Naked animals running amok! Videos here!

Feeling a bit guilty today: The number of visitors (not followers) to this blog is steadily rising -- thank you all! -- and I've been neglectful of late. 

The reason for my neglect is that I've been busy working on a book manuscript, sending out queries to literary agents (hint, hint), and completing edits on an article that's almost ready to go with the The Trumpeter: Journal of Ecosophy. Keep tuned for the latter. Querying agents is a lot like fishing, if I'm not mistaken, so I'm hoping my angling experience will be of help. The book manuscript's working title is Potomac Creek: A Natural History of Life -- On Its Own Terms. 

These are all signs of steady progress, but I simply haven't had time to post anything about the Creek. And I have so many nice story ideas left...

Fortunately, the Creek speaks for itself, especially in summertime.

Here are a few recent videos from our  farm's game camera, which my oldest boy sets out and monitors. I hate the brand name that appears on the camera images ("hyperfire"). Everything is so militarized in our country, like the "tactical" shorts my social media feed keeps trying to sell me. What the hell does that mean? Shouldn't they also make "strategic" shorts?

That said, the camera suggests a nicely balanced  diversity of animal life in the woods and swamp just below the barn. Unfortunately, not all images are perfectly framed. The wildlife doesn't always cooperate, but -- as you'll see -- they can be natural models, even hamming it up at times. And with longer days more images and videos are in daylight. I'll ignore the raccoons, opossums, and the like. I love the Native American names of these critters, but if we had a dime... 

And still the most exciting video we've ever captured was that of the bobcat, which deserved its own post last year. 

Let's begin with the ubiquitous deer.  We get videos of them all year long. But part of the fun is that we've started to recognize individuals. And turn up the sound! It's a steamy jungle out there.

This mama has a torn ear, perhaps from a fight with dogs or coyotes. We've seen her a few times. A resilient creature, she's managed to keep her fawn alive this summer. Lots of drama in her life, one supposes.

Here, we see (dimly, I'm afraid) a family of deer. They look healthy to me. There's so much food this time of year.

This one isn't camera-shy: 

Two fawns.

In the crowded deer category, this is my favorite. The proverbial young buck, with felt on his antlers, optimistically making his way through the thick. Not sure why the camera decided to cut abruptly. But a young male presumably still unattached is probably leading a pretty ephemeral life. So it kinda works.

When I think about it, there ought to be a crayon color: "deer." But enough of deer. Turkeys! As my mother said, you have to love this guy's confidence. We've nicknamed him Erdogan. But he's probably more democratic.

Perhaps Erdogan's feeling good because he's the papa of these chicks. (Apologies, but those two gun shots you hear are likely from neighbors, or my son target practicing. This is the Virginia countryside. The turkeys seem inured to the noise).

This next one is exciting. When we were kids, the farm's pastures were open and had quail in numbers. Since then the water has risen, we've let the hayfields rewild, and no quail were to be seen. So having these images appear on the camera is delightful and encouraging. I attribute them to local land conservation efforts. 

What of predators, ear-chewing or otherwise? There is no hierarchy of species. We humans like to say there is (and, of course, place ourselves at the top), but objectively there simply isn't. To say the lion is above the gazelle is arbitrary: yes, lions eat gazelles, but here are many more of the latter, so why not put gazelles above lions? And the grasses and bacteria ultimately consume them -- and us -- all. So, today we'll put the predators at the bottom of this post. 

We see them mostly at night. My video files aren't organized, but generally the clearest ones have been in winter. Here's the recently-arrived eastern coyote. I wrote about them here. Coyotes aren't native to Virginia. They came to Potomac Creek only in the last few years in response to the abundance of food and destruction of larger predators. They are wily that way. 

Perhaps the same coyote, trotting by with a nice bone.

This is very, very cool. Ever heard of the fabulous Potomac Creek HawkRabbit? Legs of a bunny, wings of a hawk? What are the odds a hawk would grab lunch right in front of the camera?

 

A fox in winter. We naughtily suspended a piece of meat to see what might happen. I'll hold to my  promise of no raccoon videos, but somewhere deep in our files is a humorous one of a raccoon trying his or her level best to get at it. This frustrated fox had no chance. Gotta learn to climb! But a nice, cinematic jump would have been appreciated. 

Who gets the final say today? Behold -- the most fearsome beast of forest and farm!

By the way, you can follow me on twitter at @3lions99, assuming the appropriately named naked ape Elon Musk allows it.