Snowman Tragedy

Earlier this morning, when the world looked fresh and new under a layer of snow, I decided to build a snowman. **Cue everyone mentally singing 'Do You Want to Build a Snowman' from Frozen. I know I did. **

I think he came out pretty well: a jaunty beret, strawberry eyes, a carrot nose, and quarter buttons. 

Isn't he cute?  I took the quarters off after the picture, as I didn't want any of my woodland visitors to try eating a quarter.

That was about 12 hours ago. I looked out the window just now, just to check and see how my little buddy was doing.  

Instead of seeing the outline of my little buddy, I saw a lump of shadows!  I had to go investigate. 

 

Something has decapitated my snowman!!

I don't think it got warm enough out to melt him so badly in just one day.  I think something has probably eaten his face. 

And it might have stolen his jaunty beret as well, else it is buried in the snow. 

I'll have to get a better look in the morning, try some Snowman Reconstructive surgery on my little buddy. 

How to Make Wildlife Friends

I don't live in a particularly rural area. My house is on a street that everyone seems to forget exists, sandwiched between Main Street on one side, and a three-lane highway on the other.  It's not New York City by any means, but I'm not out in the sticks either.  I can fit the entire backyard into one photo.

That's it, folks.  There is a fence between my garage and the neighbor's shed.  To the left is my driveway, and I am literally on the back steps to take the picture.  

It's not a great deal of real estate that I am talking about, and yet a surprisingly large number of woodland creatures have come to visit.  I'm convinced I couldn't have gotten more new friends even if I tried.  

To that end, I've decided to make a handy list of things that I did that seem to make me super-popular amongst the neighborhood animals.  You can use these tips to gain your own Snow White-esque following, or avoid these things like the plague in an attempt to keep unwanted visitors from your yard.  Your call.

THINGS THAT WILL GET YOU NEW WILDLIFE FRIENDS -- EVEN IF YOU DIDN'T REALLY WANT THEM

1)  Get a bird feeder.  I like birds, and I like hearing them out in the yard.  Jazz-kitty loves birds for an entirely more edible reason, and watching them keeps her amused when I am at work.  **Bonus tip: if you really want to see birds, throw some leftover popcorn out there.  They went crazy for it!**

We have some crows

Some Blue jays

A whole party going on here

And lots of these guys, who will beat each other senseless over a suet feeder.

Here's a helpful tip that no one gave me before I put up a bird feeder:  you best like squirrels as well.  Even if you have never noticed any squirrels in the vicinity before, if you put up a bird feeder they will magically appear.

They are masters at reaching the feeder.

They will hang out in the garden.

And they will readjust your security light for you.  

If you are really lucky, like me, they will also move into your garage for the winter.  No, it's not a good thing.  I haven't actually caught one in the act of exiting the garage yet, but I heard the scrabbling along the edge of the roof when I was filling the bird feeder the other day, and in the fall I saw one pulling leaves up into the eaves. They can stay there until Spring arrives with warmer weather, but then they are getting evicted.  I'm afraid it may turn into a Caddyshack scenario, but I refuse to blow up the garage -- I'm drawing the line there.

Bird feeders will also bring deer.  Creepy deer.  Don't believe me?  Click that last link I posted to my blog entry where I caught the big guy under my bird feeder munching away.

2) Put in a vegetable garden.  Doesn't matter how small it is, it will definitely bring you new animal friends.  You might think you are growing the vegetables to eat yourself, but you will be sharing.  Just accept that.  

If you didn't have deer coming to visit your bird feeder you will definitely get them coming to visit your garden.  I've also seen a rabbit and a groundhog, although they were too fast for me to get a decent picture.

Tip from a friend: plant marigolds at the edges of the garden and it will help ward off the deer.  I tried it this year, and it worked pretty well.  Some things still got nibbled,  but once again my brussels sprouts got demolished.  Apparently I am not the only one who thinks they are tasty!

Here's my cute little garden, complete with marigold protection.

I added more protection to give the plants a fighting chance at growing.

Brussels sprout carnage

3) Feed the neighborhood feral cats.  I will totally cop to doing this on purpose.  It was so cold, and they were so skinny, and I love cats.  I couldn't stand to see them out there starving to death.  I know they sleep in the shade in my yard in the heat of summer days, but I don't know where they sleep at night.  I only see them passing through in the evening, and I will feed them when I see them.  

Mama cat is on the left, the other two are her kittens.

This little one is the only one I have seen in recent months, which makes me sad.  I'm hoping the others were taken in by someone.

Word of warning, you can also attract unwanted guests when you put out cat food.  Apparently dry cat food is a delicacy for raccoons.  I heard a weird sound outside one summer night, and I thought at first it was one of the feral cats crying in pain.  I went out to investigate, and there was a raccoon, standing at the bowl of dry food and stuffing its face.  Skunks also find find Friskies to be awesome, as I discovered in a too-close-for-comfort moment.

