My Wife: I’ve seen reports that bears are up and about. Time to bring in the feeder.
Me: Seems awfully early.
My Wife: You said that last year.
Me: I did? Ok, after the weekend.
My Wife: That’s EXACTLY what you said last year. And then when did the bear eat our feeder?
Me: Errr… like Monday night I think.
My Wife: No, it was Sunday morning.
Me: We’ll compromise. How about Saturday night?
SATURDAY, 6:30pm
Me: I took the feeder in. See, no bears.
10 minutes later…
If you’ve followed along this winter, you know the adventures of Fort Squirrel, the industrious Red Squirrel who built her home directly under the bird feeder.
Well, we’ve had warm temps the last 3 days and sadly, Fort Squirrel’s tunnel system and fort have melted.
But fear not! Our ingenious little friend is working on her NEW fort! Behold!
Scene 3 (last)
45 minutes prior, a bobcat wandered through the deep snow. Then a raccoon entered the scene seemingly aware that the bobcat was around.
Then, a third visitor - a coyote sniffing the ground at the recent passings. Its coordination in the snow is a bit awkward. But no one was looking, right? 🤭
Scene 2 (of 3)
In yesterday’s #15SecondsOfFame footage, a bobcat was seen forging a new path through deep snow.
Just 13 minutes later, this raccoon cautiously passes through the same area, crossing over the bobcat tracks. It looks around cautiously before continuing straight away from the path the bobcat took. Outta here. 🦝 🧳
Scene 1 (of 3)
Over the next few days I’m going to post trailcam videos that took place within 25 minutes of each other to show how perilous some “close encounters” can be.
Up first - a big ol’ swaying bobcat butt working its way through deep snow. Unlike my last video, there were no prior tracks to step in.
Caught a bobcat on the trailcam carefully placing its paws in the footprints I had made a couple days before in the deep snow. When it gets to where I turned around, it looks around and decides - nope, not going out there, and turns to go down to the brook.
Nothing like having a happy puppy, err… happy donkey, err… happy deer (?!) running through knee-deep snow to greet you!
When I rewatch my trailcam videos I occasionally spot something I missed the first time.
Watch our little porcupine. After being startled by something toward the bottom right…
QUILL MODE DEPLOYED
And if you crank the volume you can actually HEAR THE QUILLS going up!
And then she crosses the bridge still powered up. 🤗
(video from Nov. 2025)
Big bobcat butt.
Employees must wash paws… after visiting the compost bin.
Dan McCullough