Critter Watching

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Art Eatman

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I have a little hanging bird feeder dealie at the edge of the porch, at the eave. Various birds prove they're messy eaters, spilling seeds--and this brings in the quail, the doves, the rock squirrels and the chipmunk-sized antelope squirrels. An all-day long visitation. There is just something about the way the blue quail move that brings a grin, and the behavior of the antelope squirrels leads to the generic name, "Twitchy".

We throw kitchen scraps into the front yard; those commonly disappear overnight via coyotes and such. Ravens, also.

Just now (4:30 in the afternoon), looking outside, lo and behold and there is a fox, checking what's left of the leftovers. Okay, neat. Broad daylight, yet. But he's a greedy fox. One biscuit won't do. He wants two. So, take a biscuit in his mouth and try for a second. Nope, won't work. Put down biscuit #1. Stand with mouth agape. Pick up biscuit #2 and go for biscuit #1. Nope, doesn't work. Repeat process after circling around. Still doesn't work.

"Aw, to heck with it. One'll do for now." and off he goes with just one biscuit.

But I've really messed him up. Fran didn't eat one of her tacos, last night, and it's now out there in two halves. Oughta be interesting.

:D:D:D
 
But he's a greedy fox. One biscuit won't do. He wants two. So, take a biscuit in his mouth and try for a second. Nope, won't work. Put down biscuit #1. Stand with mouth agape. Pick up biscuit #2 and go for biscuit #1. Nope, doesn't work. Repeat process after circling around. Still doesn't work.
Click to expand...

Hee, hee, yep, sounds just like a canine - something my dogs would do. Entertaining.
 
Sounds neat. When I was a kid I grew on a ranch in Southern California. We had the only water for miles via natural spring. We also had probably the only lawn in the small town that we lived in. There always a number of gamble quail hanging around and quit the population of cottontails. They ended up being the lawn mowers. This went on for years. Now my dad has several bobcats that come around and eat the lawn mowers. Its always neat to go visit and watch the bobcats while having a couple of beers. I keep telling him he needs to shoot a couple of them before they start jacking around with his dog but he says they just stay away from each other. Who knows when he has to start mowing the lawn again maybe he will re think taking a couple of bobcats.
 
Bit of a backyard birdwatcher myself-a couple of unusual things I've seen:

Once saw a squirrel and rabbit in a Mexican Standoff-the squirrel would charge the rabbit, the rabbit would jump up and (facing squirrel) kick at the squirrel with his hind legs. Squirrel charged him ‘bout 6 or 7 times before he went about his business.

Tossed a sleeve of old Saltines out in the yard-a crow swooped in, and figuring he’d get a few of ‘em, I watched as he picked up one, went to the second and bent his head forward, opening his mouth to pick up a second, letting the first one slide across the top of the second cracker. He repeated this until he had about 15 crackers in his mouth, and darn if they weren’t stacked as neatly (in his mouth) as they were when in the sleeve!

And have you ever watched a squirrel tunneling in the snow?
 
Envious that you can do this from the porch. I have to travel ten minutes to see a fox, but urban wildlife are entertaining by their own rights.

The fox I vist, let's me come to his house now on a pretty regular basis. I first scared the dickens out of him when I ambled up to him eating something on a deadfall on the edge of an oxbow lake that he calls home. He was just a tawny blur then. Soon after that, I saw him again, and again he was just a blur. Over the past year, though, he is a little less skittish. It is no wonder that dogs are man's best friend because in less than a year, he has "warmed" up to the idea of me being a regular in his parts.

The place is right off the interstate, but might as well be in the wilderness since no one ever really goes there. There are a few left over cypress trees that have to be at least five hundred years old. And there are ducks, deer, coyotes, eagles, at least one fox, gar, bass, bream, squirrels, and all kinds of creepy crawly critters galore. I first went there looking for a decent close-by bird watching place and soon fell in love with all the wildlife available for viewing.

Still envious of being able to do it from the back porch. Maybe one day...maybe one day.
 
Forgot to add the biscuit story. Had a black lab once who was the best damn dog a man could ever have. Sorry about the language, but he deserves it. He will always be my favorite dog.

