May 30, 2020

Silly Animals, Stately Birds





Since I posted multiple photos from Shenandoah National Park yesterday, I thought I should share these three shots from there too. The deer looks surprised that I interrupted dinner.

I was pleased to get close to a wild turkey but it turned its head away before rushing into the forest.

The rest of today's pictures are from my back yard, beginning with a silly squirrel.



I'm still filling the finch feeder. Usually I stop feeding birds in April because bears wander around hungry in the spring. I've had a couple of feeders crushed by a bear in the past. But I'm hopeful that bears are not attracted to black thistle seed like they are to sunflower seed. Thistle seed does not smell good, in my opinion. Goldfinches like it, though.


We've watched a pair of Canada geese with their lone gosling as he's grown over the past few weeks. Today I saw a second single-gosling Canada goose family at the same time as this one which surprised me. Usually Canada geese have multiple goslings, so why do two pairs here have only one? Perhaps there's an egg-stealing predator around. 

There is also a family of hybrid graylag geese that visit our yard and they have five goslings.

12 comments:

  1. Hello, I am glad to hear Shenandoah opened, we are waiting till it calms down some and is little less crowded. Love the deer and turkey. Your goldfinches are so cute. Sweet shot of the goslings. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. I appreciate your visit and the comment too! Enjoy your day, have a great new week ahead!

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  2. Young geese are subject to a good deal of predation and are on the menu of hawks, owls, skunks, raccoons and others, so many do not survive. Single goslings, at least in my experience, are the exception, however. Let's all hope that this lone youngster makes it the rest of the way. We don't have bears as far south in Ontario as where I live, but they do seem to be expanding their range and one was reported near Toronto recently.

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  3. You have shown us a treasure this time! Wow...Taking time from your day to share this post is appreciated at I'd Rather B Birdin this week...thanks!

    Ps. Love the squirrel

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  4. The baby gosling are so sweet, horrible to think of them becoming food for predators, it's so tough out there in the wild. The goldfinches are beautiful birds.. can't imagine what it would be like to have bears prowling around 😱

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  5. I like those goldfinches. Thanks for sharing!

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  6. Such nice snaps! It's hard to pick a favorite.

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  7. The squirrel is devious but oh so cute.

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  8. That squirrel is funny! Such gorgeous goldfinches.

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  9. Glad to see the goldfinches still partaking of their favorite food. Like the little fluffy gosling.

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  10. Bem perto daqui temos uma igreja e do lado cemitério.
    bem antigo!
    (não achei mais o tradutor da sua página) bj

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  11. Nice pictures. I especially like those finches, that eye-catching yellow.

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