Another grateful day in the forest.

My forest friends are on the porch and one is so tired. Little Miss Pinky is laying on the walkway sleeping. She is a wonderful raccoon who had three babies this year. She was born to Mrs. Nippers and her four other babies a couple years ago. I have to over turned stackable containers on the porch and the skunks will find their ways under them to rest and sleep. I’ll just see a tip of a tail sticking out.

My hands are dry from pulling weeds. There’s two type I mainly pull out. The bur clover and the weed that is related to carrots but has burs also.When I’m pulling weeds I pull up the tangled mess on the ground. The other day when I stepped out of the car I started pulling bur clover at me feet. I pulled more and more until I was near the sage plants. I don’t know what type of sage they are yet. I’m pulling up the bur clover growing up to and under them. I don’t want to take a chance with weed killer and not get the sage.

I have to cut down the thistles. There was several of them by the cherry tree and the path leading into the creek. I pulled the other weeds on the path to keep it clear for the deer coming out of the creek.

I was rubbing Tiggers belly, she really likes that when I found a could burs. I worked them out and continued rubbing her when I found a bmp in her hair. It wasn’t like a bur, closer to the skin. Sort of like knotted hair which I worked out and placed into an ash tray.When I looked closer it was a black tick. Flat and with wiggly little legs. I took a flame to it to make sure it wasn’t going to be crawling out. ticks are so tough, you can pinch them and the shell doesn’t break. They are tough like flees. I haven’t found many of these this was the first tick on Tiggers. I seen a tick on one of the skunks and a tick on Pinky’s ear. She really went to town on her ear and even split her ear really getting the tick out which was fat and sticking out. It’s legs couldn’t grab her ear so her head was the only thing latching on to her.

There was wet ground this morning at day break when I came out to feed the kitties. I found out later Mrs. Nippers was sleeping all day under the porch on the bed. I made a small frame with padding and carpet that sets above the ground so they would stay warm and dry. After making some noise on the floor of the porch Nippers woke up and walked off. Tiggers and Sprockets were checking out the little black male kitten. It didn’t want anything to do with them and let out a scream, Stay back she cried. When he saw me the mode changed and it was now a calm meow to me. Friend she meowed to me. I meowed back and she came up to me where I had a plate of Friskys and cry cat food waiting. The poor kitty is so scared because of the Rusty cat that attacked him a couple months ago. Ever since then he’s been apprehensive about other kitties.

I brought out a couple more scoops of dry food and a can of beef in gravy for the back porch. Everything was almost gone. There’s more food on the front porch for the night shift. I check the kitties, they were all sleeping on the side deck peacefully. I’m going to see if I can train them this summer to come in the house. I’ll do this slowly and let them come in at their own speed. I feel so sad for them in the winter time when it gets cold. I do have heating pads to keep them warm.

Well, another day comes tomorrow bright an early at 5 AM. Coffee and maybe oat meal before I step outside. So night to see my happy kitties in the morning. I’ll check to see if Nippers is sleeping on the bed. Buddy Kat has been sleeping in the cartons to stay out of any weather. Weeding calls for me tomorrow along with maybe some tools.

Not back all hunched over. Knee is in pain. Hip is in pain. Screws in hip from spine are pulling out. Neck feels like a spike stabbed into it. All en all I’m doing pretty good but slow.

If they could only talk to me.