Anyway, your biscuit story reminding me of that son of a gun because one day he decided to steal some biscuits off the counter. We caught him in the act, but did not stop him because we could tell he really thought he was being sneaky. Gosh, he was as human as a dog could ever have been. Anyway, one by one he stole about eight of them, but did not eat all of them. He was burying them in the garden. You all might not find any pleasure in this old story, but by golly, I am crying like a baby right now. He was the finest dog there ever was.
 
First of all, Art thanks for starting the thread. I surely thought if a thread had a chance to "grow legs," it was this one.

Come on fellow critter watchers, I want some stories. Just today, I saw a Red-tailed hawk successfully ambush a field mouse or vole or something as I waited on an exit ramp (again my daily experiences are limited to urban wildlife.)

It is sad when three neighbors can look into the same backyard and see the same thing---such is city dwelling. But for the eye that sees, they could have all watched a faithful pair of Mississippi Kites build their nest, incubate their eggs, feed each other, feed the hatchlings, and finally fledge their babies.

Darn it, the eye that sees could have also seen the Robins in the neighbor's gutter, or if their eye really looked hard, the Mourning Doves in my honeysuckle hedge.
 
I love watching wildlife when hunting and otherwise - once saw a bobcat stalk my turkey decoys - he was creepy-crawling up to them, but when they didn't move, he figured it out, I guess, and left.

And this didn't happen to me, but did to my friend - pretty funny - he was in a tree stand deer hunting, and this very large woodpecker lands on the tree right next to him - the species that are over a foot long. Has no idea my friend is there, being still and all. My friend waits a couple of seconds then suddenly moves his hand and goes "Boo!" to the woodpecker. This bird was so scared, it evidently had a form of a seizure or something from fright, because it froze up and fell backward all the way to the ground like a stone, as if shot in the CNS - then a few seconds later, it got up and flew off.

John, that sounds like a might fine canine you had there. Hard to lose furries....
 
Yeah, Son was a mighty fine Lab, he set the standard for every Lab I will ever own.

Premium, can I call you Premium, Dr. T.H. Winslow? (Seriously PM me if I need to change my sig or whatever)

Sitting still in a deer stand, or just sitting still at a base of a good tree, will yield some secrets of the forest that few get to appreciate. I tell you what, for those with patience, go sit in the bush for twenty minutes or more, let the birds get to know you, and see what happens.

It's the birds' warning calls that alert most critters. Learn the opposite of the phoooooshe....phoooshe....phoooshie calls or a few other alarm calls.
 
I have enjoyed reading these posts. Great to see people appreciate wildlife as something to look at, rather than just as game.
For me, sitting on my deer stand during muzzleloader season in southern Ohio usually enabled me to see some nice animals. I like to look at birds as a hobby besides hunting.
Last time I was out we had a little snow, so you could see through the woods alot easier. Had a gray fox run by, a couple pileated woodpeckers hacking away on a log close by, a group of Eastern Bluebirds, a little brown creeper that hitched up my deer stand tree within a foot of my face (never had any other bird that close!), and at the end of the day a coyote that trotted up, peed on my tree, sat for a little while looking around, trotted off, returned about 15 minutes later and sat and watched me for 5 minutes before going on his way.
About 15 minutes later had a doe come up and graciously donate herself to my freezer. Great day!
 
What a pity that non-hunters can't appreciate how much hunters really love wildlife.

I live in an urban setting, but I'm lucky enough to have some open spaces around, and I've seen skunks, opossums, raccoons, and many different kinds of birds (including a roadrunner) in my back yard. It's always exciting to see something new, whether it's a hawk diving on some starlings or a lazy opossum wandering by.
 
OK, I'll add a story...

Art--Neat that you have such a variety of wildlife right in your own back yard. (A cliche' come true! Hah!) Most of us have to go somewhere for critter watching.

Was out deer hunting one snowy year, sitting quietly on a log, overlooking a likely deer trail, when a Snowy Owl flew in & landed on a branch perhaps 30 yd. in front of me. It was a quiet day, what with the snow and no people around. Clear, sunny, no wind. There was perhaps 10" of fluffy snow standing on the ground.

