Today's Post is Brought to You by the Letter "B"

Last week was a busy week in my back yard.  The beginning of May, I changed the batteries in my motion sensor cam and redirected it.  I was hoping to catch the edge of the swamp as there are always lots of prints in the mud under my viewing log.  The black flies were eating me alive so I didn't take the time to change the date and time.  I finally retrieved the camera at the end of last week.  It was FILTHY!!  All muddy and a big glop of I don't know WHAT in front of the motion sensor.  I brought the whole thing up to clean it off and reviewed my catch.  I think this guy's responsible for the condition of the camera.  I chose a blurry photo of him to spare some gory details.  The horizontal log (the bigger of the two) is my viewing perch to survey the swamp.  This guy (eleven or twelve, I'm guessing) is apparently hunting frogs just beyond my log.  He knows my camera is there and sometimes ignores it and other times performs.  This particular day he drops to his knees and waggles the dead frog in front of the camera and then I'm guessing he left the frog on top of the camera as a gift for me.

Something else found it first (THANK GOODNESS) and had a tasty snack, leaving my camera rather dirty in the process.  I cannot say exactly what it was as it was much too close to the camera, but we're guessing it could have been a young Black Bear.

 My daughter took this shot out my office window, maybe 25 feet or less from the house.  Mid-afternoon she got a call from a neighbor across the street saying the Black Bear was crossing the road into our yard.  Before my daughter could grab the camera or bang on the window, he had grabbed a bird feeder.  He is sitting just on the other side of the stone wall, working on the contents of the feeder.  She took a few pictures and then opened the window and yelled.  Our day nurse was headed home and banged a pot and pan as she crossed the yard to her car!  The young bear came back that evening for the front feeders but I had already grabbed one.  I could have had an amazing shot as he stood on his hind legs to pull the thistle feeder down but I've already lost two shepherd hooks to this hungry guy.  Instead of grabbing the camera, I slammed the front door and he took off like a shot.

One final shot from the swamp cam, a Bobcat!  I have the camera set for a burst of nine pictures and only got this one!!  Wish it would have captured his face but I'm just thrilled to have finally caught a picture!  Two summers ago I had a Bobcat kit chasing a bird in my backyard and I don't think many people believed me.  A picture is definite proof!