I've been looking at my Tiggers and wondering what she's saying. It's clear that there's more then just a meow. Last night I noticed that she repeated herself to tell me what she wanted to eat. She looked at me and repeated what she said like don't you understand me, I'm not stuttering. I've never heard of anyone trying to study animals and find out what they are saying. With the primates they were taught a language we knew and didn't try to understand what they were saying in their native tongue.
As I drove up I could see the deer in the yard. They looked over at me as I greeted them then looked back over at the house to see if I was coming out of the house. I don't think they understood that I was the same person. I find it so amazing being close to the deer. I'll get within 10 feet of them and walk around the herd. The babies really amazing me. They are so small and so full of life. I've never seen a creature so full of life before like I do with the baby deer.
The raccoons and skunks are a trip too. They make good forest friends but they are a little shy. One night I was eating cookies and went to the back porch where a raccoon was. Mrs. Nippers who has a nip taken out of her ear was there. I bent over to give her a cookie and she took it from me. We sat there on the back porch eating cookies until she had enough. I just kept giving her cookies when she was finished and she would take them from me. She's been a friend ever since then and doesn't run off at the sight of me. When she had the five babies she really had her hands full. When she would come around with them she didn't growl at me like other mothers did when I'd get close to the babies. In fact she sort of showed them off to me. The babies would get into the cats food and play with each other. I hung a sock up with a sock in side and they would pull and play with that every time they came here. On my YouTube channel I have them playing in the garden together. The babies liked piling on top of each other and rolling down the hill. I noticed that the babies are the only ones to make that cute raccoon vocalizations. Then I noticed the babies would react to mom and she was making a noise and I was only hearing the tail end of her call to the babies. She was making a sound that was over 20kHz and then it would tapper to a lower noise as she was stopping. I'll have to put a microphone outside next spring and run it into the program I have. I have one that is sort of to analyze voices. Now that I think of it I think the top of it is 20k.
A couple summers ago there were a lot of babies here. They would play together while the mothers would rest under their favorite trees. One day this little female came here with mom and the other babies weren't here yet. She started crying out for them I'm guessing. Since I really don't know why she was really crying out, I'm just guessing. I think she wanted her friends to play with. She seemed rather depressed when she didn't see them. When the babies did show up their mother didn't want them running like they did the day before. The babies wanted to go but would look over at mom and she was saying no. I would have liked to see them running and playing again. The little female baby tried to motivate the babies by jumping and kicking her back legs out as she jumped. The two babies kept looking over at mom and then looked down as to be sad. So that was two emotions displayed to me by the babies.
One night when I first moved in it was raining pretty hard. I looked out the window to see a baby deer standing there. A larger male deer came over and put his head over the baby's neck and then started licking the baby. I'm thinking that the baby deer seemed frightened and the large male deer comforted the baby. It really looked like that to me. I was wondering where the mother of the baby was because it seemed pretty small.
Taking photographs of the wildlife I've been trying to capture them expressing emotions. It's taken several years but I can see it now but it's not that clear in the photo. The other day I got a picture of a mother deer licking this orphan baby she took in. The baby just stood there as mom was licking her. They walked off together side by side. The deer have been one of the only creature that I seen smiling but then their lips sort of go that way. I know when they have another emotion like being concern their lips go flat across instead of up when they are happy.
I noticed that turkeys show emotions but you really have to look. Their faces are sort of fixed but it's their actions I've watched and noticed when they are happy. It's also the angle they point their heads. That's something I've learned over years to see. I have such a different opinion of turkeys these days. They are smart birds. I've watch them gather in a group and plan out what they were going to do. They lined up and put on a parade for the female birds. It clearly showed that they conveyed an idea between them. I've only seen them do that once out of all the years I've been watching them. Turkeys do have a sort of language they talk to each other with. After watching them I started picking up what they were saying. It was more a feeling I got when I heard them. I noticed that other birds about the same size made the same vocalizations even though they were a different type of bird. When the vultures started eating this dead skunk killed by dogs coming through the turkeys came up to the edge of the creek and watched the big birds. I don't know if they were trying to see if they were related. They sure seemed interested in seeing those big birds here because then never had seen them up close.
I'm going to have to figure out a way of taking voice prints. See if I can learn and see if the creatures have some sort of vocal language. I'd like to figure out what's going on in the minds of the kitties. I'm really amazed at the different sounds that the kitties make. Each kitten makes a unique set of sounds. Dieter makes sounds that are almost silent. She makes these two little chirp like cries when she comes up to me. Momma kitty is totally silent, so is Wheezer. I noticed that Wheezer stopped her coughing or wheezing. She was real bad when she first came here.Sprockets meows real quiet too. She also makes what sounds like a sentence, it's a series of little meows and gurgles. Every one is unique but for the most part the wildlife is mostly silent. They talk by looks to each other. It's like they don't have to say anything but the others know looking at them what they are saying.

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Baby Ears and Mom

Those little round heads and big ears all signs of a baby. The little head needs to be grown into. Watching the babies I’m always over joyed watching them explore the world seeing everything for the first time. Baby deer are always smiling and happy. It’s sort of a nursery here where the mothers relax and the babies run and play. It’s amazing watching them run as fast as they can. They don’t care where they run a long as it’s fast. The mothers look on like any worried mother but they know the babies are running like they once did when they were small. Every year that’s my enjoyment watching all the babies. The mothers of all species look at the babies with so much love for them. I’ve noticed that other species give the babies room to play and explore. The deer looking at the baby skunks knowing that soon they will have babies soon also. The raccoon are exploring all the new life too. They roll and play with each other. They are so cute and so shy. It takes a while to earn their trust but when you do it’s wonderful.

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