It’s been an interesting year at Pearl Creek Farm. Plus, we also observed some new species to add to the list.

The most exciting find for me was an Ornate Box Turtle (Terrapene ornata) right at the edge of our prairie. Still, it was totally expected. In fact, it was amazing it took so long. We’d been finding them on the road within sight of our house almost since we moved in. Wait until we find our first Bullsnake!

Next, I finally broke down and added feral cats and dogs to the list. After all, we were counting Eurasian birds and we’re currently compiling a list of plants and will include the non-native species there. Why leave out the obvious feral animals that find their way to our farm now and then?

As usual, the birds left us with the largest number of new species. The best one here was the Wood Thrush that sang its beautiful song for most of the summer. Other new passerines we saw included a Blue Grosbeak and a Dickcissel.

We’d been seeing the small bird-eating raptors for several years but could never identify them positively. Unfortunately, a Cooper’s Hawk ended up eating most of our chickens. We have only two hens left. The good news is that we finally got a positive identification, although that seems like a pretty high price to pay. I’m sure we have Sharp-Shinned Hawks, too. Maybe this year.