I thought I might be fun to share some of the fun stuff that goes on in our backyards during the Fall and Winter Seasons. I know the activity picks up around the bird feeders because I feed all year round. I have a flock of sparrows and finches that almost eat me out of house and home when they have their babies during the Spring and Summer. Late summer it slows down cause they have all grown up and moved on and the old ones just hang around and eat bugs, not too much seed.

I noticed the birds in particular today were flocking. Looks like starlings to me, but it is hard for me to tell what they are as they move around on the field. To top that off "Miss Piggy" my resident groundhog who lives under my feed barn was out and eating early this morning. She spent much of her time yesterday eating also. Not sure if she has a mate, Oh I hope not, but she must be getting ready for a rough winter. Then I noticed when I looked out another time one of the squirrels was sitting on the top of the feed barn just looking over the situation. The picture is easy to see if you enlarge it. He is sitting up just looking around like he owns the place. You must have guessed by now that I love watching my outside critters. It is so relaxing and enjoyable for me I can not tell you. I hope you enjoy sharing your critter movement, if not, you can read mine.Don't forget to enlarge the picture.
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That's a great photo of the squirrel JB! I enjoy watching the birds perch in and around my dogwood where they chow down on the bright red fall berries! What a great tree!

Neat picture of the squirrel, JB! He is watching you! I can't see the birds quite well enough to hazard a guess about what they are, but they're definitely congregating there.

I'll have to see if I can get some squirrel pictures. Ours are busy doing the squirrel thing of burying nuts and I am busy doing the gardener thing of yelling at them, "Not there! Not there!"

One critter I sort of got a picture of today is this slim spider. These old pink zinnias are still very active for the bugs so I am leaving them there.

Not sure if this is a striped spider or if it's a spider eating a striped bug:

Never saw one like that....I am not a fan of snakes or spiders, but I will look at them as long as I do not have to touch them.

Outside one of my windows is a branch of the old crepemyrtle and it's part of the squirrel highway. They use it to get onto the balcony that gives off my cousin's office, which is right next to my room here.

If I am quick enough, I might get a picture of one, on its way to see about the birdseed she puts out up here. Today, I wasn't quick enough and the camera was downstairs.

The squirrels in my yard spent all summer trying to figure out how to get into the bird feeder. Fortunately, their success was very limited! For their highway system, they seem to use the fence and the telephone wires.

JB I'm with you--I'm not a big fan of touching the snakes and spiders and other creepy-crawlies (even the caterpillars), but they can be quite interesting to watch.

Look who showed up to eat the birdie scraps. The neighbor's chickens.

Ha, JB, what a surprise (not) having the chickens there in your yard. I put out bird seeds and I just get backyard birds and some squirrels. You get chickens.

I seldom throw bread out because I do not use that much bread, but like pita bread that I did not eat, old rolls I throw out for the birds, groundhog (if he eats it), or whoever wants it....the chickens love the chase each other with bigger chunks of it in their mouths. It is like a game for them. The groundhog usually eats the bird seed, not the bread. The flock of starlings and other bigger birds usually cleans up the bread before anyone gets to it. I have had the groundhog, when he/she was smaller climb the fence and eat out of the one bird feeder. I had to move it because he spilled more than he ate.

I would really not like a groundhog.

Not exactly in my backyard but in the park across the street this afternoon I was watching a young red fox chasing squirrels trying to catch one. He didn't get any.

Fox do come out in the daytime? I did not know because the chickens and squirrels are scarce today again and two of the hens are missing from the other day. I blamed it on the hawk, except the hawk is not big enough to carry away one of those pullet hens.

Well, I think rural foxes hunt in the daytime but our Urban foxes here come out mainly at night. This young fox has been out in the daytime around here for weeks. He is the talk of the neighborhood. Lots of people have been telling me about the fox that comes around all day but this is the first time I have seen him myself.

We don't have fox, that I've seen or heard of, but we do have hawks -- we watched one the other day on top of a power pole, having his lunch. I tried for a photo but it was too far away to get decent focus. Probably a Sharp Shinned hawk, not big enough to be a Redtail. Though we have those around here too.

You be sure Lily is not near him. We were told if they are hungry they will attack cats and small dogs. I am sure she is never out of your sight anyplace the fox would be.

Yes, we want all our furry loved ones to be safe!

JB said:You be sure Lily is not near him. We were told if they are hungry they will attack cats and small dogs. I am sure she is never out of your sight anyplace the fox would be.

Oh yes, when I saw the fox I was walking with Lily. The Fox saw her also or at least he smelled her because he was sniffing the wind. I watch over her and had her on the leash so we stayed far away. It is a small Fox but still. Lily is small and vulnerable. Never out of my sight though. I keep her safe.

There is no doubt in my mind you will keep Lily safe. Our little Missy is so loud she scares our fox. She is about 15 lbs.We still watch her carefully when she is in the dog run. Usually Charle is with her when they are in the 5ft. fenced in area. Chunky Butt Charle would never be bothered. He is 35 lbs. He would probably play with the fox, where Missy is an attack schnauzer. Yappy like all of them.

This was not in my garden, it was in my bird room on my camellia. I thought it was a dead leaf and went to pick it up when it put up its little head and looked at me. My SIL came and we captured it. So adorable but I was afraid Charle would eat it and get sick if it decided to venture out into the other parts of the house. I now am worried that he will not survive the barncat outside ....oh well. I just can not keep him inside. He is a tree frog I think.

Cute little guy but probably belongs outside so good that you put him out there.