Animals, tame and wild

Marco's almost finished with his winter molt, and I must say, his feathers are looking beautiful this year. Spending plenty of time on the porch soaking up sunlight is obviously good for him.





Speaking of animals on the porch, this little guy showed up the other day and was also soaking up the sunshine. We've been seeing these blue-tailed skinks around for a couple of weeks now. They're actually called American five lined skinks (Plestiodon fasciatus), and they only have this coloring when they're juveniles. They lose the blue color as they get older and then their heads turn red, so this one will look totally different once it grows up.




In other animal sighting news, yesterday Gregg and I went over to the nature trail that's less than a block from our house and took a little walk. We only saw one other human, a guy out running. Way back in the woods, beside a stream that's part of the creek, we saw a fox walking silently along the water's edge. That was a treat! I thought of  Meike and Neil and their love of foxes. We also saw a large pond slider turtle, sitting in a patch of sunlight in the mud. I didn't have my phone with me and so sadly I didn't get any photos. As we were getting in our car, we heard two barred owls calling to each other, which was strange considering it was the middle of the day. We hear them all the time at night. I wonder what they were up to? A quick Google search indicates that they do indeed sometimes call to each other and hunt during the day. Not too long ago we were out walking the dogs after dark and we saw one of them (thanks to a street light) land in a tall pine tree in front of us. Thanks to the close proximity of the creek, we see and hear all sorts of wildlife. We made a good choice when we picked this house to buy.