Anyhoo... I do have some interesting bird stuff for you loyal viewers. As you can see, most of the snow has finally melted. Yay! What birds can you spot in this photo?
That's right, from left to right, you have Mrs. Mallard, a wood duck, Mr. Mallard, and a wild turkey.
The wood duck is gorgeous and considered perhaps the most beautiful duck in North America. Now we have a pair of them hanging around, as well as the mallards and black ducks, and this week I saw a pair of hooded mergansers on the water behind our house.
The wood duck apparently has no fear of the turkey, not that the turkey ever seems to notice or care about the ducks:
And here we have SQUIRZILLA, or rather, one of the several Squirzillas in our yard. Yesterday I saw one of this little monsters make a running body slam against my beloved pair of wood ducks, to get them away from the birdseed he wanted! The poor ducks fled back to the water after the evil rodent broadsided them. I regularly see red squirrels kick birds out of the feeders (my hubby recently saw one eject a crow from feeder by creeping up and pushing on his feathered behind!) and chase away the mallards, but yesterday was the greatest act of Squirzilla violence I have yet witnessed. It's shocking what goes on in this yard, truly shocking.
PUBLIC ENEMY #1Meanwhile, back in the house, Julius drinks from his favourite water fountain. His humble slave, aka ME, turned the tap on for him:
I would like to be a cat with human slaves.
I love squirrels! My sister's back yard in Flagstaff is full of trees and squirrels. Their border collie used to bark at all the squirrels and one of them, who had a lot of attitude, would scold the dog and not run away. He looked liked he was saying "you talkin' to me?" so I named him Travis Bickle. He is long gone now but I hear a couple of his descendants are carrying on the pyscho/bold thing for him. Your red squirrels are gorgeous! Phyllis
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the farm. Once you have one, I'll see what I can do about getting you a goat (grin)
ReplyDeleteI used to have a cat that loved running water and dripping taps too. She wouldn't drink from her water bowl - oh no, no still, stagnant water for my little princess. She wanted her water flowing, silly humans! I sure miss the silly beast.
When we lived in Nebraska, the squirrels used to purposely drop acorns on poor Billie's head. And when I was in college in Portland, they'd wait in trees after it rained for someone to walk underneath, then they'd deliberately shake water over their hapless victims. Evil rodents. :-)
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