Nature pictures!

Winter was so quiet up here. With the warmer days have come the sounds of … yes, tourists, but also nature! I've been snapping pictures when I can. Time to share!

Let's start tame. Deer are our constant companions. The neighbors told us that the next house over used to feed them regularly. We've seen up to three at a time wander through our yard. We even scared a little spotted fawn out of the pushes behind the garage a week ago. That one was too quick to photograph, so I only have the one above, wondering why I'm staring, to share.

Low-light pictures are tough … but this moth has a winspan of six inches or more! I searched for common moths of Wisconsin, and got over 400 hits, so I haven't yet identified the exact variety. This one first showed up late at night while Amanda was up reading. She thought it was a bat before she got a good look. It makes a ton of noise trying to get through our front window to reach our lamps.

The WI DNR has many webpages dedicated to informing the public that this is not an Asian Longhorned Beetle. It is a White Spotted Sawyer. It eats old dead pine trees. Hopefully the old dead pine trees nailed to the outside of my house are coated in enough paint to be unappetizing!

Finally, the one our neighbors have been telling us about since February. They had seen, and plugged, holes burrowed into their hillside, but never the actual animal. Well, today, about ten seconds after watching a chipmunk alert and skitter off the driveway, across the road comes this beautiful fox. The chipmunk must have run into the wood pile, because the fox spent several minutes investigating.

… which gives me an excuse to post one project picture: the new shelter into which I need to move that wood pile. This design is based on free plans you can download from the EPA. It goes up pretty quick, when the heat and the flies will let you get to it!