Let it grow: Part Two - Critters

Plants and flowers aren't the only thing growing. A little rabbit has been hopping around the yard lately.

​Unfortunately, I discovered that the bitty bunny can fit through the fence around the vegetable garden.

It has taken a liking to the string bean plants and has trimmed some of them down.

A cucumber I picked was already sampled.

Although I am a little distressed over the garden damage, the bunny makes me laugh when its little white cotton-ball tail bounces across the yard.

​I attempted a photo, but it was just a blur of white and ears.

Along with the bunny, the neighborhood fawns have been out and about.
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A few weeks ago, I felt like I was seeing double.

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​At work, a doe with two fawns was spotted browsing some vegetation by the parking lot.

Then I saw more twins on the way home that day.
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A doe with two fawns appeared along Bredinsburg Road and only a little further up the road there was yet another doe with two fawns browsing in a field.

Closer to home, trail cameras revealed that the neighborhood is home to one doe with twin fawns. 

A doe with a single fawn has also been captured by the cameras.

​A lot of the the fawn pictures were blurry as the little ones often move around their mothers to explore.

Also on the trail cam, the neighborhood bucks' horns continue their upward growth.

Meanwhile at the neighbor's pond, the number of frogs seems to have grown exponentially. There are so many tiny little frogs. They are only about the size of the tip of one's finger.

They seem to be everywhere and I diligently try not to step on them.
They sometimes cluster in groups. I tried to figure out just how many frogs are in a photo, but their camouflage makes it tough to determine. 

Back at the house, a grey tree frog stuck around for a little bit on the sliding glass door.

​In the yard, I had an immature chestnut-sided warbler visit. It is listed as a summer resident of Venango County.

A post on The CornellLab's allaboutbirds.org said "These slender, yellow-capped and chestnut-flanked songsters thrive in young, regrowing forests, thickets, and other disturbed areas . ... In fall, this bird molts into lime-green and grayish white plumage with a distinctive white eyering, and heads to thickets, shade-coffee plantations, and second growth forest in Central America."

It also said that "individual warblers return to the same areas year after year, joining back up with the same foraging flock it associated with the year before."
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This could explain why I had seen one in the yard almost exactly a year ago.

Another visitor to the yard was a monarch butterfly. While I don't believe it was my first sighting this season, it was the first chance I had to snap a photo of one. I hope their numbers will continue to grow.

Meanwhile, it seems like it has been a good year for Appalachian brown butterflies. I have seen more of them this year than in past years.

I was also to get a photograph of my first sighting of a red-spotted purple this year. Of course it was posing on a piece of No. 2 left by the dogs. On a butterfly site on user lamented that their dog was better at attracting butterflies than they were. I totally agreed with the statement.

A battered Luna moth also didn't pick a very picturesque perch. It was photographed on the back of a chair on the porch. It was beautiful nonetheless, even thought it was lacking the tails on its hind wings. Again, like imperial moths, the adult Luna moths don't eat. However, they have a slightly longer lifespan at one week.

The tame critters continue to grow as well. Sherman, unfortunately, is growing older. He's over 8 years old now. He was never a fast dog to begin with, but age has slowed him down over the years. However, it is sometimes hard to figure out if his lagging behind is do to Saint Bernard stubbornness or the onset of doggy dementia.

Sadie's frog hunting efforts have grown intensely. Fortunately, her persistence has not paid off.

Clem just continues to grow more energetic. His nose has gotten him into trouble a lot lately.

Lit' Bit isn't quite so little anymore and has grown very comfortable in his surroundings.

Kennedy continues to grow out and around. I hope that Kyle would experience inward growth, but he continues to grow more ornery with each passing year.
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That's just the nature of things 'round here.