Nature

Living on 40+ acres we have a lot of nature around us. Part of the fun of living here has been meeting our critter neighbors. Thankfully my good friend Erin is a PhD in Biology and hasn't gotten sick of my emails entitled "what is this?" With her help we've been able to identify quite a few things in our new home. Some animals we have seen some just let us know that they have passed through. 

Here, in no particular order, are some of the things we have found.

1. Luna Moth - Back in our old apartment we found the big beautiful moth hanging out above our parked car. In our new home we found the caterpillar that turns into the Luna moth enjoying our tomato plants. This caterpillar was as big as my index finger!
   
   
2. Spiders - There are lots of spiders everywhere. This guy surprised Marc when he was stacking wood over the summer. Even though he looked really scary it turns out that he's a pretty common garden spider.
   
   
3. Birds - There's a kingfisher who thoroughly enjoys flying from bank to bank of our pond. He also likes to perch in the trees and watch whats going on. We also had some visiting ducks. At first we only counted three and then all of sudden 9 more popped up from underneath the water. We've also seen an egret and geese passing through. And then there was this little egg abandoned by it's mother in a tree outside the baby's room.
   
   
4. Pond Critters - From crayfish and snapping turtles to frogs and teeny tiny fish, our pond is exploding with life.
   
   
   
   I'm not 100% what this guy is below, I think river otter but it has yet to be confirmed. He made an appearance in the summer wandering back and forth along the edge of the water before diving in and then returning to the bushes. ***Update: We now think he is an American Mink (see comment below).***
   
   
5. Evidence of Animals - The previous owner warned us that a beaver once set up a damn at the bottom of our pond. While we haven't seen him yet we did find evidence that he's somewhere nearby.
   
   
   
   And earlier this week we found evidence that deer are creeping up near the house.
   
   

I'm pretty sure I've probably forgotten to mention a couple other animals that we have seen around here. Oh, like the fox that tried to eat the neighbors chickens, the bat that was briefly trapped in our attic or the squirrel that is still running around outside our house. On the other hand, I'm also sure that we haven't gotten close to meeting all of our critter neighbors yet.