Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Rock pilfering squirrels

Why do they do it?  I can't find anything scientific on it... only anecdotal evidence really... have you seen it?

They run into the yard... poke around in our decorator rock in the garden areas..select a rock .. sometimes they lick it a few times... get it situated in their mouths and run off with it.  They sometimes only go as far as the lawn... and, bury it.  Then, come back for another.  Last spring we found dozens of them in the lawn when we had it power raked.  We spent a lot of time plucking them out before running our own mower over the grass ...

Sometimes they take them across the street into neighbouring yards.  Apparently they are 'scatter hoarders'... meaning they put things all over the place for future.. what? with rocks? .. who knows ..

Often I find a quite large one on the sidewalk or out in the middle of the road... too big to get very far and they drop it and leave it I guess... most of the rocks in the yard are about 2 inches and bigger... we still have some that are from a previous batch of only smaller ones ..one to two inches .....but those are disappearing quickly ...  they try poking around for those and then..just pick up a larger one and go with it... it's crazy... the one he has here is about 1.5 inches by about 1 inch.... the photo is a little dark, but click on it to enlarge and you can see it better.


Saturday, October 19, 2019

Heart of a leaf..

This one is for you Shashi..

It was as big as my hand with fingers totally spread out.... fell from our Columnar Aspen.

The leaves are still green even after several pretty cold days and two major snowfalls.  No leaves have fallen from the crabapple tree at all yet... all have just stayed green, dried out and curled a bit..but still like they are glued onto the branches.   The early cold must have something to do with that.

Yesterday we had high winds and some of the aspens leaves floated down... and one or two did blow off the other crab in the front yard... today...the backyard is more or less littered with aspen leaves... time to rake.

When I found this big guy I couldn't resist.... I had seen a heart cut out of a leaf somewhere in bloggy-ville...so I made one too.

I should have photographed something beside it...for perspective... it was about 7 inches across...





Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Heated water for the birds..

It's supposed to be drinking water.... but one cold snowy day...yes this early in the year darn it...  .... one guy discovered it was heated and decided he would like a bath.
Two others followed suit, and then all of a sudden there were so many that they were jumping up and down on the wall and the board holding the container ...  all clamouring to get in and have a splash!
It was sparrow bedlam!
I ran for my camera and this is what I saw... the colour is not great as the sun was shining brightly and  you notice the blueish tint of the UV protection in the window glass plus they are a bit dark...

I cropped the second one quite a bit so you can see the funny guy with the wild hair ... like he all of a sudden wondered why he would partake in such shenanigans or was shocked to realize he was bathing in his own drinking water ...  or something....

As usual... click on any photo to see it larger and get a better view... ..there is really nothing 'common' about the Common House Sparrow.. they are a lot of entertainment.
















hahaha.... look at that little wild haired guy...!   Hang on.  Maybe that's a little lady and she is concerned now because there I am with the camera... showing her to the world in 'not-quite-her-best' form......oh 'dear .... that could be it........

















Linking to Stewart's Paying Ready Attention Gallery.... for Wild Bird Wednesday.  Click on the badge below to go directly there to see other birds...  perhaps you have a bird photo of your own to add to the group?





Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Smelling the flowers

This is our little dog, Dude.  I found him at a country fair in Armstrong, B. C., many years ago.  I love that little guy.

He doesn't eat much, doesn't have to go outside and doesn't shed.

He is plenty of entertainment and affords plenty of photo ops...

I put him up on the table while vacuuming and he was seen sniffing the carnations.

He said ```

"Take some time to smell the flowers"

Oh, alright, I didn't actually hear him say anything....that could mean I'm totally bonkers... when in actuality, I'm only half way there.....
but, if he could have....he definitely would have done so.  I know he would.


Tuesday, October 1, 2019

What to eat on a big snow day.

This guy appeared and I thought he had something stuck on or in his beak.  It was long and pointy... I was wondering and worrying already...

Then, it disappeared and he grabbed a long lilac seed pod ...hahahah....he was eating them off the snow covered bush.

I've never seen them eating these seeds in the past, but usually I trim them off about now and there would be none on the tree in a week or two... but, our seed feeders would also be out there and that is all I ever see them eat at our house.

Maybe from now on I should just leave the dead lilac seeds on the bushes.  Ignore what they say in horticulture mags.... ... and trim them in late winter or very early spring instead.  Trimming in fall is supposed to encourage more blooms... but, they get plenty .. so who cares?  Maybe my birdies need them on bad snow days.

You will have to click on him to get a better idea of what he looks like up close.  I lightened the photo a bit.  The bright snow and sun were playing havoc with things.



Linking to Stewart at Paying Ready Attention.