It may not be warm in Indiana, but it is fascinating in our small corner!

You never know what you might find in the wild outside our lakeside abode. On one day last week, with snow covering the ground and ice solid on the lake, we enjoyed a variety of wildlife. First, Steve noticed a hawk sitting in a small tree in our terraced landscape. He seemed attracted by the birds enjoying the seeds in our feeders. Next, we watched as five deer, two does with three younger deer, approached from the woods. Over the course of several minutes, four of the five deer had walked up the upper patio step and leaped down the two terrace levels to the yard below. One of the does staked out the choice spot under the bird feeder where seeds were spilled on the ground. She methodically raised her front hoof and whacked the other younger deer, driving them away. When one approached again, she turned and whacked him on the back again, sending him scooting. Looking past the deer we saw two white swans sitting on the ice, as the hawk moved to a tree closer to the lake's edge. Their white feathers gleamed brightly in the sunlight.

Another evening we looked out our picture window facing the lake ...it is far better than any painting, because the picture is constantly changing and, oh, so interesting!...in our little crab apple tree near the house (the one where the possum was eating crab apples in December ... see an earlier blog post to view pictures of the young opportunist) was a small owl. We watched him from the dark house and to our surprise he noticed when we moved. We went to the family room to get a different view and he turned his head all the way around to look at us. Those eyes can see much better than ours in the dark! The gray bird with "ear" tufts was probably about 10 inches tall. We decided, after consulting our bird book, that he must have been a screech owl.

A day or two later, we found the lid off our garbage can and the can overturned. We wondered if it were a raccoon or what it could be that could knock the big can over and get the lid off. We aren't really sure, but when we set it up to put a bag of trash in the can, we saw two black beady eyes and a long snout pointed our direction. We put the can back down on its side, took our garbage to the garage, and waited for the interloper to exit in his own time. We decided we didn't want to tangle with an oppossum. They can get rather testy, we have found in the past! He left shortly and we secured the lid, to have no more garbage problems to date.

We never tire of observing the wild world outside our kitchen window. Isn't God's creation amazing? Don't even get me started on the sunsets over the lake! Awesome! "The earth declares His glory!"