Meet Bill Murray

I have a new friend.  I'm naming him Bill Murray.  He is brown, furry and makes daily appearances outside my kitchen window.  He is a groundhog and I think I like him...for now.

Look at Bill, just chomping away at the weeds!

I can't help but smile every day when I see him in the yard.  He, and I assume he is a he, but he could be a she, is always munching away at grass and weeds.  If I could train him to eat only the weeds in the garden we could have a beautiful friendship.  He lives under the shed, which could be a problem.  I think he lives under there with and entire commune of small furry animals!  I saw a chipmunk run under there the other day.  I know the squirrels run under there from time to time.  Without Sadie to patrol our yard, it is an animal sanctuary.  Mice, groundhogs, chipmunks and squirrels.  Sadie would never have let them reside under that shed without constantly tormenting them and forcing them to relocate!

Here is Bill eating weeds near our bird feeder.

I am sad to say Bill's days are probably numbered here at the farmhouse.  As soon as he discovers all those beautiful greens in the garden TJ will slam him in the live trap faster than you can say, "Groundhog Day"  and cart him off to another weed ridden property far, far away.  In the meantime, I kind of like looking outside and seeing him scamper around the yard, rain or shine.  I guess I miss brown furry things in my yard!
In other wildlife sightings here at the farmhouse....we have seen several pheasants.  This one in particular walked the entire yard, and it's a big yard!  He was huge, I know he was a he because of his beautiful coloring, the poor girls get stuck with ....brown!

Pheasant outside of glass

On the opposite end of the bird spectrum, we have many hummingbirds.  It is a riot to watch a hummingbird try to drink out of a feeder while it swings in the wind!  Even funnier is to watch me try to take a picture of the swinging feeder and bird.

It took a lot of tries to actually get this one!

So while I am away, Bill Murray will be chowing down on dandelions and will hopefully leave the lettuce alone!
Speaking of being away....as you read this post I will be in South Africa.  If all goes as planned this post will come out while I am living a dream come true...and how often does that happen?  I don't think I ever expected to go to Africa when I was growing up.  It was always a far away, very wild, exotic, country filled with vast lands where zoo animals roamed freely.  I have been looking forward to this trip for months!  I can only hope it lives up to my very high expectations.  The next wildlife photos on the blog will likely be lions and tigers and hippos!  Stay tuned for a chapter or two of my trip to South Africa!  Cheers!