I’ve been a fan of domestic rats for a long time. In fourth grade I babysat the class rats over Christmas break. One of the kids I babysat in high school had a rat that pretty much lived in her sweatshirt. As a college kid I had a few rats of various colours. I’ve always admired their intelligence and how friendly they can be.

That goodwill does not extend to domestic mice or wild rats and mice. I’m generally horrified when I find a mouse in my house. I love that our cat Audrey is such an expert mouser.

But once in a while I see a mouse in a position that makes me just think Awww. If you have never felt that way about a most likely-diseased, parasite-riddled wild mouse you may not want to look at the next few pictures.

I don’t want you smashing at your monitor.

We have been tearing apart the front porch/mudroom to deal with some rot issues. I went outside to take some progress pictures and found this little mouse crouched on the ledge.

Sure it still looks scraggly. But it had such cute little beady eyes.

I just hope it doesn’t make it into my house and skitter across my kitchen floor. Then it wouldn’t be cute anymore. It would be a disgusting varmint that my cat should immediately kill.

Our cat Audrey is a great huntress, but we need to teach her to stop playing with her food. While I was in Canada she must have gotten into our attached garage and brought in a chipmunk.

Adam texted me telling me that all three of our pets were playing with the chipmunk. I was hoping that Adam would find the remains and throw them out before I got home.

But instead, I was treated to a cute little face looking out from under the couch when I came in the door. The creature had no only escaped my pets clutches, but it seemed to be doing quite well.

I have since seen it wandering around ON the couch, under the computer desk and scampering madly back to safety when I walk into the kitchen.

At this point, I want this little survivor to make it safely back to his life outside (and hope that he will never make the mistake of entering the basement garage again). But I’m not sure how to capture him in a way that is safe for both me and the vermin.

Does anyone have any advice on how to get a chipmunk out of the house?

I made my last post only a few hours ago while I was riding a stationary bike at the gym. But I wanted to make another post right away.

I live on a pretty rural road. Between my next door neighbour and I is a fair bit of road frontage. Our driveways are both at the top of blind crests.

I was driving cautiously because it was dark and raining and I was quite close to home. I noticed some movement ahead, so I slowed down even more. Then I noticed the moose. The moose was standing right in the middle of the road in between my neighbour’s house and my house. A big one this time. I stopped my car and the moose almost gave me a look of annoyance as it slowly moved off the road.

Last year, around this time, I found a young moose eating willow tree leaves by my front door neighbour’s pond. This moose showed up a week early but I almost wonder if it’s the same moose, now full grown.

I didn’t get any pictures of today’s moose, but maybe I’ll be lucky and see the moose eating willow leaves again tomorrow morning. I would love to get more pictures of a moose in my yard (possibly with a telephoto lens this time).

I’m sorry for anyone who reads this blog with arachnophobia because I’m about to make a post that may send you running for the hills due to irational fears. We often come across Spiders in the garden. We probably have dozens of different varieties in a small area of the garden alone. I generally ignore them and let them eat bugs I dislike more.

But yesterday was different. I found this black spider with yellow dots on her back and belly and had to: 1) take pictures, 2) identify her. And because I spent a significant amount of time identifying what the spider was, you my readers must deal with my nerdiness.

First of all she had a strangely weaved web. I found a picture of an Orb weaving spider that looked like her so I dug deeper. After looking at dozens of pictures of different kind of (entirely harmless) orb weaving spiders I found what she was. A simple Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia) eater of bugs (BugGuide here, Wikipedia here). I mean after all that work I would love to have a fancier name like Reynolds Goldbar Spider or something.

O.K. on to the pictures.

My mom asked me the other day if I ever write negative things in this blog. I generally try to keep this blog pretty positive. I like to write posts that remind me that my life is full of adventures.  But today I will make an exception. I will write about something I hate: Japanese Beetles.

I hate Japanese Beetles. I hate how they skeletonize the plants they eat. I hate finding their grubs when I dig in the garden. I hate controlling them by hand picking them off.

I’m actually a little happy that I gave up on the garden this year because of the drainage issues. Otherwise I think I would be spending every evening trying to kill off some of the population.

These annoying bugs are just one more reason why I need to get some chickens and relatively soon. I guess Chickens love to eat them.

I’m absolutely loving my new lens. It’s not a very high quality lens and the aperature does not open as large as I would like, but I love having the flexibility of a 200 mm zoom.

