January 2017 Activity

Week 1
Have not seen the buck since the photograph was taken in mid December.  Perhaps he did not make it through the hunting season.
Deer fence around the garden seems to be doing its job. Only tracks seen seem to be from a housecat.
Three deer seem to be the usual at the feedlot.
Cold!
Strange, but for just one day during a warm spell, the leopard frog showed up in the water tank at the front.  It was there just one day-----probably read the weather forecast.
Cleaning out the purple martin birdhouse, getting it ready for the spring.

Week 2
Built 11 purple martin birdhouses, and 7 wren houses to give away.  Prices for cedar seem to have gone up, it now costs about 3 $ per bird house to build these.   Now up to number 22 with the wren houses, and 280 with the bluebird houses.  Now looking for some interested recipient.

Week 3
The Spring Lake Garden Club is the recipient of the batch of birdhouses.
Not a whole lot going on in the way of wildlife, so no observations.

Week 4
Three does in the far back side of the property.  Feeding mostly kitchen vegetable scraps.  Have not seen much of any other wildlife.  Some evidence of raccoons, but only occasionally.
Added two loads of cactus to the brush pile.

Week 5
Three more loads to the brush pile.  Trying to keep the height of the pile down so that it does not compact.  Compacted pile offers no refuge for small animals.
Vegetable scraps on the feed yard, with 3 does participating.

December 2016 Activity

Week 49
Same conditions for the wildlife. 
Loaded two more tractor loads of brush to the main brushpile.  This brushpile is compressing so rapidly that I often wonder if it serves the wildlife as a refuge.
Four deer, the regular does, show up to feed whenever I put out the feed, perhaps twice per week.  Its good to see that these deer still act wild and afraid of any human activity.

Week 50
Finally got a picture of the buck:

You can tell its almost dark when I caught him just coming from the water trough on the west side of the property.

Week 51
No observations this week

Week 52
Three more loads to the brushpile, stacking it so as to maintain some open areas.
We have not heard the coyotes in some number of weeks.  Squirrels and opossums have been rather scarce, and the raccoons are seldom seen.  Not sure why the change in numbers.