Has anyone been watching the bald eagle live streaming nest cam from Big Bear Lake in California? The area has had record snowfall this last week or two and the poor parent eagles are buried in snow. They’re still faithfully sticking to their nest and incubating their eggs, though. But I believe I read somewhere that this clutch of eggs is not viable, possibly due to freezing.
That might be the case. With the one I follow, the parents knew weather was coming and lined the nest with some furry bits of a couple of creatures. Not being used to that weather in CA, it makes me wonder about whether or not the parents would know to further insulate the eggs. However, the snow itself makes great insulation. Don’t give up hope.
I found my very own brownsnake! At least I think that’s what it is. He was in our screened porch, so I caught him and put him outside before the dogs could trample him.
Baby snake, doo doot doo doo…
Actually, brown snakes ( Storeria dekayi) are small when fully grown. Yours looks like an adult . They love slugs, so they are a welcomed addition to the garden.
He’s sure been eating something! He was all lumpy. I assumed frogs. By the way, that thing he’s coiled around is a very large dead spider. 
Pretty picture.
Thank you. I’m glad I went out and took some pictures yesterday, because the weather is not looking cooperative for the next couple days and the flowers don’t last long.
Last night I heard our local owl again - or rather (interesting update) our local owls.
The regular calls of a male and female tawny owl are very different, as nicely illustrated by this YouTube snippet Tawny Owl Call - YouTube. The male is hooting from the start, and the female shrieks in reply from about 0.22.
So it seems like we have a pair. Excellent. They sounded very close by, too.
And out on the (bike) trail today I saw a wild deer for the first time in a couple of months. Just walked across the trail in front of me - not at all like the close encounters of last summer!
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Sad to report that our eagles now only have one egg, which may or may not be viable. The other egg broke. Still, one egg, if viable, means only a single chick which now has no competition for food and a higher chance of survival. Fingers crossed.
Our ducks are back! I didn’t see them myself, but my sister saw them in the pond by the mail kiosk. I’m really happy. Last year they attempted a nest under the neighbor’s unit directly across from us. Raccoons got the nest, and I was afraid one or all of the three ducks might have been “gotten,” too. There were a lot of feathers. Thankfully, all three are back.
Today, I finally heard a crow cawing in the neighborhood. That’s the first time here in almost two years. I’ve heard and seen them elsewhere in Minnesota over that period, but not in my immediate neighborhood. And I heard a party of birds twittering and I couldn’t recognize the call. I wonder if they are migrants just passing through, or something new to the area. I’m going to keep my eyes and ears open for them.
Hmm. Now that you mention it, we went from Crow metropolis to rarely seeing them at my house. Has something happened?
They used to wake me up early most days in the Summer with a lot of loud cawing.
We were hiking in our woods and my gf took us by the leaky pond (named by our neighbors because it’s all marshy at one end). There is a pair of wood ducks there that my gf has been monitoring. They were very skittish, and almost too beautiful to believe.
I’m in NE MN and we have a murder of crows that hangs out in our backyard/woods. My husband feeds them peanuts. They seem to be pretty quiet during the winter. I love them.
Today I saw finch sex (not that I wanted to).
I also found a nest in a pot on my porch. The pot has dirt in it, so I put a couple of scrap boards we had left over from redoing the deck on top of it to keep the squirrels from digging in it. I was moving things around out there and took the boards off - surprise! The nest is formed like a tunnel, and there’s at least one egg in it. I figure it’s wrens.
We think that avian flu got our gang, and a lot of other local birds as well.
They are so smart! It’s fun to watch them and see how they respond to danger, potential food, etc. I’m in suburban Twin Cities, near the Minnesota river so we usually see a lot of birds and other wildlife.
I love wood ducks! They are gorgeous.
We used to have a crow “family tree,” and the noise around dusk could be deafening. One of my dogs liked to chase the crows that were eating stuff in the gutters in the street when I walked him. But I’d stop him and tell him that the crows will recognize him and attack him.
Ours hung out at dawn. Which comes very early here in the summer.
Today there were sealions frolicking about in the water. Probably 6 or 7. I could watch them from the window of my home office.
I used to camp on the weekends I worked at the “local” racetrack. I swear those bas@#$ds knew which tent was mine because they’d park their butts in the tree above me and start cawing like crazy at 4:00 a.m. I would move my tent to another spot and they would pick the nearest tree again. And I’ve never thrown a stone or said a nasty thing about them. Maybe they were mad that I didn’t give them my breakfast sandwich.