Lmst

A neighbor paid a visit yesterday evening.

#Skunk #AuroraIllinois #FoxValley #IllinoisWildlife #BackyardWildlife #Stinkkatze #Illinois #FoxValleyWildlife #SkunksOfTheFediverse #Skunkstodon

A darkish photo of a large skunk, taken in the evening hours in the Chicago suburbs. The skunk's striping begins as one wide white stripe near the head, then splits into two stripes along the back shoulder area, and each stripe follows the side down to the end of the tail. He is eating a piece of pizza someone threw out with the trash. After devouring the entire piece, he left without incident.

A family of #rabbits seems to be living in my backyard. Our #dog Ava doesn't chase them, and they seem to know that they don't need to run away quickly whenever she goes outside.

#AvaTheSheltie #PixelBunnies #Bunnies #BabyBunnies #RabbitsOfPixelfed #Wildlife #Illinois #IllinoisWildlife #Bunny #BunniesOfPixelfed #Nature

An individual very young brown-gray bunny rabbit, sits in green grass that is in slight need of getting mowed.

A mother rabbit and one of her bunnies are looking for food among the tall grass in my backyard. Lilac trees (whose blooms have faded for the season), perennial flowers (with no blooms yet), and (too many) weeds are in the background. Mother rabbit is looking up and alert that I am watching her from my back patio door, but does not run away.

A small young brown-gray baby bunny rabbit tries to hide from me, as I step out of my back patio door into the porch. Bunny is tucked away in my unkempt and untended garden area, surrounded by some weeds and a black plastic water pipe, with an outdoor water faucet above his head.

The water pipe is used for water that gets pumped out of the basement from beneath the home's foundation, and then is directed away from and behind the house.

👀😮 A #coyote was captured while hiding inside the produce at a #Chicago #Aldi grocery store. 🙀

The coyote had apparently entered through the front door. He is now safely at a #wildlife rehabilitation center, where his health will be evaluated before being released back into the wild.

#UrbanWildlife #Coyotes #UrbanCoyote #CoyotesOfMastodon #UrbanCoyotes #IllinoisWildlife #ChicagoNews #IllinoisNews #ChicagoWildlife

https://youtu.be/Ac4bLepZR9M?si=kDFC0yO5x993EVd8

Some good news on a #WindowFriday ...

Last year, #McCormickPlace in #Chicago saw thousands of birds die after hitting their windows-- over 1K in just one day. This past year, they've worked with experts to substantially reduce the number of window strikes from #MigratingBirds. They installed a dotted pattern on their many huge window faces and have taken other measures (including simply turning off certain lights) to reduce bird strikes.

It's already resulted in much lower numbers of bird fatalities.

Over the years, any dead birds found there have been given to the #FieldMuseum, who has been studying them. They've noticed a pattern in the species who tend to hit most often, and have seen some genetic changes, which might be connected to #ClimateChange. [Video]

#Birding #Birds #Science #FensterFreitag #FensterFriday #BirdsOfMastodon #Video #Birdstodon #Migration #MigrationPatterns #ProtectingWildlife #LakeMichigan #MigratoryBirds #IllinoisWildlife #CBS2News

https://youtu.be/Ck5AbMGnxLA?si=PAygwYmO9dgAfpqu

My local #ForestPreserve people have gone #viral for their comedy here...

Even if you're bug-phobic, you can watch this one without worries. No actual #cicada images are used to illustrate this "Lifecycle of the 17-Year Cicada" (produced by my local #DuPage County Forest Preserve District). There is very good reason why this wacky video is going viral on other platforms, and even earned a shout-out from #StephenColbert.

#Cicadas #Cicadapocalypse #Cicadageddon #CicadaInvasion #BroodXIX #Cicadadon #PublicServiceVideos #Bugstodon #Video #InstructionalVideo #BugsOfMastodon #Illinois #IllinoisWildlife #DuPageCounty #ViralVideo #Viral_Video #ViralVideos

https://youtu.be/-SmnXlpWmLg?si=JUBYlGZjGmFSwWqt

A #Butterfly warms itself in the bright Springtime sun on my back porch.

(Apologies for the camera movements. My hand is not always steady.)

#SilentSunday #Butterflies #IllinoisWildlife #Bugstodon #Schmetterling #Flutterbyes #ButterfliesOfMastodon #Schmetterlingen #Flutterby #WildlifePhotography #Spring

I was surprised to get a mid-afternoon visit today from our one of our neighborhood #foxes (they're usually more nocturnal). The #RedFox stopped where we often feed the birds. I had thrown out some old bread for the birds to eat, but my fox friend found it first.

Once he realized we were discretely watching him, he reluctantly walked off without finishing his meal.🙁

The wide variety of animal prints🐾 in the snow are presumably from the nearby skunks, racoons, squirrels, rabbits, and opossums-- only a few of the indentations are from my small dog (who is about the same size as the fox), since she rarely walks in that area.

[The glass on the patio door is a bit dirty, so there are some spots in the original image.]

Photo taken in #AuroraIllinois USA (far suburban Chicago), in the section of the state referred to as "the #FoxRiver."

#Wildlife #FoxesOfMastodon #Foxtodon #IllinoisWildlife #Photography #Photograph #RedFoxes #WildlifePhotos

A Northern Illinois Red Fox, standing in the snow just outside my back patio door, looking at the humans inside and eating bread pieces. There is a wide variety of animal prints in the snow, although many of the indentations are from my small dog (who is about the same size as the fox). Others are probably from skunks, raccoons, squirrels, rabbits, and opossums.

The glass on the patio door is a bit dirty, so there are some spots in the image.

A snippet of video/motion-capture photo. A Northern Illinois Red Fox, standing in the snow just outside my back patio door, looking at the humans inside and eating bread pieces. There is a wide variety of animal prints in the snow, although many of the indentations are from my small dog (who is about the same size as the fox). Others are probably from skunks, raccoons, squirrels, rabbits, and opossums.

The glass on the patio door is a bit dirty, so there are some spots in the image.

#RedFoxes outside my backyard fence this morning, A belated #SilentSunday on a Monday morning.

"The Three Mouse-keteers" are happily playing and catching #FieldMice. Last year, we only saw two #Foxes at a time, and I haven't seen any for a while now. Glad to see the local pest control patrol is still on the job.

Also happy to see them playing like happy puppies. They know they're safe and welcome in our neighborhood.

(Location: #AuroraIllinois USA, near #Chicago, population >200K. The open, mowed-grass area is officially for excessive #rainwater run-off, but is mostly used for kids & animals to run around & play.)

#WildlifePhotography #Wildlife #WildAnimals #FoxesOfMastodon #FoxesAreAwesome #RedFoxes #IllinoisWildlife #IllinoisFoxes #SuburbanWildlife #FoxRiver #Foxtodon #Photography #Photograph #PhotoSunday