Unusual Sightings Around Here

I was cleaning up some of my photographs, deleting some and transferring others to a back-up hard drive.  I realized that we have been treated to some rather unusual animals and birds right here at the house.  You may have seen some of these before.

A white version of the gray squirrel (not albino) is seen fairly often in downtown Brevard.  They breed with the gray squirrels and now make up about a third of the squirrels in the downtown area.  It is very rare to see them more than nine miles away from town, but we had a visit from one.  (I still maintain they are beadie-eyed little monsters.)

Transylvania County's Famous White Squirrel

We finally prevented the pesky flying squirrels from getting into the vent.  This one decided to try the umbrella on the deck.

Flying Squirrel climbing up the umbrella on the deck.

The Black-throated Blue Warbler is occasionally found at higher elevations in the NC mountains.  They are a rare sight in our county.

Black-throated Blue Warbler  Note the "pocket hankerchief" on his wing.

The Worm-eating Warbler is not a common sight around here and certainly not often observed on a deck.

 The Black-and-white Warbler is a summer guest in our mountains.  But they usually stay out of sight in damp woodlands.  This one was creeping up and down the screen outside the kitchen window.  At first I thought the bird was caught in the screen, so I grabbed a glove intending to help him get loose.  When I opened the door, the bird flew away with ease.

 Purple Finches are common around our house in spring.  This bird is a leucistic female.  She is much lighter in color than a typical Purple Finch.  We were pleased to see her being fed by a lovely male Purple Finch so it appears she may be attractive despite her strange coloring.

Very early one morning my husband called me from the garage.  A bobcat was walking down our driveway!  I grabbed the camera as he moved from our driveway to the woods beside the house.  What a thrilling sight.  We had seen evidence of bobcats in the area, but we had never seen the lovely feline until this one morning.  We have not seen one since although they are still around.

We see evidence of visitors in our woods all the time.  Many mornings we can still smell the skunks who drifted by.  We have seen the place where a black bear had dug out a yellow jacket nest at the foot of a tree stump.  We have a three-legged coyote that we see fairly often.  We've had a 'possum in our garage.  We see raccoons almost daily.  And the deer have a trail in our backyard giving them easy access to our plants.

Living here is such a treat!