Jennifer Murphy's photos

'Tis the season. These three large does and two smaller yearlings were spotted in our town cemetery. When I first saw them, both yearlings were on top of the piles of soil. Kids and dirt - doesn't matter the species, if there's a pile of dirt, kids are going to climb it! (taken with my sad flip phone)

Impressive size, not so impressive rack. Shot through a window at dusk. I am not a good low light photographer, obviously.

The doe on the left is the one I've been calling "goiter doe"; she has a large lump below her jaw. I suspect the doe on the right might be her fawn from last year. I don't believe this is the doe and fawn I've been seeing all year - I've seen the smaller doe around the same time as the doe and fawn, and that fawn still had spots.

Now that I'm settled in again and feeling like I'm finally sorted out (for the most part), it's time to pick back up on some missed traditions - like Jack and Tawanda and their Halloween antics. It's good to see them back into the swing of things!

A terrible shot through the window, but the only one that really shows the beautiful coat on this coyote. The markings make me think it's possibly the bold pup from this summer, but their coats change so much season to season, there's no telling. When I caught this one out of the corner of my eye, I could have sworn someone's dog was out in my pasture, and very close to the mules. Mules naturally hate dogs, and will kill or seriously hurt any that get too close unless they've been raised with them. Even then, they will tolerate their dogs, but not strange ones. Both of my mules were standing not ten feet away, calming staring at the house trying to Jedi mind trick me into bringing out their breakfast. Maybe they lose that aggressive streak as they get older. Fargo is now 20 and Flea is 21. Or maybe they realized that a coyote alone, hunting mice in the long grass, is no real threat.

This katydid landed on my window and taunted me to photograph it. No, really! It also pointed out that my window cleaning abilities are not quite up to par. Fresh little bug.