Guillermo Peanut Stuffin'

I put a few peanuts out for Guillermo to enjoy this morning and the funniest thing happened!  He tried to get all three of them in his mouth at the same time!  Check out the progression of peanuts into his cheeks in this set of pictures:

Before Peanuts:

He gave up trying to get that third peanut into his mouth.  He must have thought he was being selfish so he left it behind for his friend Billy Bluejay who promptly swooped in and picked it up.

Chipmunks like Guillermo are really small, about the size of a child's hand, so they don't like to be out in the open where birds and other animals can see them.  So when they get tasty snacks like peanuts, they stuff them into their mouths and run off to a secret place like a tree house or a fort.  Then they'll take them out of their mouths and hold them in their hands while biting off the shell to get to the nuts inside.

Eddie Up

I'm not sure where Eddie thought he was going, but he decided to test his climbing skills again on another tree.

While Momma Booker watched from atop a nearby woodpile:

Booker's a Girl!

Dang. I can no longer escape the fact that Booker is a female.  The three pups were a pretty big hint but the nipples cinched it.

The kids grazed while Booker was away. They were happy to see her at dusk.

I really wanted Booker to be a boy. I had a sort of kinship with him -- both of us bachelors living alone at 410 Maxine Dr. But now that I have positive proof of his femaleship, I'm not sure how our relationship will change.  We'll see.

Welcome PJ, Eddie & Whizzer

My earlier post about Booker's son PJ was apparently incomplete because it left out PJ's siblings Eddie & Whizzer. Here's a few pics:

 

I estimate that these guys are 5 weeks old based on this information:
"It takes about two weeks for newborn groundhogs to have fur, and four weeks before they can open their eyes. At five weeks, they are running around.  When they are able to eat on their own, the mother will move each one away from the home den to a separate den and leave it. However, she will visit each one daily for a few weeks to check on it." So since they just came out of the den for the first time this week an are feeding on their own I estimate they're at 5 weeks. And they can climb!  Here's a pic of Eddie climbing a tree (For which he was named after Sir Edmund Hilary):

Eddie climbing a tree.

Eddie climbing down a tree.

I have a video of PJ running up the tree just as soon as he saw Eddie do it. I'll try to get that posted soon. It's a very exciting time of discovery for the lads!  =B

Welcome Fawndingo!

My friends!  We welcome another newborn resident to the backyard today!  (Busy week!)  We have a newborn fawn in the backyard who I believe is  the child of Dawn who was born into the back yard at this time two years ago with her brother Digger (you can see their pictures in a previous post here).  So we have named this baby deer "Fawndingo" because we expect great things from him/her.  Here's a pic:

Baby deer have these spots through the summer of their first year (about the first four months of their lives) and then their coat turns an even dunn color like this picture of Fawndingo's mother, Dawn:

 And here they are together:

Welcome PJ!

Banner day, my friends!

Today we welcome Booker's child, PJ to the backyard!

Talk about a major surprise when I looked outside this evening and saw a little grey groundhog snuffling around a few feet away from Booker!

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the birth of baby groundhogs:
"The breeding season for groundhogs extends from early March to mid-April. A mated pair remains in the same den throughout the 32 day gestation period. As birth of the young approaches in April or May, the male leaves the den. A litter usually contains 2–6 blind, hairless and helpless young. Young groundhogs are weaned and ready to seek their own dens at five to six weeks."

So it looks like PJ was born around May first and now five weeks later is learning to forage on his or her own.

PJ -- born May 1st, 2011.

Staying close to dad until I know a little more about the world.

P.S. I'm going to maintain that Booker is male, even though deductive reasoning would indicate otherwise since male groundhogs have no role in raising their young.

Stand-off with Dawn

So here was an interesting experience... I was in the house at an open window and decided to snap a few pics of Dawn the Deer in the back yard.  Dawn must have started thinking that it's her backyard or something like that, and alternates stamping her forehooves while trying to stare me down!  After six or eight repetitions of this, she snorts at me aggressively a few times!  I wish I had captured it on video camera because it was really funny! I'm a little surprised she doesn't appreciate who pays the bills around here and who gives her all the clover and wild strawberries she could want.  Sheesh!

Dawn's foot-stomping stare down.

I told her if she kept staring me down I'd post this picture.  HA! =)