Ruidoso or Bust! Critters around the cabin

Although I try to get out and do stuff while in Ruidoso, I also just like BEING in Ruidoso. There is no place more relaxing than the front deck of our little cabin! We see squirrels, chipmunks, beetles, hummingbirds, deer, lots of birds and sometimes BEARS! This trip was just full of animal visitors and we loved it! We were seeing so many birds, I finally had the Monkey Man pull out his field guide to "Birds of North America"! I wish I could have snapped some pics, but let me tell you, birds are HARD to photograph! Every single pic I attempted was crap! But here is a quick list of the birds we identified in the 6 days we were there. It really is quite an impressive role call of birdies in a single location! We possibly saw an owl, it was early morning and something very large, very white and very quiet sailed through the tall pines across the street. Couldn't get a really good look, but I know for a fact it was no egret. So if anyone knows of a large, white bird that would soar fairly high up, let me know! Anyway, here's my list:
Steller's jays
Dark-eyed Juncos
Acorn Woodpeckers I LOVE woodpeckers! They look like little comedians with funny red hats!
Black-headed grosbeaks
Various sparrows
Turkey Vultures
Swainson's Hawk
Ruby-throated hummingbirds
Rufous Hummingbirds
Western Tanagers This was a STUNNING bird, such amazing colors! There were two chasing each other around, I thought they were maybe males fighting over territory or females.
Yellow-rumped warbler
Flickers I also adore Flickers! Absolutely gorgeous!

We were visited by a couple of cool moths, I've yet to identify them, but we are always fans of moths! This little guy may not look too impressive, but there were several each morning around the light and on the door, they measured about 2" in length. Their fuzzy faces were just too cute!

This little moth was an odd one. It reminded me of a fox's face!

But our most prolific visitors were the deer, mule deer to be exact. We had small herds traipse through the lot next to us daily. They were very curious about us and intrigued by the peanuts and seed we had set out for the birds. They were slightly skittish but not at all scared of us, in fact, there were several times I thought one of them was going to walk right up on the deck!

Bucks are not too common, so we felt privileged that he was comfortable enough to lay down and rest about 20 ft. off the deck!

A group of evening visitors!

This sweet girl looks more like a kangaroo than a deer! Get a load of those EARS!

And the most adorable young buck I've ever seen! What a looker!

We never saw a bear, but we found evidence one morning. Hummingbird feeders were ripped off the deck and pulled open and there was quite a bit of scuffled dirt to one side of the cabin where it obviously lumbered down the hill. I would have loved to have seen it! It's always the biggest thrill to see one of these amazing animals. Oh well, maybe next time.

Most of the visitors were quite welcome, however this bunch wasn't so welcome! At first I worried that it was termites, but never fear, just a swarm of winged ants!