Category Archives: photography

Oh ‘deer’ me

nature, photography

For the first time this year, Bob and I were able to dive the cart all the way down the lane toward our woods. Because of this, we changed where we set up our critter cam–it’s farther back, tied to a tree, right now.

On the way back to the farmyard, something moved ahead. It was a deer! Walking along the ditch.

Using my cell phone camera, I tried to get a closeup–that works better with my camera which was on my desk at home. Anyway, I did snap a few shots of the deer as it walked along the overgrown ditch.

Sunny, also watched the deer walk. He got all excited and wouldn’t settle onto the seat again.

The deer is hardly visible next to the large tree on the left, but Sunny can’t take his eyes off it.
A closeup (sort of) of the deer on Sunnybook Farm

Such a nice ride into the far reaches of our farm. Hope we don’t get too much rain tomorrow. I’d rather not have mud blocking our path again, at least not too soon.

Bob returned to the back of the farm without me later in the afternoon. He was cutting the tall grass and almost ran over a fawn. Luckily, he saw it in time–no photo of the fawn…darn.

More critters

Bob, nature, photography, wildlife

A second day of having our critter cam out along our farm lane meant more wildlife.

The tom turkey didn’t return to strut his stuff. Instead, two sandhill cranes walked across the field. Two days before we scared one from the overgrown ditch–maybe she was nesting there. We can’t be sure if she is one of this pair. No matter. It’s always nice seeing them on our farm.

The critter cam shows two of the sandhill cranes on Sunnybook Farm

Again, the night photos didn’t show much, only a few distant glowing eyes. Earlier a different kind of wildlife showed up in the afternoon.

Susan and Bob looked at the camera. Sunny had his eyes on a hopping robin.

We reset the camera today, thinking we missed last night’s thunderstorm. Little did we know a half hour later another storm would pop up in our area. Good thing we made it back to the house in time.

Picture Picture

nature, photography

Our critter cam was in position, ready for something to walk into its frame.

We got a few shots that didn’t show anything, then a blurred deer passed in the distance in the dark of night. It wasn’t until 7:51 am that we got our best photo.

Meet Tom

Mr. Tom Turkey came into view strutting for his lady friends. I guess the lady turkeys were shy because they never stepped in front of the camera.

This beautiful Tom is just the beginning of our 2019 nature snapshots. Hope we capture many more wild animals as we go through the year.

Looking around

nature, photography

Bob and I still haven’t been able to drive our cart all the way down our farm lane. We are keeping a watch for the day when all the water and mud have disappeared enough for us to drive safely down to our woods.

In the meantime, we took our critter cam down our lane as far as we could. There we attached it to a tree to see if any animals come for a visit.

Say, ‘cheese’

We set the camera up near the lane, on the edge of an open field. Hopefully, when we bring the camera home again, we’ll have photos of local wildlife and not just Bob, Sunny, and me in the cart after affixing the camera to the tree.

A little nature

Farming, nature, photography, wildlife

Bob and I haven’t been able to take our 2-wheel drive cart all the way down to the woods yet this year. Too much rain has made part of our farm lane a quagmire. In earlier years, we didn’t let that stop us. If mud got the best of us we got out and pushed, be damned the yuck. Now with Bob’s health issues, we don’t want to risk it. Getting stuck might mean a long walk home.

Usually, I take nature photos. The best I could do today was a snap of six ducks in a ‘lake’ in the middle of one of our crop fields–too much rain this year isn’t good for any farm. (No, the water shouldn’t be there.)

Look hard and you will see the ducks above this caption.

Most of the local birds, like sandhill cranes, are nesting now so they haven’t come out to greet us yet, but we hear them so we have hopes to see our crane family soon.

This photo of ducks was taken a few years back in late September. The crop around the waterhole is soybeans.

These ducks were a little easier to spot.

We’ll have to start bringing our binoculars out when we take our cart rides if the wildlife stays at a distance. Hopefully, the weather will change and dry up the land–for a while–so all farmers can get out on their fields, even retired ones.