Every day now for a couple of months, this male coyote visits the backyard pond for a refreshing dip. The daily high temps have been between 100 and 109 degrees over that time, so I can appreciate his dedication to staying cool.
Tag: backyard wildlife
Bobcats
Bobcats have been pretty active lately, both in my yard and out in the wilder places. Bobcats live around 7 to 10 years in the wild. The oldest bobcat in captivity lived to be 32 years old. Bobcats can give birth to up to six kittens, though two or three is more common, depending on available prey.
This bobcat has a territory with the best view. Seasonal rains fill up this spot dubbed the Infinity Pool.
Judging by body size and spot pattern, this young bobcat appears to be new to the neighborhood. My backyard cameras catch her regularly.
Backyard Mountain Lion
It was an exciting thing to see a mountain lion had passed through the yard on July 10th. In the 11 years I’ve lived at this location, my cameras have caught only one other mountain lion in the backyard. I believe this is the same young male mountain lion that was trapped at Tucson Medical Center two days later. Game and Fish radio collared the lion and released him. I’m hoping one of my wild trail cams will catch him again at some point.
Last night’s backyard Wildlife
It was a busy time in the backyard last night. A bobcat, coyote, and raccoon came through as well as smaller critters including a packrat, cottontail, and the screech owl fledglings. All four screech owlets appear in the last clip of this video. It’s good to see they are doing well in life after the nestbox.
Coyote Pups!
These two coyote pups have been showing up at the backyard water sources for the last few days. It’s been very hot (105+ during the days) with no rain for a few months now and the creek has been dry as well. They appear to be in good health and in the second video they have full bellies so it appears their mama is doing a good job of feeding them. Even at this young age they are rightly very nervous and aware of their surroundings.
Nighttime Wildlife Action
Last night was pretty interesting. Lot’s of wildlife action, though most fascinating to me are the screech owl and desert cottontail rabbit interactions. I am so comforted to know my backyard offers an oasis for the wild critters. What do you think?
Bobcat Kittens!
I’ve had a camera trap set on my backyard pond going on 7 years continuously. I generally check the cameras every morning to see what critters have stopped by. In that time I’ve found adult bobcats to be quite common. However, this morning I was surprised to see the resident bobcat had brought her young kittens in for a drink last night.
More backyard wildlife action
It’s the time of year between winter rains and the summer monsoon season so natural sources of water for wildlife are running dry. In my backyard I’ve had the pond going for about 7 years and recently I put out a simple small water bowl in another pat of the yard. The water bowl is really the top of a birdbath and works well for the purpose.
Various visitors:
A peccary family:
A beautiful coyote and bobcat:
Monarch Caterpillar Morphs into Chrysalis
In the last week or so I finally starting seeing Monarch caterpillars on the milkweed in my pollinator garden. I counted about twenty in different instar states. Since then all the leaves of the milkweed have been eaten and the caterpillars have slinked off to find a safe place to hang out and morph into a chrysalis and eventually a butterfly. I was lucky enough to find one of the caterpillars in the classic “J” pose, ready to morph. The first video is filmed at normal speed so you can watch in detail the moments leading up to the emergence of the chrysalis. The second video compresses about 1/2 hour into about a minute and a half. Which ever video you watch, I recommend watching in 4k, full screen.
My Earth 