Good Ol' Summertime

This summer has been particularly busy, it seems. All my normal activities - volunteering at Creasey Mahan Nature Preserve, volunteering at Raptor Rehab of KY (my regular Monday shift and programs)- have been squashed between traveling on vacation, 2 out of state weddings, and Mothapalooza in Ohio. We enjoyed all of them, but it's hard to catch your breath with so much going on.

Of course, Nana Days with our almost-3-year-old grandson are always fun. He's a very good helper around the house and yard. We filled the feeders, went to get more seed, then he wanted to look through little binoculars and watch the birds. Are we starting him right or what! Dick has his share of all this too, plus traveling to Missouri to visit an elderly aunt. We heard last night that she has passed on, so Dick was so glad he went when he had the chance. All this, plus working in the garden to keep it beautiful, have made it difficult to just sit back and relax, enjoying said garden. Sigh.

But today everyone has gone somewhere else, and I am alone, sitting on our porch, trying to quietly read and watch the birds and flowers at the same time. Mostly, I see little brown sparrows and finches. Once in a while, every thing takes flight, and I wonder if the Cooper's Hawk is nearby to spook them.

 If some of my pictures look a little fuzzy, it's because I end up taking them through the dirty windows. You know how it is...as soon as you step outside, the bird flies away.

Dick has worked to hard to turn our back yard into a mini-nature preserve in the last few years, and very successfully I might add. We have habitat for many kinds of critters....

...even if we only see evidence of their presence. Looks like a raccoon may have dined on poke berries that gave him diarrhea.

We started planting Kentucky native plants to make a butterfly garden, and for several years we saw many different kinds all summer long. But this year, the numbers for all species are way down. I've seen one monarch so far, and this is the first spicebush swallowtail for the summer.

 We still have lots of native bees, both large and small.

While deadheading the day lilies yesterday, one of the leaves moved as I neared it. Whoops! This isn't a leaf, but a praying mantis - Dick's favorite insect! I've researched them, and find that they can catch at eat Hummingbirds!

Fickle March

March is the time for fickle weather. We haven't had much winter this year at all, and on Friday, the temperature was in the 70's. The Weather Channel torcon rating for Kentucky and Indiana was 9 of 10, meaning that there was a 90% chance of tornadoes - the highest I have ever seen - and the forecast was certainly correct. Tornadoes almost wiped out the small towns of Henryville, IN, (just north of Louisville) and West Liberty, KY, with a death toll of 34 so far. A one year old child was found in a field. Her parents and siblings died in the storm, and she died of her injuries later. Please include all these people in your prayers that they can pull their lives back together again and go on after losing so much.

I had been watching for early bloomers, such as our liverwort, and harbinger of spring. Our daffodils are in full bloom, and the little purple crocus are about finished. Sunday the temperatures dropped, and this morning we awoke to a beautiful covering of snow. They don't expect it to last long, so I dashed out to take some photos.

The birds in my backyard just fluffed their feathers a bit and sang joyously.

Ounce for ounce, I think the Carolina Wren is the loudest bird in the world, or at least in my yard! I had to search to find this small brown bird perched in the snow covered leaves of our pin oak...

...until he flew in for a quick breakfast of peanuts.

Both male and female Cardinal checked me out before leaving the safety of the trees. When it started to snow in just one spot, I knew a squirrel was running across the branches shaking the snow to the ground.

This Downy Woodpecker is one of our regular visitors as well. When you live outside all the time, you can't let a little snow get in your way.

We are sitting with our granddog and cat this week while the kids and Kittrick visit the Florida family, and Bailey was excited to explore the new scents in the snow. By Wednesday, it's supposed to reach 66 degrees again. Sigh...it sure is March, isn't it?

Playing "Opossum"

Since this is the weekend for the Great Backyard Bird Count, I've kept an eye on the feeders out my window, with little luck. Few birds have come to eat in our yard. But a motion caught my eye, and when I focused, I saw a POSSUM!

I know they come to yards, and will eat almost anything. One time I found one in a garbage can in the garage where it couldn't climb out, and was proud that I did not scream. We had to turn the garbage can over and leave so it could escape. And, boy, did it smell!

