It was chilly and overcast for most of the day, but not much in the way of rain.

I got up around 7:00 am, right around the same time Lissa got up and let her dogs out for their morning potty. I got Sergeant Margie outside and fed him his breakfast. I had a small bite of food, so I could take a pain pill and then headed over to the Effie Yeaw Nature Preserve for a walk even though I was in some pain (around a 6 or 7). I didn’t cover as much ground as I normally would have, but still got in about a three-hour walk.

The place seemed dominated by the “boys” today: small bachelor groups of Wild Turkeys, and the bucks in rut. I saw bucks from young spike-bucks up to the big 4-pointers. One of the larger bucks was chasing the other ones all over the place, challenging them, no matter their age, and making everyone scatter. There was a 2-point buck about 8 to 10 feet from me beside the trail at one point who was nursing a sore leg. Another 2-pointer walked up, charged the wounded one, and the wounded one rushed away – right toward me! Yikes! He pivoted to one side before hitting me, but that was close!

The turkeys were far more cooperative and mellow. Many of them were just sitting around showing off their snoods to one another.

CLICK HERE for the full album of photos.

I also saw the melanistic squirrel again. This time I was able to get a few halfway decent photos of him before he ran off into the high grass.

Some fungi are just starting to show up. I got photos of a really beautiful specimen of Oyster Mushrooms growing near the base of a tree. One of the caps was about a foot wide. I think they’re so lovely; they bend up and back to reveal their gills. Kind of look like off-white wings.

I got home by about 11:30 and had some lunch.