Apparently I'm in good company with my butterfly bed that's stuffed with all their favorites and my oversize collection of bird feeders in the crabapple tree. I designed the butterfly bed specifically to attract them and so far am happy with the end result. There's still lots of space to fill in but it's getting there gradually. My folks planted with wildlife in mind before me so there are dogwoods, mock orange, lilacs & others to attract birds. There's a 40 ft. x 30 ft. area of white hydrangea growing on the southern boundary the birds use as a sanctuary. They stop off in the lilac bush on their way to/from the birdfeeders & birdbath. I've counted as many as 25 junkos in the mock orange during snowstorms, all puffed out like little gray tennis balls. Every year wrens nest in each of the three birdhouses hanging in the crabapple tree. One morning this summer I noticed my motion sensor light had come on. When I peaked through the curtains out the front window, there was a red fox stretching as tall as he could trying to raise his chin over the edge to get a drink from the birdbath. I felt so guilty, I washed out a big bowl & set it on the ground beside the birdbath for him. I kept it filled the rest of the season. No rain fell here from June-October so the critters were thirsty along with all my plants. The foxes took over a former rabbit & woodchuck burrow, made it bigger & raised 3 pups down behind my 80 ft. row of blueberry bushes. Yes, they ate all the blueberries this year. Like I said, there was a really bad drought here in southern New England. I took a few pictures through the window screen when they came out to play in the early mornings: A few lucky shots of robins enjoying the ancient plastic birdbath under the crabapple tree: I think the Cooper's hawks that nest down in the woods at the back help keep the rodent & bunny populations under control but the chipmunks can be a problem. Esme the snake makes her rounds of the flowerbeds and takes care of whatever varmints use the hosta leaves to hide under from the hawks.

Be sure to read reviews before purchasing, and try to get an infra-red. The Non-typical Cuddeback Capture worked great for awhile, but eventually the local critters grew tired of going blind from the flash and began avoiding the area. I moved the camera and caught some of my former victims by surprise the first night but they wised up even further and with this latest camera relocation; I've had zip. As for that suspected jaguar thing, I just don't know what to think. I keep finding scratched up places on the ground-just out of camera range. I had read that researchers in Mexico use skunk glands and Calvin Klein's Obsession to lure suspicious jaguars close enough to their hidden cameras for photos. So, I bought some Obsession and sprayed it on the ground in front of the camera two days ago. Today, near my camera, but off to the side, I found another scrape and there was that same skunky, rank, salty smell I'd smelled before near the scratch marks by the pond several days ago. No photo of course. The other animals stayed away as well, I noticed. There's probably a twitter about me out there: "Danger: bright flash. Avoid plastic boxes" 3-9-09, Picazo Farm logging road, possible ground scrape From 2-24-09, Tracks and scat Unless I actually get a photo I can't say for sure what's leaving the tracks and scrapes. I sent some of the track photos to several big cat "experts" but only two answered, giving vague, non-commital answers that seemed to indicate they were as mystified as I was.

I love the unlovable animals too. toads,lizards,snakes(except copperheads),i've killed 2 copperheads and i was sure they were copperheads,we are overrun with the things and my hound was bit by one. I still feel bad about killing them as i even take spiders,granddaddy longlegs and grasshoppers outside to avoid killing them. i have heard a panther a time or two but never seen one. Don't use pesticides except once when a Direct tv serviceman made me sprey the wasp nests around our porch.They had never bothered me. I have never seen a possum around here. They must all live in town. LOL Have all kinds of birds,bugs,and creepy things. I leave them all alone except for copperheads and if they left my dogs alone i'd leave them alone. Its really true that its a jungle out there and humans are the most dangerous animal of all. vickie

Bea, That must have been facinating to help with the oil spill! Oh great, so the Bald Eagles are teaching their babies how to chicken hunt! Lol !! DH got me a good camera and lenses for xmas so I can take some photos when the Eagles and owls are around. I just have to learn how to use it now lol. Owls sometimes come in late afternoon/very early evening. I never knew they did that! Scared the c*** out of me the first time a large one swooped down off a branch overhead. He apparently was just sitting over me while the chickens were making a ruckus and I was looking around for a hawk lol. I used to let my chickens free range a lot when we had 2 big Broad Breasted Bronze turkey hens (giants of the turkey world) around. I'm sure they would be no match for an eagle if it was intent on getting them but they would stand up real tall and pouf themselves up to appear even larger and make a lot of noise whenever the birds of prey were around. This gave the chickens time to hide. I left a lot of hiding spots around. Now I can only let them out if I'm gonna be home to watch them. I need some more turkeys. We live backed up to woods and a branch of a small river behind the property. Our back couple acres are very treed with, pines and oaks and other stuff mixed in. I think thats why there is so much wildlife here. We had deer in our front yard the other night. I haven't seen them that close to the house since we first moved here. The place had been empty awhile..