As this one slowly walked across the yard, I wondered what it was doing out in the afternoon. A closer look found a distinct split in its left ear. Looks like it's been in a fight sometime.

In fact, this possum has a spot on its rear with very sparse fur, and a very raw, red, bleeding area. Either it's been in a fight, or got caught trying to squeeze under a fence. It sniffed around as I approached, camera in hand, but didn't seem too upset or panicky and didn't try to run away.

A quick look on the Internet found several interesting facts. Possessing a furry tail, the true "possum" belongs to the Phalangeridae family within the Marsupialia order and is primarily found in New Guinea, Australia, Indonesia and other islands in the Pacific region. With their signature bare tail, the "opossum" is North America’s only known marsupial; this means the animal carries its young in a pouch much like the Australian kangaroo. Both the possum and the opossum are nocturnal, nomadic omnivores and live on an expansive diet that includes insects, frogs, birds, snakes and fruits. The opossum is primarily dark grey in color but some resemble cinnamon, and white opossums are known to exist. The possum and the opossum are both hunted animals and possess an instinct to play dead, or “play possum” when threatened. I'm glad it didn't view me as a threat!

Fledging Wrens

Carolina Wren are wonderful little birds. They sing loudly and aren't afraid of anything. As posted earlier, a pair of Wrens took up residence in the gourd hanging outside our kitchen door this year.

During the last few weeks, they flew back and forth to the gourd, using the patio chairs as convenient perches.

Saturday evening we ate on the patio and noticed small chirps coming from the gourd. The next day, the parents made more noise than usual, with chirrs and scoldings, jumping from the chair to the table to the fence and back again.  Obviously, something was going on. Then I looked at the gourd from the shelter of our kitchen door, and saw two babies trying to decide if they should leave the nest. I hadn't expected to actually see the fledging, and boy was I excited!  I ran from kitchen to porch with camera in hand, trying to get photos that weren't too blurred by the dirty windows! With a tree nest, the chicks can "branch" or walk along the branches while they strengthen their wings by flapping. When they do try to fly, they can go short distances first. Cavity nesters don't have this option. Once they jump out, that's it. Their wings can't take them back up to the cavity, so you can understand the look of indecision on this little one's face.

Before I could press the shutter on my camera, he jumped down to the ground, looking around as if to say, "Well, I did it.  What next?"  His sibling jumped too, but I didn't get any good photos of him.

For a little guy who just took a long fall, he seems in good condition, and soon hopped back up to the step.  Note the short, almost non-existent tail feathers. "Oops! Did I do that?"

Then he flew/hopped to the top of the stepladder...

...back to the lawn chair...

...and finally out to the top of the swing in the yard, the last time I saw him. Dick said he found them near the log pile in the back of the yard.  They quickly knew to go to shelter.

One of the parents came to the gourd with a bug for the babies, and seemed surprised to find no one there!

But they continued to call encouragement to their brave children, while warning us big creatures to stay out of the way.  We carefully used the front door when we needed to go into the yard, so we  wouldn't accidentally step on one of the chicks, or get attacked by the parents.

Who else was watching this important step in a Wren's life?  Our cat Binx, of course.  Normally he's more interested in the chipmunks, but all this activity caught his eye.  He's the main reason we went out the front door, of course, since he's faster than anything if the porch door is open.

The parents continued to entice the chicks into the bushes at the back of the yard, calling and hopping from place to place.  Since the chicks reached their place of concealment and safety though, I haven't heard the parents nearly as much as in the last few weeks.  Maybe silence is safety for them too.

 

I turned a lot of individual photos into a Flash file. Let's see if I can get it to work!

From the Chipper's Point of View

Chip! Hello there and welcome to my world. My relatives and I live in the Garden of Eatin', although the tall two-legged creatures who share our world like to pretend it is their backyard.  Sure it is....  We keep them around as gardeners, but chipmunks are the dominant life species here. Chip!

