The deer herd seems to have left the area — we saw them in early December in broad daylight, gathered around on the path to the community playground, and one young deer appeared to be injured — it wandered into our street and tried to hide in somebody’s entryway overhang. The other deer were looking but wouldn’t come down the path into our street.
DD and I had just come home and we managed to make noises from across the street and coax the injured deer back out to the front yard and then to the path where the herd had been, but they had left the immediate area where we could see them… and we could only hope that the injured deer had been able to catch up.
I think maybe somebody had reported them, but maybe they simply decided this was not a safe area?
So anyway, as of the new year, I had moved the trailcam closer to my pond so we have a view of part of the pond and the area of the back yard beyond.
The opossum seems to have made my backyard one of its stops and appears frequently. According to online information, they don’t carry rabies, they do eat insects and possibly small rodents, and are not likely to eat garden produce, although it DID climb the mulberry tree one night so I may still have to worry about the fruits.
However, I’ve had some orange halves out there for birds and the opossum hasn’t touched it. It seemed more interested in some torn up old bread.
I also made low level feeding stations — primarily — for the wild birds, but squirrels are, of course, regular visitors along with the birds. Mice or voles have also appeared on a couple of nights. (They show up in the night vision video mostly as two closely set, glowing eyes running around like a maniac.)
I’ve put less mature squash seeds with the inner strings as well as mature extra seeds that I’m not saving, and that has been a great hit with most of the animals.
I’m also leaving stale chips and pretzels along with bread. (Squirrels preferred plain corn chips over Doritos, btw. and picked a pretzel over Doritos…)
There is a second cat with white muzzle and 4 white socks that occasionally visits.
Birds so far: Male and Female Cardinals, Juncos, White Throated Sparrows, Blue Jays, finches (haven’t ID’d — likely House Finches, possibly Gold Finches too), Mourning Doves, Mockingbird….
…DD’s are starting to say we need at least another trailcam, possibly two more for other sides of the house….
