RedpollsBob the Cat was here twice today, and we might have learned how he could be here unseen more than we know. It started this morning about 10:30 AM when ‘Eyes of the Night,’ a.k.a. Peggy the Volunteer Assistant Bookkeeper, dropped a foam knee pad from the second floor deck while she was changing batteries in the outdoor thermometer. She went down the steps, turned and went under the deck, and as she was passing within a foot of the feeder outside the living room window, the bobcat shot out from under it and raced to the back of the WRI cabin and turned the corner. We had no idea Bob lurked under that feeder near deer and red squirrels.
Knowing that he had been there, Lorie searched videos of that area and discovered that five hours later, at 3:16 PM, he went back under the feeder but left only a minute later as these two few-second videos show. https://youtu.be/WnBr3AxSClE
I wonder if Bob’s tendency to be unseen might explain why deer sometimes don’t come until much later than normal and why Pretty Girl is on alert or doesn’t come at all some days. As we learn Bob’s lurking spots, we’ll be better able to know. Time will tell.
But it takes more than the occasional fox or bobcat to deter hungry redpolls out the window.
Thank you for all you do,
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center