The visitor outside my window ... a pileated woodpecker

We don't often see the pileated woodpeckers in the yard but, rather, along the trees on the fence line. This one was outside my window.  They are the largest woodpeckers in the U.S., about the size of a crow.

During the warm summer months, these fellas are loud as they call from the trees in what has been described as a wild laughing sound. From this angle, this one looks like a female (black stripe from bill to throat) but the last photo looks as if the stripe is red which would indicate a male.

 It stayed long enough for me to get a few shots but I was afraid to move closer to the window for fear of scaring it off so the images are not as sharp as I'd like.

An unexpected visit on a mild January day....

Photos by Lynn R. Mitchell
27 January 2012

Wild turkeys passing through....

I looked out the window this morning and saw wild turkeys in the front yard. By the time I grabbed my camera, this hen was leading the way for the flock of two females and seven chicks as they wandered down the driveway toward the back yard.

I stood on the deck and took photos as fast as I could between leafy tree branches.

They were strutting along, taking their time as they headed toward the woods at the back of the yard ...

... and then the air conditioner kicked on. Nine startled wild turkeys took off running.

Convinced the danger had passed, they slowed down and passed the garden on the left as they spread out across the yard ...

... and then disappeared into the woods.

Photos by Lynn R. Mitchell
25 July 2011

Black bear sightings in Shenandoah Valley

Mama Bear and two cubs at Loft Mountain Campground, October 2009.

It's that time of year again when the warm weather combined with an increased food source have black bears roaming the western Virginia mountains and surrounding areas.

Last week two black bears were seen on Afton Mountain, one crossing I-64 and the other reportedly hit by a Jeep Cherokee on Rt. 250.

In western Augusta County a bear has been hanging out around a family's home causing changes to their lifestyle as they now haul away garbage and take the children elsewhere to play outdoors.

A friend hiking in Shenandoah National Park this week saw a bear cross his path. Another friend who lives near the park's boundary heard a crash in her back yard a few months ago and looked out to see the bird feeder down and a black bear sprawled on the ground scooping up bird seed.

Last June a black bear was caught in Gypsy Hill Park in the heart of Staunton. During the same month, nearby friends lost their pet goats to a black bear.

Sheep farmers are feeling the loss, too, as they lose thousands of dollars worth of livestock to the increasing bear population.

In 2007, a bear tried to enter a neighbor's storage shed where corn was stored, pawing and pushing on the door until he was shooed away with a shotgun blast. Even though there are frequent bear sightings in our area, it was the first time one had been that threatening.

A year earlier an Augusta County hunter was attacked by a 600-pound black bear he had shot. When he approached the bear lying on the ground, it mauled him so badly that he was airlifted to the University of Virginia Hospital. In 2008, a Botetourt County hunter was also attacked when the bear he was tracking turned on him.

It is common to see bears at Big Meadows and Loft Mountain and along the Skyline Drive but they have become so numerous that the park rangers had to issue an aggresive bear alert two years ago.

The black bear population has steadily increased over the years as protected bears from federal areas venture beyond Shenandoah National Park and the Washington National Forest onto private lands, causing damage to crops and livestock. Hunters killed 1,633 black bears in 2008 with the bulk of them coming from Rockingham County.

Complaints of bears damaging agriculture have increased 44% over the past 20 years. The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries tracks the bear population, trapping nusiance bears to return to the wild. They have been relocating bears for years, trapping and driving them deep into the national forests for release.

Al Bourgeois and David Kocka, Valley biologists with Game and Inland Fisheries who live in Augusta County, are the local experts who trap nuisance bears. I guess they could be called the "Bear Busters." They know first-hand the damage rogue bears can cause to farmers, domestic animals, and homes. Their advice when bears are hanging around is to remove outdoor bird feeders, trash cans, pet food, and any other sources of food. If the problem continues, call the "Bear Busters."

For more information about safety around black bears in Virginia, visit the Virginia Game and Inland Fisheries website.

Cross-posted at The Washington Examiner

Photo by SWAC Girl
Lynn Mitchell
October 2009

Newborn fawn

After Thursday's line of thunderstorms with high winds and hail, SWAC Husband was picking up tree limbs and mowing in the woods today when he came upon this tiny newborn fawn curled up in tall grass at the base of a tree.

It was the smallest fawn I had ever seen, probably only hours old, and was practically invisible in the tall grass and weeds.

Yep ... that's him or her -- the little brown spot. Hard to see. I'm sure Mama Deer was nearby. We didn't get close ... I used my 15x zoom lens to get close-ups.

Looking from the back of the house down the yard toward the woods where the fawn was located. It was completely helpless, a perfect snack for the coyotes and black bears that roam these parts.

Photos by SWAC Girl
Lynn Mitchell
4 June 2010

Wild turkey tracks in the snow

I looked out the kitchen window to see three wild turkey hens strutting down the backyard toward the woods. "Strutting" wasn't exactly the right word ... they were kind of slowly picking their way through the snow.
Wild turkeys often go through the yard but this time they left distinct tracks.

Photos by SWAC Husband
19 February 2010

The Journey: "More on snakes and bears"

There is a running wildlife discussion going on in the SWAC area as we continue with our cool and rainy spring (today's high will be in the low 70s with overcast skies and rain). Bears are extra active and snakes have been more visible to hikers and mountain visitors. Bob at The Journey offers more about snakes and bears in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Shenandoah ... where the deer and the black bears play....

Tonight as I washed dishes I was looking out the kitchen window at the deer in the far end of our backyard under the trees leading into the woods. There were 6-8 of them grazing in the gathering dusk so, not being one to ever let anything stop me from getting away from dishes, I slipped out to the deck to get a better view.

I saw something I had not seen in the backyard before ... a young doe and young buck frolicking and playfully chasing one another almost in a courtship-type fashion. It continued for a while, and they never left the yard as they trotted under the apple trees, around them ... back across to toward the dogwood trees on the other side of the yard ... and back again.

This seemed to be the wrong time of year for something like that ... so I called my wildlife friend and fellow home school parent, Al Bourgeois, of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

Al laughed when I told him about it and said that, yes, it's the wrong time of year for deer to be in heat because little ones would be born in February at this point (deer have a seven-month pregnancy). However, he laughingly said it was probably a young buck and doe ... much like teenagers ... doing lots of experimenting ... much like teenagers ... getting ready for the real games later in the year.

My question was answered. Everytime I have a wildlife question, I know I can turn to Al or another former home school parent David Kocka, also of the Game and Inland Fisheries, for answers.


When black bears came into our yard a few years ago, David answered questions. When a strange, hair-raising noise came out of the dark mountain woods one summer night (it sounded eerily like a human screaming, "Help!"), when coyotes roamed the ridge behind the house, when mountain lion sightings have been reported by neighbors, when black bears are found in Staunton (once a cub went inside the back open door of the CVS Pharmacy in western Staunton about eight years ago) ... Al and David have been there with answers. They trap out nusience black bears, tag and watch cubs, and do all kinds of work in the national forests that surround the SWAC area.

It has been an educational treat throughout the years to know these men and have them as part of our home school community in Augusta County.

So ... tonight in my backyard the deer were practicing for (rein)deer games....