Mammals enjoying the sun

The weather is ever so gradually getting warmer, and birds have been moving a little bit in the past week despite the weather. Swarms of male grackles chasing a single female are becoming a common sight, and robins are increasingly prevalent, particularly today when you could barely step outside without seeing or hearing one. I spent a couple hours walking outside both days this weekend, and had a few migrants besides the aforementioned robins and grackles, including one each of Eastern Bluebird, Turkey Vulture and Red-tailed Hawk actively migrating. 11 Bohemian Waxwings on Sunday were also great to see.

The other highlights were a couple of mammal sightings. On Saturday, a White-tailed Deer doe fed in the sunlight with her two yearlings for quite a while, giving excellent looks.

This guy and his sibling looked a bit odd, but it seems this is a pretty normal appearance for deer this old. I suppose I've just never really looked at deer this time of year before.

I see deer quite a lot and I wouldn't spend much time with them if there was anything else around to see. However, the second mammal sighting would get me excited regardless of the time of year. I saw this Striped Skunk out in the open enjoying the sun on Sunday, seemingly unconcerned about my presence. 

I assume he only just became active this weekend after sleeping much of the winter. He decided to move between melted patches in the snow a couple times, and looked very funny bounding across the snow.

I've only seen a few skunks active in the day, and this is only the second I've ever been able to watch and enjoy for an extended time.