An Abundance of Wildlife

6/24/12

a deer in my backyard

          I am so thrilled to be back in Virginia where I can see wildlife every day.  As I mentioned in my last post, our neighborhood is surrounded by a storm water management area, so there are lots of grassy and wooded areas.  There is a lake for water runoff and a couple of creeks that drain through the area.  All this supports several wildlife species.  Here is a series of photos of the wildlife I have been able to catch with my camera.

a rabbit munching in the backyard

geese in a grassy area near the lake

squirrel on my deck

a toad in a flowerpot on my deck

a beetle on my front porch

     I have not been able to catch the fox that lives in the area, but I hear it regularly.  When I was living in the desert, I really missed songbirds.  Only during migration times would I hear them.  But here in Virginia their melodies fill the air.  I have not been able to photograph the woodpeckers (I've seen two different kinds), or the owls (I've never been able to find then), but I hear them almost daily in the woods behind the house.  I'll end the post with a photo I thought was unique.  As I was photographing the geese you saw above, a deer walked out of the woods and wandered right through the flock.  The geese did not seemed bothered at all.  As soon as the deer heard my camera click and saw the flash, it dashed away.

deer walking through flock of geese