Our Resident Buck "Spicy"

Spicy is now approximately 15 months old.   His antlers grow at the rate of 1/2 inch per day!!  He will have a beautiful rack this year.  You can see his fawn pictures under the August and October 2009 blog posts.

Dragonfly

It's truly a dragonfly summer with 101 degree temps!!!

House Wrens - Almost Time to Leave the Nest

Our House Wrens appear to be almost fully grown.  The little ones are very near the entrance of the bird house and take their food from the parents at that location.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO3LLRU15ic

Ribbon Snake

While checking on our resident Black Rat Snake at the shed, I saw this Ribbon Snake sitting in the mugo pine tree about 4 ft away from the Black Rat Snake.  These snakes sure do like our shed area!!  Would one of my fellow bloggers please confirm and leave a comment that this is a Ribbon Snake and not a Garter Snake.  Thanks.

House Wrens

These 2 busy parents have been feeding their young for 4 or 5 days.  The second photo shows one of the parents removing bird poop from the nest box.

Black Rat Snake

This Black Rat Snake stayed on the flag stone in front of our shed all day.  It looks like it might be blind in one eye (see left and right eye photos below).   It was approximately 4-5 ft. in length.  We had a Black Rat Snake on the property last year....wonder if this is the same one?

Ring-Necked Snake (Deceased)

Discovered this Ring-Necked Snake at our garage door this morning.  We are wondering if it was left as a "gift" by one of our neighbor's cats.  We have 3 or 4 neighborhood cats who are constantly on our property looking for chipmunks and birds.....anyone have a good solution for keeping cats out of the yard????