Wildlife

Since Spring has arrived, I've been out taking photos of wildlife seen on my campus. Well, actually, wildlife encounters this year started with the first day of classes when I was just leaving my neighborhood.

There is a wooded area in my neighborhood, and people have seen deer grazing along the edges every so often. Yet I had never seen a deer there...only deer tracks in the front yard on a rare instance. So when I saw the deer I captured in the photo below, I was surprised...and I only had my camera with me that day in case I wanted to take photos of things around campus.

Here is a more cropped version I have, in order to see a closer view of its face and antlers.

This is one reason I have my camera with me whenever I leave the house anymore! Otherwise, I would have had another, "I wish I brought my camera with me" moment.

Anyway, now for wildlife encounters at my college campus. On one day just a few weeks ago, the geese were honking so loud, I was expected a whole flock to land in the grassy across the driveway from where I stood. I never did see any geese until I went into the building, walked halfway down the hall and exited through the front lobby doors. Then I just sat on a bench outside, watched for a while, taking photos here and there. Here are some of my favorite geese photos...some from that day, some from other days since.

All of the above photos were taken while sitting outside the front lobby of an academic building, just across from the campus library. Of course, the geese don't just fly over...they are geese wandering the campus grounds in various places.

Here is one more bird photo I took while sitting near the beautiful mansion on campus.

This curious Robin, while still looking right at me after I took this photo, tilted its head to one side but I didn't get that shot. I wish I had managed to zoom in on this one just a little bit more.

Besides the bird population, there are the numerous squirrels roaming around...on the ground, up in the trees, etc. So I have a few photos of them as well. The one in the first photo had managed to climb to one of the highest branches on a very tall tree by this point. I should mention here that my college has a brochure with a map of trees featured on campus. Some of the tall trees on campus are of the tallest tree species in Pennsylvania. There is a Web site about that listed on the brochure, but I'll have to add that later on...maybe I'll make that a separate blog post after exploring the map of trees some more.

Just like the Robin, this squirrel seems to spy me as I take its photo!

Well, that's all for the campus wildlife encounters...for now anyway. This past week, I saw a raccoon and a fox (on different mornings) while entering the campus. Also, a deer was walking along the edge of one campus parking lot. There is a rumor of an albino deer being seen on or near campus, according to what one professor told me. I've also seen a stray black and white cat twice.

As far as future wildlife photography goes, I would really love to visit America's national parks out west. I want to see wildlife in its natural habitat...wildlife I've never seen in person, except for bears at a zoo. There is also a wolf preserve in Lititz, PA that I want to visit. I love wolves, as you can see, and also did a paper on them recently for my environmental communications class. So, if I start out with a visit to the wolf preserve soon, that will be another blog post as well.