Steven Helmer Publications

It's still a little cooler out than I'd prefer the middle of May to be, but I managed to get out for a walk just the same. There wasn't a whole lot of activity this time, mostly because the lone garter snake I saw managed to slither into the taller grass before I could get a photo and several frogs hid under the water the second they saw me. I did, however, manage to get a few photos. Here they are: _________________________________________________________________ Here are some other nature photos: Morning Walk Photos 9/28/2017 Morning Walk Photos 9/12/2017 Lunchtime Walk Photos 6/11/2018 Lunchtime Walk Photos (7/9/2024)

I cut my walk a bit short today at lunch because I had no interest in tackling the hill when it is as humid as it is. On my way back to the car, I spotted this squirrel as it tried to hide from my view but still watched me.

When I was surprised to see a skunk walking around behind my office, I thought it was just a one-time thing. That seemed to be confirmed yesterday, when it wasn't there when I arrived. However, when I got to the office today, it was once again up on the hill with its nose to the ground looking for food. I was able to get close enough to get some photos, mostly because it didn't seem to care I was there as long as I wasn't doing anything threatening.

After a few nights of not getting anything on my trail camera , I decided it was time to change the batteries in it. The ones I had in the camera tested out OK, but I figured, after a year, they were probably getting just low enough where it wasn't able to use the infrared. As it turns out, I was probably right because I had more than 30 videos last night. Most of them are opossums but I did have some rabbits trip it as well. The video that caught my attention most was the one of the opossum climbing the tree. It's the first time I've seen them do that and I didn't see any videos of it coming down so now I want to take a peek at it when I get a chance, just to see if it has a nest or something. Anyway, here are some of the videos:

I repositioned my trail camera again last night and woke up to a bunch of videos on the memory card this morning. Most of those were opossum videos, though I'm not quite sure if it's the same opossum each time or if there's more than one. I suspect it's the latter because the opossum looks bigger in some videos than others.  Anyway, here is a selection of the ones I ended up with.

I had more than 400 photos on the memory card because I forgot to retrieve it first thing this morning, though 300 plus are from last night and are mostly of the opossums that usually come by. There are also plenty of others of a squirrel and crow. The one that really stood out on the trail camera for me though was this one: I mean, it could be someone's dog but it sure as heck looks like a fox to me, which is surprising because while I've seen them on the outskirts of town, such as where my office is, with plenty of wide-open space behind because of a railroad track, I certainly wouldn't expect to see them further in the city, where there aren't exactly a lot of places for it to have a den. If it is a fox, it would explain the half-eaten rabbit we found a couple weeks ago though. Please feel free to comment your opinion. 

I haven't been able to get out the past couple of days because of the rainy weather and when I went today, I spent a lot of my walk trying to get around large quantities of standing water. However, I still managed to get a few photos while I was at it. Here are some of them.

 To tell you the truth, I didn't even realize woodchucks could climb trees until I was on my walk at lunch today and happened to see a bundle of fur hiding from the wind. I thought it was a squirrel at first but clearly it isn't.  The critter was very cooperative with me, letting me try to get a good photo that showed its full face. Once I had it, I left him alone. Anyway, here is the photo of it.

We're supposed to get rain tomorrow, so I made sure to get out while it was still sunny. Here are some of the photos I took.

I got outside a bit today, before we get the scalding heat this weekend. Below are some of the photos I managed to get.

My wife and I had some time without the kids today, so we went to Horicon Marsh. Here are some of the photos I took:

Note to Self: Camera batteries charge better if you don't put them in the charger backwards. Fortunately, even though the battery in my camera was almost dead, I was able to get a few photos before the rain clouds started rolling in. Here are some of them:

It was an absolutely gorgeous day out today so I grabbed my camera and got a walk in. Here are some of the photos I took.

Ironically, I was just telling someone yesterday I surprisingly never see any deer in the park because, in addition to being in the country, it is a big marsh. Well, this morning, I heard some branches breaking in a grove of trees and saw two white tails running away from me. I then decided to circle around to see if I could re-locate the deer and apparently walked past this one without seeing it because it came running up from behind me. Fortunately, the deer paused for a moment (I was standing still so it couldn't tell what I was at first) and I was able to get some photos. If you look closely at the last picture, you'll see a second set of ears. I'm pretty sure that's a fawn.