Wildlife

No blog about Hall Hollow would be complete without a post about the animals. Living in the forest we see a lot of animals. Squirels constantly darting in front of the car, owls in the tree, mice in the attic. There's a falcon that nests behind the house, and the rabbits stopped showing up after we saw the family of foxes in our yard one night. This morning I'm glad I looked down the driveway before backing out to go to church, because there was a box turtle that needed to be moved so I wouldn't run over him. He was a brave turtle, still running even after I had picked him up and as soon as he hit the ground he took off for the bushes.

I have managed to get a few photos over the past few weeks of some of the animals that live with us here. First, this is the squirel that likes to tease Remus through the glass as it digs up anything I have planted in the containers on the deck.

This is the humming bird family that built a nest right above where we park the car. We only knew they were there because one of them would buzz around protectively when we were coming and going. It followed a pattern when it was warning us off, so I knew where to point the camera to get a few shots. Here it is on a tiny twig.



Here is the nest. The nest is tiny and looks like a knob on the branch, and I'm still not sure if this picture has just one or both birds in it.



This little guy is some kind of a Hemileuca caterpillar. From what I understand they do sting, but having grown up in Nevada I kind of assume all animals I meet have a defence mechanism and proceed accordingly.



I got such a kick out of the little feet. The pointy ones up front look as dangerous as the rest of the little guy, but those little grip pads were so cool!


This is called a Skink. I'm not sure what the difference between a skink and a lizard is, but apparently there is one. They have the most amazing blue tails when they are young. 80's anyone?