Snowy Owls are pretty distinctive. They are white, with dark flecks, all over. Normally they live to the far north in Canada, but some times a few come south if the hunting is bad. They are day-flying birds, unlike most owls. So, I sat still and watched.

Quiet! Now I'd always known that owls fly quietly, so as to be able to fly in on unsuspecting prey, but had never really understood. This large bird (better than 2' tall, head to tail, sitting; perhaps a 3 1/2' wingspan) made NO SOUND flying. Nothing. No whoosh-whoosh of wings, honestly, humans never invented stealth flight.

So, in it flew, and perched. Then it commenced to look around, I can only assume, for prey. That bird defined the word attention. It bent forward on its branch, and LOOKED. Really looked. I'm glad it wasn't looking for me.

I just sat still as a stone and let things take their course.

Anyhow, that owl looked, and looked--you couldn't have covered the land any more closely with a microscope. It must have seen some change in the snow, or something, for suddenly it was in the air, again, no sound, flew a very short distance, like 2 wing flaps, and then pounced. It just suddenly fell out of the air, talons first, into the snow. It picked up something--I never did see what--and flew off with it.

So I thought I'd seen a heck of a wildlife show. But I wasn't done yet. Continued to sit on my log--remember, I'm supposedly deer hunting--and started to hear small movements in/under the log. Pretty soon a little white weasel darted out into the clear space on the downwind side of the log, almost between my feet. It was perhaps 8" long, with bright beady black eyes. It looked up at this huge thing on its log (me) and decided that I was neither predator for it, nor prey. Then it darted back under the log, to continue its hunting.

With predators like these two around, boy I'm glad I'm not a mouse!

It was quite an afternoon. Never did see a deer. But wouldn't have been out there, nor have been that quiet, if I hadn't been deer hunting.

I believe it was Yogi Berra who said that you can see a lot just by watching.
 
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Deer hunting on the homestead.

50 degrees and the ground is pretty comfy from my perch overlooking the creek. Mr. Fox starts tearing through my (his?) woods. He is in a playful mood. He runs up tree trunk and leaps to a branch with the agility of a squirrel. Does his Mr. Fox dance in the fallen leaves near the edge of the meadow.

He freezes. There is something in the leaves. He snatches, tears and Mr. Mouse is gone in a flash. Now even happier he tears off into the woods. I am too happy to draw a bead and they aren't in season anyway. I don't shoot much that I can't eat.

Another hour goes by. No deer. Then surprise, surprise a ground hen alights in a tree across the creek. Good news then only one reason for her to be "up there". Look at that I have been sitting here all day quiet like thinking I had the drop on mother nature and never noticed the poults watching me.....
 
I don't normally blind hunt, but one time I opted for the box, I watched a raccoon nearly empty the feeder. He found himself a good place to sit, and he just kept turning the little mechanism and dropping corn out. While he was doing that, some quail toddled in and started to munch on the corn. Not too long after that, a rabbit showed up.

Made me wonder how often he fed his friends like that. :D
 
My best pal lives on a small acreage and is an avid bird watcher/feeder. Smitty loves his raptors, as do I. This time of year, deep winter, he'll run an extension cord and place a birdbath heater in a large saucer directly upon the ground. He places this in the center of a fairly large clearing.

He tells stories of rabbit tracks ending mid-stride. You see, he has more than one great horned owl nests nearby. Wingtip marks are also evident astride the culmination of the rabbit tracks. Birds-of-prey need to feed, too.
 
Husker, one of the things I miss most form Minnesota!!! Se, with enough patience and enough fresh snow, one can interpret a story or two.

I am no tracker, but I was beginning to learn sign in snow and just need to learn to extrapolate the data to dirt/mud down here in the South.
 
Back at the old family place outside Austintatious--now covered by subdivision--I used to drag a shredder around, mulching the dead johnson grass and weeds in some fifty acres or so of the grazing land. I looked back one day after working over maybe fifteen or so acres, and I'd drawn an audience: Several redtail hawks, two foxes and a coyote. They were after field mice. The little boogers didn't have near the hiding places as before, and the predators had shown up for supper.

