Wildlife visitors

This garter snake stopped by to smell the lavender.

After our post-dinner walk the dogs alerted at the west door on this visitor.

It was at the upper electric box staring at the house (and us) for at least 5 min.  Our motion at the door didn't bother it in the least.  Paul went outside on the deck to take these pictures. Even Gambol's nervous barking didn't concern it.

I put the chickens away immediately. The rooster carcass was gone from the brush pile this morning.  I wonder if this cat had a tough bird for breakfast.

We put a trough in the shed to help the dogs cool off.  Buddy has to be helped in but he immediately crouches down to get his belly wet as he drinks. Gambol jumps in to drink but won't lay down or sit down to get all wet.

Predator

We had a new visitor this week. I was working at my computer but I decided to look out our front window to see what was going on around our house. Maybe I was alerted by an angry chipmunk warning the forest or perhaps by the sudden stillness that often accompanies strangers to our forest. I saw 3 cats about 20 yards in front of the house. Although we do see a domestic cat (or maybe a feral cat) once in a while, it is quite unusual to see several cats. I got the camera because I suspected that I was seeing a mother bobcat with 2 kittens. I quickly took a couple of pictures, but only one kitten was visible from the window, so I went downstairs and quietly opened the front door to see if I could take any more pictures. The kitten I had seen upstairs was sitting on a pile of construction material looking right at me. I snapped several pictures over a minute or two as the kitten posed for me, apparently fearless. Finally it got bored or Mother called and it melted back into the forest.
Notice the white around its eyes and the three points above and between the eyes. The back of its ears are striped black-white-black. The white outlines of its eyes, the little points between the eyes and the striped ears are all distinctive of the bobcat. Catching a bobcat on film was a real thrill.