We chipmunks are energetic beings, always on the hunt for something good to eat, and we eat many different things such as peanuts, insects, different types of grains, the eggs of certain birds, various types of fungi and even worms as well. Sometimes chipmunks also love bird seeds, dried or even fresh bananas, apples, peas, tomatoes, grapes, sweet corn, grass, cucumber, dried apricots, sunflower seeds etc. My gardeners have strict orders to keep sunflower seeds out for us all the time. They put them in bird feeders we can't reach, but it's OK.  The birds are glad to toss some to the ground to share with us. Sometimes we climb up on the sunflower plants and help ourselves to the seeds. Yummy! They are always better when they are fresh! When autumn comes, we stuff them in our cheek pouches to stash away in underground storage bins for the winter.

We share our Garden of Eatin' with the neighbors, and we all get along pretty well.  The squirrel tribe keeps to the trees for the most part, coming down to share the bounty of sunflower seeds. We invite the squirrels to our fence races sometimes, but they don't want to participate.  The wooden fence around our Garden makes a great race track for us speedy chipmunks.

We chipmunks are intelligent creatures, and our spiritual needs are met by Brother Brown, a Chip Monk.  We tithe our seeds to the Church of Chiptymonk, and he prays for us.  Like other idyllic places, we have to watch constantly for the evil Cat demon. The Cat demon hides and spies on us.  Sometimes our teenage chipmunks dare each other to taunt this demon, calling him names.  This enrages the evil Cat, and when it gets loose in our Garden, none of us are safe. I've heard tales about rash chipmunks who have been captured by the Cat demon.  But they kept their wits about them, and when the Cat started to torture them, they were able to escape.  I love listening to tales of great heroes and their mighty deeds during the cold winter nights.

The Raging Torrent is both a blessing and a curse in the Garden of Eatin'.  The steep rock cliffs make it risky to climb down to the life-giving water for a drink on a hot summer day.  We have to be careful or we will be swept away by the rapids.

Our Garden has a variety of habitats.  We can dart into the forests and jungles if we need to hide or just cool off.  There are brush piles and rock condos that some of us like.  I prefer my hole under the flower bed wall.  Did you know that there are more of my relatives living in a human cemetery than there are humans buried there? Yes, it's true!

Another of my favorite spots is the giant flowers. They smell good and are tasty too. The tall grasslands are easy to cross while traveling from one side of our world to the other.  I understand that there are other worlds like mine all over, but I'm sure this Garden of Eatin' is the best. I doubt those chipmunk tribes even speak the same language I do, so I'm happy to stay home. 

Chip! Chip! Chip!  Well, that's my mother calling me home for dinner.  I'll see you later!

Proud Pseudo-Mama

I feel like a proud Mama, showing off the pictures of the wonderful things her baby does, which no other baby in the world has ever done before. Sorry about being obsessed with the Cooper's Hawk fledglings. At least one of my babies is successfully hunting! At first I wasn't sure if this was an adult or one of the babies. She looks so competent. Just catch the bird and perch in the pine tree for a leisurely lunch. No fuss! The eye color indicates this is one of the fledglings to me. Do the adults lose that red coloring after the breeding season is over? One of the other fledglings landed on a nearby branch, whistling and begging for a handout. This one just ignored the noise, and didn't even try to mantle her catch and protect it from sibling thievery. How's that for confidence!

Juvie Coops

Our juvenile Cooper's Hawks are doing quite well. They fly easily from tree to nearby tree now. This one even perched on our swing for a while, giving me an outstanding photo op! Look at his eye. The mature Cooper's Hawk has a red eye. An immature that is perhaps a year or two old has a yellow eye. And this fledgling has grey eyes.

Their mother taught them that cleanliness is important if you want to fly, so preening is their primary activity when perched in a tree.

Those rotten Blue Jays follow them all day. Even though they don't hunt yet, you always know they are around because of the ruckus the Jays make. Just because Jays have blue feathers, they think they are the Hawk Police!

What are you doing down there?

Does Mom have some lunch ready for us?

1,2,3... Ready or not, here I come!

This time I'm really going to fly off this branch...

Ah, the shade feels wonderful. I need to practice my stalking.