At Terlingua, aside from coyotes in the yard and the regular visitation by quail, doves and ravens, I had a bocat wander across the porch one afternoon. One night I had a mama javelina and a shoat attracted to the porch by the spilled grain. Raccoons are halfway regular visitors, as well.

Cougars come by the burn pit from time to time, and now we have a fair number of aoudad hanging around the Creek. Even seeing a few deer near the house.
 
Saw this about 10 yards away from the house in the back yard in July...we also get raccoons, red and grey squirrels, ducks, an occasional fox and a few hawks.

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Had the fan-type sprinkler running in the back yard and there were ‘bout 4 doves in a straight line under it taking a shower-looked like an aerobics class! As the sprinkler oscillated they (in unison) would lift and stretch one wing and lean to the opposite side. As the water came back across them, they’d stretch the other wing and lean to the opposite side. This went on for about 5 or 10 minutes before they’d had enough.
Also saw a bunch of baby robins going nuts over the water dribbling out of the sprinkler when it was off-guess it was the first time they’d seen water?

Once saw a hawk perched on a limb ‘bout 10 feet directly above a squirrel that was apparently oblivious to the danger he was in (squirrel was eating bird seed on the ground). The hawk, looking straight down, watched him for about 5 minutes with his tail twitching like a cat’s. I kept waiting for him do drop down on the squirrel, but when he never did, I thought maybe he figured he couldn’t move fast enough just by dropping on him. When he flew away, I watched for about 5 minutes figuring he was just getting some distance in order to get a flying start at the squirrel, but I never saw him make a pass.
I once thought I had a cat getting some birds at the feeders as I would regularly find a ball of feathers in the yard, but I later decided that it was just the hawk making a pass by the feeders every couple of weeks.

I also feed the squirrels-I often leave peanuts on the windowsills (they sit up on their hind legs and look in the kitchen while they eat). With a lot of work, I had managed to tame a few of ‘em-I could open the back door and whistle and they’d answer just like a dog ‘cause they knew the peanut shack was open! (Actually had one come up to me while I was cutting grass on the riding mower).
The females seem to be less skittish than the males-day before vacation, I had the bedroom window open and was feeding a female shelled peanuts by hand (they tend to run off less than they do with the ones in shells). I had my arms crossed and my chin propped up on the windowsill, and darn if she didn’t climb my arm to about my shoulder (it was horizontal) and sniff the peanuts I keep in a jar by the bedroom window-after checking it out, she backed out and continued eating.
When I came back from vacation, I was having no luck with my “pets”. ‘Bout a week later my next-door neighbor said he was on his back porch when “all these squirrels just started running towards him”. He said he got a little skeered, thinking they might be rabid, so chased ‘em off with a stick-guess that’s why my pets wouldn’t let me hand feed ‘em after I got back from vacation!
 
It takes about a month of steady effort, but you can tame quail to right at chicken gentleness. At the same time every day, I'd go out and scatter hen scratch, making as good an imitation as I could of the, "Chik-chir, chik-chir..." sound that blue quail do when they find some sort of yummy. After a few days, they'll be nearby when this game gets going. Another week, and they'll come in halfway close. Then, do the call while sitting in a chair and then tossing grain. Another week and they'll eat between your feet.

People ain't the only animals that groove on welfare...
 
I went for a drive again through a local national forest yesterday and realized a few things. Growing up in the city but having a dad who hunted gave me an edge over my friends when it came to spotting animals. When my friends and I went camping, it seemed like I was always the first to see a deer and sometimes the only one.

Yesterday as I scanned the ridges and woods, I realized why I probably saw more game than they did. I was not "looking for deer." I was looking for movement, colors, horizontal shapes, a flick of an ear or wave of a tail. I was seeing the forest as a whole and not looking too hard at individual things. It was as if I was looking at everything and nothing at all at the same time.

Anyway, I didn't see much yesterday, I was actually scoping out a west facing ridge for a second date sunset opportunity for today. Just thought I would share my epithany. I never really wondered why I tend to see more game than my other city dwelling friends until I drove through the forest with this thread in mind.
 
Art, wait until you start seeing green jays at your birdfeeder.

I understand they're moving further north every year, and I've seen them at our place down in Goliad.

They're real pretty and can make a great picture with the cardinals if they aren't running them off.
 
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