wildlife

[cohan]

I have hares in the garden but these came by broad daylight and browsed crocus leaves and rhododendron buds!

cute if troublesome...lol Deer don't come in here or eat my plants much- occasionally I see one passing through.  Moose were in recently to do some of their winter pruning of shrubs. I was happy to note that a couple of Sorbus seedlings have managed to grow too tall for the moose to reach the tops, but they are not out of danger yet: they sometimes grab a slender trunk and bend it over/break it halfway so the tender tips become in reach! Mostly they do this to native poplars of which there are thousands, so no loss, also sometimes Amelanchier, not at all rare either,  but it could happen to these Sorbus. Our original S aucuparia,planted sometime in the '70's really only reached a tree-like height rather recently, since they pruned it into a multi-stemmed shrub, which is why I thought it would be nice if some young ones (bird sown) could grow tall enough to be able to maintain single trunk shape.

[Roma]

We haven't seen many squirrels about this last year but two have recently been coming to my brother's nut feeder next door.  I bought this metal feeder because the wooden ones let in water and the peanuts went mouldy if the squirrels were not eating them up.  Saturday was the first time I saw a squirrel there.  He struggled a bit because he couldn't get his back feet on the edge like they can with the wooden feeders and it was quite a stretch to reach the nuts.

[ashley]

He looks very like his Cork cousins

[Roma]

This one is a bright red including his tail.  The other one is darker and has a blonde tip to its tail.  The dark ones usually have a very dark tail which gradually turns blonde before they shed and the new hair grows in.  A few years ago we had some which could have been described as strawberry roan if they were horses.

[ashley]

'Ours' vary a lot in colour too, as do the length/thickness of their ear tufts presumably depending on the state of molt. 
We find them highly entertaining ('Cirque du Squirrel' as they leap through the branches & occasionally make mistakes ), and by giving them their own feeders they don't bother the birds much.

[Hoy]

Eurasian jay (Garrulus glandarius) is a regular visitor in the garden in winter.




A blackbird awaits his turn.

[cohan]

Eurasian jay (Garrulus glandarius) is a regular visitor in the garden in winter.

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A blackbird awaits his turn.

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That's a nice one!

[Yann]

Today i ran 4km to heat slowly the machine for the next spring hikes, i had my camera in the backpack and the light was amazing.

[cohan]

Today i ran 4km to heat slowly the machine for the next spring hikes, i had my camera in the backpack and the light was amazing.

beautiful views

[François Lambert]

I noticed some trails in the meadows, and after our 'polar' week last week they are now much more visible.  Someone told us this is probably a badger trail.

[Hoy]

The snow is gone but the deer is back. This time a 1 year old red deer calf. It looks a bit shabby though.

[Gabriela]

The snow is gone but the deer is back. This time a 1 year old red deer calf. It looks a bit shabby though.

It could be that it couldn't find enough food with your unusual snow cover Trond.
Now it seems wants to recuperate  I spot some snowdrops in the picture, luckily they don't like to eat those.

[cohan]

The snow is gone but the deer is back. This time a 1 year old red deer calf. It looks a bit shabby though.

Maybe just late winter coat? It should be easy feeding now, anyway.

[cohan]

I noticed some trails in the meadows, and after our 'polar' week last week they are now much more visible.  Someone told us this is probably a badger trail.

That's fun.. do you ever see them?

[GordonT]

A few weeks ago, we had a surprise visitor to our pond, a creature which is usually only seen if you head into the wilderness, and are very lucky. River Otters are not common here, so we were amazed to be able to watch it from the comfort of our sun room. Martin captured a video of it, on his cell phone. We posted it to our Facebook page here, hopefully you'll be able to see it as well: