{"id":25525,"date":"2023-09-13T11:01:40","date_gmt":"2023-09-13T15:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=25525"},"modified":"2023-09-13T11:05:04","modified_gmt":"2023-09-13T15:05:04","slug":"summer-critters-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/13\/summer-critters-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer Critters 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

This summer has been a particularly bad time to get out and take photos around the grounds and in general around Dunwich. It basically rains all the time. And I mostly don’t care to walk around in the rain.\u00a0 Oh, I’ll do it from time to time just to escape from imprisonment but I’m not one of those people who enjoys “soft weather,” nope.<\/p>\n

But we have had a few sightings of the local vertebrate fauna.<\/p>\n

Starting with the lower rungs we’ve had the usual frogs and salamanders<\/p>\n

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And a few snakes<\/p>\n

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And more than our fair share of turtles<\/p>\n

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Including an attack on the main dwelling by this evil creature<\/p>\n

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With respect to birds I got this shot in a week or two ago in the puddle of a Great Blue Heron<\/p>\n

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And of course Camera Girl’s flock of turkeys show up for the casual photos around the bird feeder area.<\/p>\n

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As for mammals this year has been sort of barren of the unusual<\/p>\n

We’ve had some rabbits breeding in the fields<\/p>\n

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And a fox or two.<\/p>\n

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But yesterday something new surfaced.<\/p>\n

I was walking in the yard and as I passed the front shore of the puddle I saw vigorous rippling motion in the water and then a long thin outline breaking the water repeatedly.\u00a0 The impression was of a weasel shaped creature but of a decently large size.\u00a0 My impression was it was too large to be a mink.\u00a0 And it was very aquatic in its motions, very graceful.\u00a0 It was surfacing and diving in a continuous circle.\u00a0 Every once in a while I could see the yellow color of a fish being dragged up to the surface.<\/p>\n

I think it’s a river otter.\u00a0 I tried to take some photos but they were pretty bad.\u00a0 I only had a 90mm lens and it was relatively far away from the shore I was on.<\/p>\n

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I told Camera Girl to be careful about letting Little Evil Dog (LED) chase after anything near the water.\u00a0 Weasels in general are incredibly fierce and LED is far from a great warrior.\u00a0 I’d hate to see him become lunch for a large aquatic weasel.\u00a0 It would be embarrassing for all involved.<\/p>\n

Now I understand otters are tremendously able hunters of fish and the puddle is none too large.\u00a0 I could imagine this creature emptying it of fish in a matter of a few days.\u00a0 This would probably doom the giant snapper that also resides in the puddle.\u00a0 A regular disaster for the ecosystem.\u00a0 Ah, whatever.\u00a0 We’re Darwinists here in Dunwich.\u00a0 Survival of the fittest is our motto.\u00a0 So bring it on otter and I await the outcome.\u00a0 Let God and the Devil sort out their crews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  This summer has been a particularly bad time to get out and take photos around the grounds and in general around Dunwich. It basically<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3366,818,1263,3],"tags":[3341,173,1202],"class_list":["post-25525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-life-in-dunwich","category-ocf","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","category-photography","tag-dunwich","tag-wild-animals","tag-wildlife"],"yoast_head":"\nSummer Critters 2023 - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/13\/summer-critters-2023\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Summer Critters 2023 - Orion's Cold Fire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  This summer has been a particularly bad time to get out and take photos around the grounds and in general around Dunwich. 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