlife



I was looking forward to the weekend but Mother Nature had weather plans of her own that put a serious damper on mine. I know we needed the rain, but enough! If April showers bring May flowers, it will be a bumper crops. Several bad storms over the last couple of days have taken a toll. I have a tree down in the yard that did some damage and took my phone line down for a couple of days.


I was able to get out a little while yesterday morning before more rain came back in. I was the first car through the gate at the refuge I visit and drove very slowly down the drive. Off in the field beside the drive I spotted movement and stopped the car. A fox was chasing and pouncing on something. I never could see what it was after but I suppose a mouse.


This morning I hoped for a little nicer weather but it was still overcast and cloudy. Makes birding difficult and with leaves now coming on the trees, even more so. As I was watching a heron fly off, I noticed movement in the water. The beaver was making an appearance. It would swim over to a patch of water lillys then dive down. Not sure if it was just chewing the stems off of completely pulling or digging them up. With prize in tow, it would then go to shallow water to have a nice bit of morning breakfast. After several trips, it finally came on shore and waddled off to the back side of the little island.

2 comments:

Kath said...

How wonderful to be able to photograph these creatures in the wild. You probably know that there are no beavers here, except in zoos or wildlife parks.
I was also interested to see your gold finches, quite a bit diiferent to those in England.

Nature Girl said...

Sorry for the delay in responding. Storms have taken my phone line down twice in two weeks. Some trees will have to go! I also loved your photo's and history on the Magpi's. I had no idea. They have them in the western states but we do not have them here.