Coyote: Revisited

A great meal story traveled widely: two coyotes visited the photo site over the next days. The first canine visitor was a fox, followed an hour and a half later by the first coyote.

Our Black-Eared Fox: Probably a Red Fox

Same Fox, Sniffing

First Coyote: Four Blond Legs

Leaving a Deposit!

Walking Away

That Evening: A Black Left Rear Legged Coyote Stops By

Other animals also dropped by: Crows, the pheasant, a rabbit, cats, an opossum, the fox, and, every day, our dog.

Very Few Crow Photos Since Last Post: Probably the Same Pair That Visited Every Day. They Never Returned.

Fox Returns This Morning

Boiling Maple Sap to Syrup and Upgrading Dead Fish

Sap to Syrup Operation

Our 14 taps produced more than 20 gallons of sap in the last 24 hours and we're struggling to find enough five-gallon pails to hold sap for processing. We've covered the stove with seven pots that progressively concentrate maple sugar. To avoid losing a large batch by accidentally burning syrup to carbon (it's happened!), we try and store each day's yield of finished maple syrup that boils at 104C in quart canning jars. It's not that hard to keep from adding new sap to yesterday's ever more yellow concentrate and routinely consolidating the finishing syrup, see photo below.

Wood-burning Cook Stove with Seven Pots Boiling Sap to Syrup

Fish That Die Feed Other Animals

Fish that die from natural causes become food for a variety of animals. I wondered what sort of animals were rooting around the piles of small dead fish that accumulated near the outlet of the pond so I set up a trail camera that automatically takes photos of anything within its view that moves. Many crows have visited the fish sushi bar along with a single turkey vulture. I was hoping to see some mammals - but so far: none.

Two Crows Eating Fish

Turkey Vulture Snacking on Dead Sunfish