The animals must sense the coming change in seasons. I've been noticing much more activity in the last week or so, even with the bitterly cold recent weather.
This morning I walked out my door, letting one of the dogs out with me like usual. Got the car fired up to let it warm a bit, turned around to see the three deer that usually visit saunter off into the woods. They've got so used to us and the dogs that they don't even bother running anymore. Even the dog just stood by me and watched them go. She usually gives chase.
The other day Di came home from work, mid-afternoon, to find eight deer feeding with the birds and the squirrels. The three that are normally there and have got used to us just hung around, where the 5 newcomers took off into the woods.
Last night I got to see the two flying squirrels together. They're living in a knot hole in the 100 year old oak that is next to my drive way. I feed them a big pile of sunflower seeds every evening and go out to watch them feed for awhile. The female is definitely pregnant and round as a baseball. Di almost has her trained again to let her pet her. In a few months we should have four of them at the feeders again. I wonder where the two babies from last year went.
Yesterday on the way to work I was stuck in the usual line of cars at the intersection of Boughton Road and Plainfield Naperville Road. The confluence of the east and west branches of the DuPage River is not far away and the beginning of the DuPage River flows by very close to the intersection. On the southwest part of the intersection is a quarry whose view is blocked from the road by a high berm. On the northeast is a small pond that is usually covered half in ice and half with geese packed in so thick that it looks like a thick black blanket has been thrown over the pond.
Out of the corner of my eye, the eye facing toward the berm, I notice something move. Peering over the berm, looking in the direction of the pond, is a coyote. It's neck would stretch high while straining to get a look, then it would disappear. Five feet down, the head would reappear, stretch, then disappear again. Traffic had to start moving then, but it was tempting to pull over and wait and see if the coyote ever made it to the pond. I'm sure it knew there was room under the bridge so it wouldn't have to run across the roads.
The week before I had my younger daughter out running around on the far edges of Hoover Forest Preserve. There were no human prints in the snow, so no one had been back there for weeks. We found all kinds of tracks, but decided to follow the coyote tracks around the forest preserve just to see if we could find one. That didn't work, but we came across quite a few coyote tracks and covered a lot of woods and fields.
Hoover is barely a mile and a half west of my house. Probably less if I walk the railroad tracks that run past the bottom of the hill behind my house. In the two years I've been living here, I've seen two rabbits. Lots of deer, squirrels, coons, wild turkeys, possum and flying squirrels, but only two rabbits. Must be the coyotes favorite meal.
The geese and the ducks are everywhere. Clouds of them can be seen combing the skies around the Fox River and out into the surrounding area. Hundreds of geese settle for the night in the river a few hundred feet from my house. It seems as if they never sleep. Now and then flocks of them will fly over the house after nine at night, creating a racket honking all the way down to the river to join the others. Which wakes up the others and the increased honking will go on for awhile.
My favorites, the owls, are back all around the house. Searching each other out with their eerie cries. I'll be disappointed if they ever find the flying squirrels.
If the weather ever warms, I might have to go try to catch something out of the river. I only live a two minute walk away.