I used the lens this weekend to take pictures of Pigeons in Prescott Park in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. I think a few of them turned out pretty well. Despite the fact that pigeons aren’t generally considered to be beautiful (with the exception of the domestically raised varieties).

I think they are pretty adorable for the sewer rats of the sky.

The other day I went to visit the hubby in ManLand (aka the detached garage). As I left the building I heard some buzzing about. Mind you I had been gone for 5 days. I hadn’t been paying attention to my surroundings much since I had been back, but I really should have noticed what I saw. And it’s a wonder that Adam didn’t notice considering that ManLand is his personal sanctuary.

Right above the door, was a giant wasp (hornet?) nest.

So perhaps the nests do get bigger, and I’m exaggerating about the giant size. But this was a fully developed hive. And it had grown right over our heads.

I do actually kind of admire the delicate beauty of the design though. They did a lovely job building a home.

Too bad that home is made of paper.

I went inside. A few minutes later my husband comes running in, disheveled and excited, “I threw a shovel at them and ran”.

“A Shovel???”

“Well I didn’t know what else to do to get rid of hundreds of angry hornets.”

The next morning I went out to inspect the damage.

The hive was still going.

Even with half of their papery hive on the ground.

The wasps were still caring for their young and rebuilding their home. It was a little interesting to watch the inner functions of an established hive.

The details of a hive can be so interesting.

By the next day the hive was already well into it’s reconstruction phase.

And the leftover pieces of the hive on the ground were showing their biodegradable properties.

The hubby still has not eliminated them. He’s done a great deal to anger them, but I think he forgot about the wasps for the most part.

One last detail is the little abandoned mini hive next to be big one.

A couple weekends ago, in the middle of all the rain we went for a walk in Pawtuckaway State Park. The backwoods of Pawtuckaway have trails that go around several swamps.

I spotted several frogs and because I didn’t have a zoom lens I was having a hard time taking pictures of them.  I found this guy on a rock and started snapping away.

My husband looks at me with a strange look in his eyes, “do you want him”.
“What?”
“Do you want the frog, I’ll catch him for you. I can do it.”
The excitement in his face, the emphasis on the word catch. I could see he was reliving his childhood in rural New Hampshire. So I said, “sure, then I can get a good pictures of the frog”

As he got going I could tell there was some ingrained technique involved in catching a frog.

I mean, look at the concentration. The cat like moves.

Then he went for the grab… and the miss.

Well not quite a miss, but the frog slipped right through his fingers. He seemed to think that when he was a kid, he just grabbed on as hard as he had to. Now that he’s a more aware adult he’s afraid of hurting the little guys. So growing older has hindered his mad frog catching skills.

Later in the walk Cooper was standing on the shore when I realized he was standing right next to a frog. He was so close I’m surprised he wasn’t standing on it. So I carefully approached it and it let me get some pictures.

And closer

Heck I think the lens was only a couple inches away from this one.

“I’ll catch him honey!”

“Drat, I swear I used to catch them by the bucketful when I was a kid”

I’m sure you did, and I’m sure your mom appreciated it.

I think the first time I ever saw one of these little guys was on a hike in the White Mountains.  Since I have seen them on trails all over New Hampshire.

They are native to the parts of Ontario where I grew up but I never seen one in the wild. Perhaps the areas were not swampy enough. Or after doing some research on wikipedia it’s possible that those in New Hampshire are part of a subspecies known as Red-Spotted newt, while those on the western edge are called Central Newts. Central newts typically lack the red markings, thus making them less noticeable.

They are brightly coloured because they are toxic. I hope the puppy doesn’t try to learn it the hard way. Both for the sake of the puppy, and the newt. I’ll try to get a better picture of one next time I see one.

For more information on them read the Wikipedia article on Eastern Newts.

We’ve had a lot of these around lately. The Eastern Tent Caterpillar is a very common caterpillar  in the NorthEastern United States.  Their silky nests can be unsightly and they can do a lot of damage to the foliage in the area.  Every few years we get an infestation of caterpillars that is bad enough that they cause a nuisance and become eyesores.

Worst of all they don’t become beautiful butterflies, they become boring little moths that fly around at night.

We have a pretty normal quantity of caterpillars this year, although I’ve seen them in some very strange places.  I’m not a  fan of caterpillars in general but this one was just an interesting photography subject.  Adam’s been trying to train the puppy to eat them… with some sucess.