Two nights ago (sometime near 1:00 a.m.) I peered outside to the moonlit snow and noticed a fox eating birdseed thirty paces from my porch. His size (smallish) and pointy ears (comical) reminded me of our youngest dog and I tried (without luck) to snag a photo. Last weekend I noticed a fox (same one?) dashing across the lake toward our wooded waterfront. Used to see foxes near our other house across town, but haven’t seen any for years now.
Yesterday I saw the ermine (stoat/short-tailed weasel) that runs along our farmer’s wall. This creature moves much too quickly for me to photograph. Last month he (she?) was white – now his coat is brown. I sprained a finger today and can’t type well, so for more on ermine I offer this “Creature Feature” by Catherine Schmitt of Bangor, author of The President’s Salmon: Restoring the King of Fish and its Home Waters and posted by the Natural Resoruces Council of Maine here: http://www.nrcm.org/nrcm-creature-feature/ermine/.
Best of all, this morning as I rushed to get out the door ahead of the storm I noticed my friend the barred owl sitting about three feet from the foundation of my house. She was watching and listening to the birds and (and small rodents) and eventually flew off, but not before we’d glanced at each other a few times through two different windows. Since she didn’t mind me making crazy eyes over her I eventually cranked a window open and asked her if she was okay and she blinked at me and let me take a few pictures.
Now I see red winged blackbirds fighting blizzard conditions. I am being quite liberal with the bird seed.
The Nature of Maine 