Pictured: “Pioneer apples” down in the woods on Saturday.
| A newly moved trail-cam caught some great shots of new animals, and birds are starting to migrate. Autumn feels like it’s arrived! Enjoy! Amy | Table of Contents: ~ Spying on Wildlife: Trail-cam Videos! ~ The Birds: Discovering with the Merlin App ~ Woods Walks: Hidden Finds & Plants ~ The Blog: Upcoming Editions |
Spying on Wildlife: Trail-cam Videos!
Shane moved one of the trail-cameras down into the creek bottom, facing a pool of water. We saw Otters, Beaver, Raccoon families, LOTS of Black-tailed Deer, and both Great Blue Herons and Green Herons.
The Birds: Discovering with the Merlin App
Black-headed Grosbeaks have moved on and the Barn Swallows have gathered to move on. Shane counted 43 of them on the power line the other day. Saturday I saw a couple more Merlin “life birds”: Black-throated Gray Warbler and the Western Bluebird. FINALLY haha. While down in the woods my phone supposedly heard an Evening Grosbeak, but if it did, I’d wager it was a fly-by. We saw a Western Flycatcher down by the creek Saturday, too, but it was pretty quiet and didn’t pop-up on the app.
Woods Walks: Hidden Finds & Plants
The Oregon Ash and Red Alder are getting yellow leaves and dropping a few on the trail. You can see signs of early autumn!
The woods apple trees are popular spots for the deer lately. The red apples remind me of a Fuji or Gala type whereas I think the green ones might be Gravenstein (and not ripe yet). These are descended from trees planted down here in the early 1900’s by pioneers, so really not sure what was down there. There’s a pear tree down there too of unknown origin, nowhere near ripe yet. We call this area our “pioneer orchard” down there.
It’s the tail end of blackberries. The Himalayans are drying on the vine unless they’ve sourced some shade or underground water. The Cutleaf Evergreen Blackberries are still trying but are in the same boat.
A neighbor informed me that the Blue/Black Elderberry are ripe now too. Early Autumn has arrived!
The Blog: Upcoming Editions
We’ll see you next week on September 7th for the next Hedge & Hollow, where fall nature continues to change!
Be on the lookout for our early autumn Hair Sheep, Hens & Harvests, where we talk about how sheep breeding season is going and the next plantings/harvests!
In case you missed the latest:
Hair Sheep & Chickens: August 2026
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~ Thank You!~
Hollow Hills Ranch 
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