Blue jays, the pushy assholes of the bird world, also will eat dry cat food.

Who, me?  I'm totally not eating the cat food.

4)  You best like deer.  I don't think you have to do anything to have them visit your yard, they just wander on through if you live in this area.  They can be creepy some times.  I honestly had know idea they were in my yard until my neighbor told me.  Now I see them all of the time.

Nope, I was absolutely not just in your yard.  Not at all.

Could you go back inside so I can come get a snack?  Thanks.

Bird feeders are awesome!

5) You can also attract bug friends!  I have mint growing along the side of the house, near the driveway.  Every year I get at least one praying mantis living in there.  

Hello, neighbor!

Do you mind if I have a snack?

I also seem to get a lot of grasshoppers in the same area, and in the front of the house.

I'm here too.  Mint is awesome!

The bumble bees seem to love the Rose of Sharon that grows next to the house.  I can take no credit for this, as it was here when I bought the place.

Peonies, while beautiful, attract ants.  Cut them and put the blossom upside down in water before bringing them into the house to keep the ants outside.

I also get lots and lots of honey bees, which is great!  Everyone needs to help out the honey bees.  I have a plant that a coworker gave me, and he told me it was a butterfly bush.  It's not.  It bears no resemblance to my mother's plants.  I have no idea what it is, but the honey bees love the mystery plant.  Sadly, I don't have a picture of it. 

So there you have it.  A handy list of things to do (or not do) if you want to attract (or not attract) all sorts of wildlife friends to your yard.  

 I make no guarantee that avoiding these things will keep wildlife from your yard.  They are going to do what they want, whether you like it or not.  Maybe if you cover your entire backyard in cement you might avoid unwanted visitors...but probably not.

And before anyone asks -- yes, I took all of the pictures myself.

In the Fog

A little advanced warning for you, friends:  this post is going to be very heavy on photography.  Just wanted to let you know, as sometimes it drives me nuts trying to get pages with lots of photos to load -- especially on my phone.

We've had an odd last couple of days here in terms of the weather.  Yesterday was snow, sleet, and rain.  Today was up into the 40s, causing quite a lot of fog.  I'm sure it was a pain if you had to drive any distance in it.  Personally, I saw it as a great opportunity to go out and play, to try to capture the fog in pictures.

It was a bit more challenging than I thought, as the fog was heavy in some areas and almost non-existent in others.  Plus, many areas were just a mess from the snow, and I didn't particularly want to experience getting my car stuck somewhere.

I eventually wound up at Longview Park, down by the Hudson River.  Let me start by sharing some older pictures of what the you would normally see if you were to visit the park.  I mean, the pictures of the fog are lovely and all (in my opinion), but not quite the same if you have nothing with which to compare them.

From earlier, less foggy days:

Looking South.  You can clearly see the Walkway Over the Hudson and the Mid-Hudson Bridge.  Pretty big landmarks.

The view looking North, toward Hyde Park.

Most obvious of all -- Highland, and the mountains in the distance, on the opposite side of the Hudson.

A view looking down along Longview Park, starring my mother, my niece, my nephew, and many geese.

Great!  We are all on the same page now as to what you would expect to see.  

I knew it was foggy when I headed out, but I truly did not expect how thick and heavy it was going to be -- especially down by the river.  As I stood looking across toward Highland it was quite impressive.  I was able to see maybe halfway across the Hudson River.  The meeting of the river and the fog was seamless.  It was like everything just stopped and turned into a blank grey canvas.  It was surreal, a bit like stumbling upon the edge of the world.

 No Highland visible, no geese, no one around.  Just some driftwood in the water.

No, the darker shades are not the other side of the river, just some shadows.

Remember that view looking South, where the Walkway and the bridge should be?  Not a trace.

Looking North.  Can't even see past the bit that juts out.

 This gazebo sits on top of a hill in Longview Park.  Normally there are beautiful views.  Today it was as if a curtain had been pulled closed behind it.

Someone else had been to the gazebo at some point, and they made a little star.

Looking at the Hudson from the top of the hill.

Even my car in the parking lot is starting to be absorbed into the fog.

There are train tracks on both sides of the Hudson River.  You can actually see them in the photo above, running underneath the power lines on the right-hand side.  A train happened to come down the tracks on the Highland side of the river while I was at the park.  I thought for certain I would at least see some lights, or a vague, slightly darker shadow snaking its way along the edge of the water.  I saw absolutely nothing.  It was so quiet other than the train, and the echo seemed different.  If I hadn't known the tracks behind me were empty it would have been hard to tell which side of the river the train was on.  I shot a short video.

Ghost train!  All the sound, none of the visibility.

That concludes today's adventures in the fog.  I did attempt to go out on the Walkway Over the Hudson as well, as I thought that would be pretty cool -- like walking in the clouds.  Sadly, it was closed.