Though I've been around snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus) all my life, I was unaware that they resort to eating meat during harsh winters of over-population. A friend who works for Alaska Fish & Wildlife clued me in on this several years ago, when I noticed tracks like spokes on a wheel leading in from the woods, converging below my lumberjack feeder, where bones and scraps had been dropped by the lumberjacks (gray jay, Canada jay).

When faced with starvation caused by overpopulation or harsh conditions, snowshoe hares will indeed show themselves as omnivores/carnivores, as this one clearly does. He climbed up on the deck, onto a bench, then onto the deck rail to get to this lumberjack feeder strewn with turkey bones from last Christmas dinner. He spent about a half hour gnawing on bones before wandering 'lippety-lippety' off.

Tags:   Snowshoe Hare Hare Rabbit meateater winter bird feeder

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Tags:   Northern Lights Aurora Borealis night sky

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It's just not getting dark enough these days to get good night/northern lights photos, the northern skyline is very bright even in the middle of the night. The sun does not go down very far beneath the horizon, also sunrises and sunsets both are taking place farther and farther north on the horizon.

Tags:   Northern Lights Aurora Borealis night sky

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Now here's a visitor to my feeders that is exciting indeed. We are way out of his range, both summer and winter, but in the last year or two, there have been a few, a very few, who show up from time to time. In summer I have learned to recognize their calls, and know they are around even though they don't come to feeders that time of year.

One of my neighbors who is an avid birder says a pair nested near her place last summer, and when winter struck they brought their fledglings to her feeder. We are both hoping they survive the winter, and we continue to see these rare (to us) visitors.

Tags:   Red-Breasted Nuthatch bird winter caribou antler

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12:30 in the afternoon. Many areas do not see the midday sun at all, it is just too low this time of year.

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