T.G.'s Photography Blog

 With a forest behind my house, I see quite a bit of wildlife from time to time . In addition to the wildlife there are a couple of cats in the neighborhood that like to sit at the edge of my backyard and the forest, and hunt for food. Earlier this month I looked out my kitchen window and saw one of the two regular cats sitting on a tree stump watching the forest, presumably for lunch. A cat sitting on a tree stump at the edge of the forest. Photograph taken on January 13, 2022, near Syracuse, New York.

One day last month I was sitting in my dining room helping one of my kids with schoolwork, when I happened to hear what sounded like a woodpecker pecking. I glanced out the window of the dining room and saw a pileated woodpecker couple perched on opposite sides of an ash tree at the edge of the forest behind my house.  A male (left) and female (right) pileated woodpecker pair, perched on a dying ash tree. According to Cornell University's All About Birds website , pileated woodpecker pairs stay together year-round, and are territorial, except for in the winter. During the winter they will share their territory with other woodpeckers. I've seen these two flying around at the edge of my forest but didn't realize that I was most likely seeing the same two birds each time. A female pileated woodpecker pecking on a dying ash tree. The male and female pileated woodpeckers are similar in size. The easiest way to differentiate between a male and female pileated woodpecker is the re...

A frog peeking out from a pond A frog peeks out, while basking in the cool water of a pond, on a warm spring day. Photo taken: April 4, 2010. Belton, Missouri.