A Walk on the Wild Side

While the Covid quarantine didn’t change our day-to-day life at our remote mountain homestead, it did prevent us from spending our winter season on our sailboat in Mexico. As a consequence, we had lots of time wildlife viewing and enjoying nature right here at home. We even captured some of it on camera to share with you.

In spring the cactus and wildflowers bloom in beautiful colors, and the wild onions pop up like a lawn.

Butterflies and soon to be butterflies

This cute little cottontail needed a rescue. Mother cottontail left the babies in a shallow burrow near our cabin. When we found it, the ants had overrun the nest and this lucky little fellow was the only one left surviving. So, after the requisite cuddling, we set it nearby but away from the ants and made a covering with pine tree boughs in hopes that its mom would find it when she returned.

Here is a baby squirrel we saw in a juniper tree

Not all creatures are created equal. Everyone loves the soft and furry, but we have a soft spot for the less appreciated creatures too.

Full disclosure, I do NOT enjoy spiders. They frighten me. But the tarantula interests me. It is big enough and slow enough for me to see and study without fear. I don't know where they are going or where they have been, but they migrate through here each fall.

Now for our fine feathered friends. We built a pond with a waterfall which has really been a joy for us and all the desert’s thirsty creatures.

Most of our feathered friends are migrating through—only a few stay through the winter.

Everyone gathers at the pond

The woodpeckers are quite camera shy, but every now and again I capture them

The ravens are huge. They make the most interesting sounds and are fun to watch

I think the ravens must be quite territorial. We don't often see hawks, and when we do the ravens chase them away. So these pictures we took while hiking nearby

This beautiful sparrow hawk had to lay down and rest for a while. It was chasing another bird and flew into a window (don’t worry, after resting it was fine)

We had a pair of flycatchers build their nest under our porch by the front door. Once the babies started venturing out of the nest Jim screwed a branch up there so they had something to wrap their claws around outside the nest.

We enjoyed going out after a fresh snow to check out the animal tracks.

We get lots of deer grazing through and often stopping for a drink

and elk

and my favorite elk picture

After wondering what was stopping by the pond at night, we purchased a game camera. It turned out to be a great investment. We love getting up in the morning and seeing our night-time and early morning visitors.

This little owl is regular visitor. Our game cam has video function so we have seen it take a bath in the in the pond and float around on the floating islands in the pond.

Our most regular visitors are foxes. Based on their personalities from watching the videos, we think there are three that come (sometimes several times during the night). Sometimes two come at the same time. We thought they must be a mating pair and hoped to see them bring their kits, but so far not. Here is our best pictures of a fox who was kind enough to come at daybreak so we could see its beautiful coloring.

Our favorite wildlife encounter has to be the bobcat. It was a thrilling morning when we popped in the memory card from the game cam to see a bobcat had come to the pond for a drink. Though we had mixed feelings about having one of the top predators in our area in our yard--thinking of Lily of course. Then one evening about 7:30 while we were watching a movie, I looked out the sliding glass door and saw the bobcat sauntering across the yard as confident as can be. I was speechless and had a hard time communicating to Jim to look out the glass. I ran for my good camera and got some great shots. He has come to the pond several times, but this was the only time we've seen him during daytime.

I hope you have enjoyed our walk on the wild side. If you enjoy our blog, be sure to like and subscribe.