Today in nature I saw

Oh my gosh, you guys! Look what I found out by the fence!

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That really made my day. I’ve always heard that their mamas leave them alone while they go to the store or whatever, but was never lucky enough to see one. It didn’t seem to mind me being close to it, and I restrained myself from petting it or giving it a kiss on the nosie.

I also saw this beautiful corn snake.

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A pretty good weekend, all told!

That will put a smile on your face!

Nice, I’ve been waitng for my deer to drop their fawns any day now as well.

Aww, cute (both of them, actually). We have had deer leave their fawns in our yard. It’d be nice if they’d ask if we’re up for babysitting before they do it though :wink:

On Saturday morning the water in front of our house was completely calm. I heard load breathing. A small pod of Orcas made their way past our house. At least one mother/calf pair. It’s rare to see them here. I’ve probably seen Orcas here only 3 times in the past 20 years. (although they’re easy to miss if you don’t look out at the right time).

Interesting sky tonight.
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I was housed in a military barracks up the hill from the bay and at night I could hear the sea lions barking.

Yikes, maybe too interesting!

Yes, that’s very close to the Naval Post Graduate school and a Coast Guard station. I’ve also seen a lot of Army and Air Force uniforms in the bars around there.

Sea Lions - Naval Officers - same thing right?

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The house dog has been giving me a really bad time at outside time, more interest in sniffing around everywhere rather than tending to business. Mrs. D went out to wash her car this afternoon, caught this guy out by our bird feeder. From what I can tell in her pictures, it’s a yellow-be;;ied marmot. 18 years of living on this place, the very first time we’ve seen one. Western Oregon, Cascade foothills, 1200’ elevation.

He looks cuddly!

Them’s fightin words! :wink:

Yeah, not so much in my eyes. Caught the terrier sniffing around, saw him grab something and eat it - probably marmot droppings. That could explain how he managed to eat a rock and cost me almost $5k in vet bills to get it out of him :face_with_symbols_on_mouth:

Mostly 'cause I had my long-distance glasses on when I types it, and didn’t notice the typo!

First gray catbird sighting of the season:

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Fleabane, with some sort of small insect

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Check out this leucistic fawn our neighbor found! (Foot for scale) He always gets the top-shelf wildlife over at his place because he has a pond on the property and not as many idiot dogs.
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We are really having a great year for snakes! All harmless so far. This one is a black rat snake; he shook his booty at me and even lunged as I tried to shoo him off the porch, so I let him be.
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Stressful time at my house.
Once again a robin built her nest on top of a motion light that is above the dogs’ fenced area. The babies are pretty big and will probably leave the nest any day now, but I don’t know what to do when that day happens. They will drop down right in the dogs’ area. I have no other place to let the dogs out. They will surely be interested in a baby bird hopping and bopping around. Last year we never saw the babies. I’m not sure if the babies were taken by a crow or just didn’t thrive. I wonder if I see the babies on the ground if I could put them on the other side of the fence. I read that the parents still feed and care for them until they can fly away. I don’t know what to do.

Then, as usual, we have the mama mallard and her babies. She likes to take them across the street (a very busy street) for who knows what. There isn’t any water over there, just woods.

I don’t even want to look out of my windows!

My sympathies! I found a chilly baby wren on the ground this morning. I put him back in the nest, but I don’t think Mama’s coming back.
I wonder if you could construct a sort of makeshift slide for your robins to make sure they wind up outside the dog run?
As far as the mallards, I would put up some duck crossing signs! Couldn’t hurt!

Yes, you can do this.

Suddenly the baby robins aren’t in the nest and we never noticed them on the ground. My husband and I are telling ourselves that they made it out of the nest, got out of the enclosure and are hiding in the bushes somewhere. We feel better thinking that way. And it could have happened!