Sanctuary!
Similar incident in Winter Park, Florida. I will never convince my husband that squirrels are carnivores.
I should have mentioned this 280 posts ago, but I grew up in the Balto area and NEVER saw a Baltimore Oriole (except for those bums at Memorial Stadium and where did they get their colors – black and orange – for the uniforms, anyway?)
Haven’t seen Mama Spider in almost a month, the web is a shambles, but the egg sacs are still there, patiently waiting for the time they will be unleashed on an unsuspecting world.
Saw a big ol’ golden eagle perched on a big sagebrush on my delivery route, right along the roadside. Gave me the stinkeye as I slowed down to look at him. Stood probably just a few inches shy of three feet tall! Then I rounded a narrow butte about a half-mile further, and spooked three more up off of a fresh-looking pronghorn kill.
Yesterday I had a big bald eagle fly parallel to me for a quarter-mile or so, felt like I could have reached out the window and tickled his feet!
Not quite as majestic as a golden eagle, but walking the dog around the neighborhood this a.m., we noticed a squirrel absolutely SHREDDING a neighbor’s newspaper. In fact, it looked as tho it was tearing off strips approx 1" wide. As we approached, it scampered up a tree with one piece in its mouth. I assume it is building/refurbishing/insulating its nest.
It is neat, this time of year, with the leaves down, seeing all of the birds’/squirrels’/hornets’ nests.
Came across a juvenile bobcat on the Hunting Hollow trail in Henry Coe yesterday. I managed to get a silhouette pic before he scampered off into the undergrowth.
Wow, orioles, bobcats, eagles! 
The noisy-ass hairy woodpecker is now a regular visitor to the suet. He has no problem announcing his presence. Loudly.
Yes, that does look like them actually. And all the other ones in the neighborhood.
Heh. The last couple of days, I came home to find our pair enjoying the sprinkler system watering the bushes outside our gate when I came home. As I approached they fled under and between the metal bars of our gate and fence to inside the grounds, thinking they were reaching safety. Then … I opened the gate!! [eek emoji] They were convinced I was chasing them.
More buzzard news. Haven’t seen so many recently - I kinda think that after a very good year for them it’s inevitable that limited food resources will thin down numbers, and that’s what I’ve been seeing. Anyways today, a misty day, I was out on the bike. As I reached the highest point on the route, I started to ride into some mist, and I heard a buzzard mewing very close by. I was riding and scanning the sky above me, wondering if a buzzard would be visible through the fog (and also, why would they be flying if visibility was too poor to hunt? Can they see in fog…?) - when a huge bird burst out of a tree just in front of me, at head height, no more than six or seven feet from me. Dear lord, they’re big close up - magnificent.
j
No wildlife sightings to speak of on my hike today, but I did pass by this rather impressive mistletoe-laden oak tree
That is cool!
Indeed impressive @blondebear what a neat picture!
Five golden eagles, one impressive bald eagle, and a small murder (a manslaughter? An assault?) of crows all sharing (!) a roadkill deer…
Last night at the end of my route I also saw a big fat badger, then a very fluffy skunk.
Oh, and vigintillions of deer and pronghorn, but around here that’s like saying “I saw grass”.
Was just now out in the back yard with my dog when I heard a honking from above. Looked up and there was a flock of Sandhill Cranes flying over, all bright in the sunshine. Absolutely stunning!
Speaking of large birds, I caught a glimpse of a California Condor today circling up above the High Peaks trail at Pinnacles National Park.
Saw a Loggerhead Shrike this morning. Not quite rare in my area, but not terribly common either. I can go a year or three without seeing one.
Always a treat. Predatory songbirds, like predatory mice, go into a special category of cool.
Crossing the bridge to the laundry yest. morning:
[sung to the tune of the 12 Days of Christmas]
4 herons [Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Tricolored Heron, Little Blue Heron]
3 Hooded Mergansers
2 Pied Billed Grebes [these 5 are likely the same individuals I’ve seen here for the last two winters]
1 Wood Stork
1 Belted Kingfisher
1 Mallard
And a Pileated Woodpecker in an oak tree.
I saw a couple of white deer today. And a whole bunch of guys in the odd camo/blaze orange mix of hunters. Hope the two don’t mix.
We had a sapsucker, sucking sap (there’s holes all over the tree trunk from those guys!):
And my favorite woodpecker showing off how he can eat upside down:
And just showing off how pretty he is:
A Great Blue Heron.
In early December.
Carrying a stick, presumably towards a nesting site.
Herons in this area typically lay their eggs sometime in March or April.