Where the wild things are

I thought I'd put all these photos and their related stories in a post by themselves, as the theme (and the title for it) seemed obvious.

On September 4 while I was cleaning house, I noticed a mourning dove on our deck railing. I was delighted, as I rarely see or hear them anymore. I thought it was because they have been displaced by Eurasian collared-doves, but large-scale monitoring and a detailed study have shown that isn't true. Whatever; I have loved mourning doves since I was a child in Southern California, so my visitor pleased me very much, especially since it stayed.

It was awhile until I noticed why; there was a fledging on the deck below! I watched them between tasks for hours; at the very end I actually saw two fledgings but didn't get a photo before one, and then the other, disappeared.

Woolly bears (Isabella tiger moth caterpillars) are back! I've only seen a couple on our place so far, but they always feel like a harbinger of fall. Time to get the sweaters out!

I saw this trio in our upper pasture on September 13. I think this was the doe who took on Poppy to defend her newborn fawns; they are now big enough to jump over the fence to get away. Interesting how differently colored the two fawns are.

On another day I noticed a vulture on a fence post just below the deck. Excited (I love turkey vultures, too), I tried to quietly slip out to get a photo of it unobstructed by the deck railing, but it – and FOUR others that I hadn't seen on the ground! – flew off. Still, with the good zoom capabilities of my iPhone I got the following photos.

I was going to end with some recent sky shows, but Blogger is declining to upload any more photos.

FINE. That's it for now from . . .