My Big Fat Nocturnal Visitor

One morning this spring I woke up to find my broken bird feeder on the ground. Could this be the work of a bear?

I set up my game camera and captured this scary looking creature. 

A Yeti, perhaps?

As the creature grew bolder it bypassed the feeder, preferring instead to climb the steps to my back porch. There it could get the sunflower seed directly from the storage container. 

On the pollen coated surface of the container a clue to its identity emerged!

I decided to latch my container. My uninvited yet determined guest broke the latch and threw the lid aside.

 Finally I captured its photo. Judging by the height of the container she is about 12 inches tall.

 Wait! Who is this? My cat is securely locked in the garage each night!

 The bold visitor returns three hours later for a second serving.

Starry Starry Night

    My daughter recommended an article on National Geographic's web site to me. The article said  cameras aboard a satellite on Sunday  photographed an eruption on the sun's surface that caused tons of plasma to  speed toward earth. This plasma was due to reach earth on Tuesday night around midnight or later.

     It all sounds like the intro to a science fiction movie. In the next scene a farmer goes outside to check on his barking dog and bumps smack into a visitor from outer space.  Quickly drawing his cell phone from its holster the farmer calls 911 and asks, "Would I get in any trouble if I shot and killed this beast, this animal or whatever it is?"

     But the real point of the article was that when the plasma entered our atmosphere  we  would have a chance of seeing auroras.  Auroras  usually occur in the arctic regions but National Geographic quoted an astrophysicist who said we had a 50-50 chance of seeing them here.
     It was a perfect night to be outdoors. After setting up the camera I stretched out on the ground in front of our house with my head on a pillow to wait for the light show to begin. It was not too hot and a gentle breeze was blowing. The crickets were chirping, I heard a far off coyote, and through the brick wall of our house I could hear Darling gently snoring.

     After  two hours outside all I saw were two falling stars and a raccoon. I guess we all know which half of that 50-50 I got.

     That's when I decided to try my hand at photographing star trails. Stars don't actually have trails of course. The illusion is caused by the earth spinning on its axis. As the earth spins the stars appear to rotate around us and the camera. 

     If the camera is aimed directly at the North Star the other stars will appear to be whirling around in a circle like a celestial Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Just the thought of it makes me feel a bit nauseous. I think I'll stick with the photo I have.

     I was amazed to see that in this photo there appear to be millions of stars.  While I was outside looking at them there did not appear to be many.The camera was able to record so many more than my eyes. The stars also appeared to be similar in color to me, and yet the stars in the photo have many different colors. I have since read that the camera sensor can pick up colors produced by gases in the starlight that our eyes are just not designed to see.
    This photo was made by leaving the camera shutter open for ten minutes. It is interesting to see how far the stars "moved" in that short period of time.
    You don't have to have a telescope or an expensive camera to enjoy looking at the stars. A friend taught me that a pair of binoculars works very well. Go outside tonight and look at the sky without binoculars. Then put the  binoculars up to your eyes. I bet you will gasp when you see how many  stars show up. The moon is especially fun to look at this way.
    Just think, if it wasn't for my lovely daughter I would have missed all this fun.

fawn surprise

One afternoon I saw a doe resting under an apple tree in my front yard. I thought to myself, "This would be a good weekend to get a wildlife photo."

So early Sunday morning I crawled out of bed before sunup. After gulping down a cup of coffee, showering in unscented soap and donning camouflage clothing I headed out with my camera hoping to photograph some wildlife. After spending a long time seated under a tree I was hungry. I dug an energy bar out of my pocket and started eating. While eating I happened to glance over my shoulder and there about thirty-five feet away was a little fawn standing up to stretch her legs! I had to put the zoom lens to my eye in order to convince myself that I wasn't seeing things. She had been lying there at the base of a tree all along and would have remained quite invisible had she not stood up. In my haste to photograph her I let the energy bar drop to the ground. This sent the local ant population into fits of joy.

The fawn may have sensed that she was not alone because she stood watching and listening with those oversized ears for quite some time before she lay back down. Lucky for me she was looking in the wrong direction.

She may have remained in her hiding place until her mother came to retrieve her but a truck drove by. I thought it was interesting that she jumped up and ran across the road after the truck passed. She probably ran a very short way and lay down again to hide.

Dinner Companion

We first became aware that we had a nocturnal visitor in April. We arrived home one night to see glowing eyes reflecting in our headlights.

Our dinner guest was watching us as well. He knew that we sat on the porch each night until just after dark, then went into the house to eat supper at around 9:00.

On a few nights we would return to the porch after supper and interrupt his meal. We could not see him in the dark but we could hear the feeder creaking eerily as it swung back and forth like the porch swing in "To Kill a Mockingbird."

I set up a camera and flash in such a way that it could be operated from inside the house. After supper I reminded Sweetheart not to go out on the porch until I could trip the camera.

There was our dinner companion. Right on time at 9:28 pm. After I snapped his portrait he brazenly continued eating until we opened the back door.

With any luck this raccoon should have a long and happy life. We live quite a distance from the road and there aren't any dogs to bother him.