more Spring is happening

Just a heads up...I started this two days ago!

The problem with not blogging as often as I should, I forget things. Both things I want to blog, as well as what I may have already mentioned.  If I repeat myself, I tell myself that it's a good sign that someone is paying attention to what I write!  I tell myself a lot of things. Not all of them are true but it makes me feel better. :D

First let me tell you that mother nature was up to her tricks again.  After lulling us into thinking we would, as the groundhog told us, have an early Spring, she hit us with everything at once in the past 24 hours.  Torrential rain, small stream and road flooding, big drop in temps, sleet, snow, blustery wind, followed by beautiful (though still cold) sunshine. That should have taught us something.

But still in the past week more signs of Spring keep showing themselves to me.  so mother nature have at it one or two more times, but the earth turns and you'll have to make the change to Spring.  So THERE!

I was concerned about Bob.  I hadn't seen him for three days. I noticed the opening to his burrow looked larger and I wondered if something had been after him, or worse, had gotten him.  I spent a lot of time looking out the window hoping for a glimpse of Bob.  Finally I looked out and noticed the opening to his burrow was closed up!  A good sign because he'd be the only one to do that.  Either that part of the burrow is already full of the goodies he's been collecting, or it's preventative to keep something from getting at him. Maybe he was sick of me waking him up in the morning as I'd call out "Wake up Bob!" when I got home in the moning and walked by the opening. I looked across the yard and there he was.

Welcome back Bob!!

I was hoping that he'd put the new entrance under a plant, but no it's still right out in the open. Maybe yesterdays weather will show him the error of his ways.  I've not seen him since the snow.

One lone little crocus has appeared.

The daffodils are sprouting!

The dianthus that grows wild is perking up.

This mallard was stranded momentarily until he figured out what to do.  I swear some times ducks forget they can fly!   With snow on the ground, they prefer to rest in the water. So they have to stay near the edge where the water was more calm and not let themselves float out too far.  Interesting that they can tolerate the cold water, but they definately don't enjoy sitting their butts in the snow and having to tuck their feet up into their feathers.

On a recent warmer day I finally got around to fixing the bird feeder station. Much more stable. This is proof!  They'd been avoiding it. One tried one instance but apparently didn't like the feel and have since left it alone.  I got a new stand for the pole, and I tied a few of the 'branches' together so that there was more room between feeders. This way hopefully the birds won't feel so crowded and more will feel safe using the feeders. 

this squirrel obviously approves.

Bob cracks me up.  Something scared off the birds overhead so Bob took off too. Suddenly he pops up behind the herb box. But I've no idea how he is standing there because there is nothing there. It drops down to the stream.  Later I looked and found that my homemade planter is missing the front board on the back and he managed to sit on the next one. Must have felt safe!

One of the females riding the rapids to the far fork of the stream.  This is where they usually walk over.

Who doesn't find the tufted titmouse 'cute'!

Not sure what I'll do when I need my planters for plants.  This winter, to make sure everyone gets some food, I often scattered seeds into the pots. They've gotten used to looking here.  This is a male house finch

black capped chickadee

house finch

one water logged squirrel sitting on the edge of a planter.

Yesterday morning I was leaving the house and noticed a squirrel sitting on the tree branch, her tail twitching madly.  I knew she wasn't worried about me. This is one squirrel I  can identify because she's lost a clump of fur on her tail and I noticed it when she had been obviously bursing. Anyhow, she looked distressed, and I realized there were no birds around. Looking around I finally spotted it.  A juvenile sharp shinned hawk.  At first, seeing the barred tail I thought it was a coopers hawk, but it was so small!   You can see better in the second photo a better perspective for size.  So I checked my bird book and decided it had to be the smaller sharp shinned hawk. It's eyes are still yellow, rather then orange, the creast is streaked rather then rusty, which indicates a juvenile.  though I haven't seen any in the yard lately I have been seeing quite a few red tail hawks in the area.

We have a muskrat once again.  He's a bit on the small side but obviously strong, and determined.  He's been out all through the storm and raging waters, up and down stream, gathering up home building supplies.  The past 2 years I only usually see one muskrat, unlike several years ago when oen found a mate and spent all season having babies. At least 3 litters.  They weren't shy about coming to the yard for corn, and the babies, I could walk right up to them while they are and take video and photos of them.  The only time it ever creeped me out was the day they just kept coming over. More and more until there were 25 in my yard at once!  LOL a tad freaky! But one day while talking to Sister on the phone I happened to look out and saw a mink going down the bank into the stream. Minks kill muskrats.  Surprises me since those muskrats seemed much bigger then a mink.  Anyhow, that was the last time I saw any young muskrats.  Last year the one muskrat I did see, was very shy and often, instead of following the stream around the bend to get some sticks, he would go through the small wooded area.

Nice to see my one eyed squirrel has been surviving the weather.  He's gotten brave enough to come to the porch for peanuts.

This is the female that has paired with blue eyes.  Blue eyes has been fighting with so many males lately. I've never witnessed such ferocious duck fights before.  But I've seen her be a little instigator too. Non-chalantly getting out of the stream only a few week in front of another male that had already been fighting with Blue Eyes.  Blue Eyes of course puts his head down and charges after the other male. This female turns around and slips back into the water and acts like she doesn't see a thing.

I've seen them seemingly try to drown each other, holding them under the water.

For some reason she wasn't coming up with BE to eat. Not sure if it was because a hawk had been around, or if she was just being the look out this time, as he walked around scarfing up food.

My brother aksed me the other day when he stopped by for a visit, what duck has blue eyes.  I thought I'd looked it up before but must have thought about it, then promptly forgot. I was motivated to look again and it's the Muscovy duck that has blue eyes.

May explain some of his odd white markings?

I

I did see some ducks mating the other day. It's always a little distrubing when you tend to put human emotions into the animal world. There were two males and one female.  Male A and the female seemed to be a couple.  Yet it was Male B that was trying to mount her. She was protesting and trying to get away every time he grabbed her by back of  the neck. At the same time Male A, her partner would stay in front of her. I saw him put his head down in front of her, sort of a butting motion, but I've no idea if he was trying to head butt and push off the duck that was successfully mounting her, or trying to get her to stop trying to get away.  Eventually the two, Male B and female, tumbled down the bank into the stream, still in a mount. Her head was being held down in the water at first, until male B finished.  So male B glided off in the water, while Male A and the female sidled up next to each other and floated around together.  Now you know, in the people world, someone would have been arrested for sexual assault!  hahaha

On the groundhog front, looks like Little Dude is out of hibernation!  I haven't seen him, but all the entrances to his burrow are now open.  I had placed a heavy rock at one entrance, so I'd know when he's out and it's been moved away from the opening.  All the dead leaves that collected over the front entrance have been cleared away.  

Then I noticed that the hole one of the groundhogs dug out of the bank on the other side of the stream, then never used, has been remodeled. There's fresh dirt and rock outside of it now.  I don't know if it's in use, but the muskrat took shelter in it during the rain, only briefly, on his trek downstream during the storm.  Resourceful little guy!  Hopefully I'll get some better photos of him soon.

Looking over the chewed stems I'd posted about last time, I've concluded it's most likely a rabbit that chewed them.  If it was  groundhog the damage would have gone much higher on any of the plants (burning bush and spicebush).  If it is the bunny, it means the poor thing was really hungry, from things I've read online. Hopefully now that things are starting to grow again and most of the latest snow is gone he'll be finding better things to eat then my bushes!

Last but not least, I did see two robins today. Hopefully they'll soon discover I've cleaned and refilled the grape jelly feeder for them. 

the Heron, the duckfight and Bob.

Yesterday evening I was restless, and unable to fall asleep and nap before work last night. I'm in the habit, obviously, of looking out the windows. So often I'm rewarded!  This time it was the blue heron, it's visits getting more frequent. The sun was going down and all I saw was his slate colored back, he was in the stream, facing the corner, looking down for his next snack.

There's nothing wrong with their hearing though and he heard me crack open the back door in hopes of getting a photo.  Not enough light with my point and shoot but I got one photo of him standing looking to see where the (ever so slight) noise came from and one of him taking off.  Just like this morning when I got home. I  didn't realize he was there until he took off as soon as I started to open the car door.

I walked across the yard, trying to sneak up on him again, since he'd only walked down the stream. But the ground was rather crunchy and he heard me, taking off. So I looked around while I was there, wanting to see if anything else was budding, or being gnawed on.  My burning bush is being ravished! Something is stripping the bark off the wood and systematically eating the buds too.

Then while I was in the house a duck fight broke out.  Blue Eyes and another male mallard were going at it hard.  Though I've seen seeing the ducks going beak to beak lately, it usually only lasts less then a minute. This fight had a whole different seriousness to it and went on for some minutes. Blue Eyes has the large white ring around his neck.  And do you want to guess what they appeared to be fighting over?  She's on the left of the first photo...

Here the other duck can be seen yanking some feathers out of Blue Eyes.  But if you look at that ducks brown bib, there's  several tell tale white scuffs, where feathers have been ripped from his chest.

 

The fight moved into the water.  At one point Blue Eyes actually had the other duck beneath the waters surface. Once the other duck broke free BE chased him across the stream and the duck escaped to the top of the bank.  But that wasn't the end of it yet. The other duck, foolishly, decided to come back to the water once again to take on BE once more. That was short lived and BE was able to chase him away.  The female duck sidled up along side BE and they swam around together for awhile.  Can you imagine what she could have been saying to him!  "oh you big strong drake you!" (you should know by now I'm easily entertained)

Speaking of being entertained, I've been watching the chipmunk a lot the past two days. I've named him Bob. When I was putting bird feed out this morning, I stood near the opening to his burrow and called to him. "Bob!?  It's time to get up!"   I figure in a week he'll realize I'm talking to him when I say "Bob".

Bob likes the big pile rocks. I probably mentioned that already.  But let me show you.

Here is Bob on the rocks

Here is Bob on the rocks, surveying his kingdom.

 Here's Bob in the rocks. Watching in safety when I opened to door to throw out some peanuts. 

I assume that he feels very safe there, as he goes there often.  Some times just sitting on top grooming himself in the sun. At any disturbance he goes skittering over and through the rocks, slipping into the crevices. His own little play land.

Once again the sun is out. I want to go out and do stuff but it's still a bit chilly this morning, and the wind has also started to blow again.  It even made the downy woodpecker a little nervous as she was at the upside down suet.  She'd jump up and look up from the roof, I swear looking at the chain and tree branch to see if it was going to hold. 

A little blustery wind for us is probably like hurricane force winds to some of those smaller birds!

Spring...it is coming!

In my opinion, we are already experiencing an early Spring. (yes that is my hopeful spin on ending Winter ...NOW!) Sure we have had a couple bitter cold nights since our warm day of 70F, along with some snow and freezing rain, but isn't that more typical of Spring then Winter?  Temps all over the place.  sunny one moment, cloudy and rain the next.  Or wind. We've been having some very windy days.  Much as I dislike the wind, it is helpful when you live level with the water table! Helps dry out the deep water in the driveway! 

The real signs of Spring I see are the living breathing types.  Along with the emerging daffodils and crocus, there are the birds and animals.

Newly emerged from winter hibernation, I looked out in time to see two groundhogs across the stream.  One sizable groundhog chasing one half it's size out of the territory I assume he was claiming.  No signs of Little Dude, though, as all the openings under the shed are still filled with leaves and whatever other debris has blown there.

I've noticed the birds are up early and singing these mornings.  Obviously they feel they have something to sing about! Spring! LOVE! OK, reproduction it is.  I hadn't realized how quieter the birds are in winter. You don't realize how you miss the songs until you start hearing them again.   The cardinals and titmouse are rising in numbers. The grackles have appeared. 

The winter birds, like the junco, is still here. It does seem like their numbers are increasing and they are spending a lot more time on the ground eating, so perhaps they are getting ready to head north too.

As I said before I was doing the GBBC.  the last day, on arriving home I discovered no less then 40 starlings all over my feeders. F O R T Y!! ARGH!!
So now they keep coming back.  Thankfully not all forty but anything more then one is too many.  And don't you know, the number and types of bird went up immediately after the count.  :D  So I've been trying to do the ongoing bird count and see how that goes.

During the GBBC I saw on their list a separate entry for junco's, for a slate colored junco. Never saw that before.  Until a yesterday. I saw two birds and I thought, it looks like a junco, bright white belly and all, but something was 'off'. Granted I'm a little slow, but it did occur to me that this was the slate colored junco! Compared it to photos online and confirmed it.  Cool eh?

Anyhow, 3 days after our record breaking 70F we got another 6 inches of snow.

yes I shovel a path for them. 

But it was a fairly lightweight snow and it didn't last long. We have been very fortunate compared to many surrounding areas.  We just weren't spared the bitter cold temps though!


The song sparrows usually stick to the ground, catching what falls from the feeders. He must have been hungry.

This goldfinch decided to seek some shelter while waiting his turn at the feeder.  I'm glad I didn't cut this back all the way last fall.  I was tempted to do it the week it got warm!

One of my favorites  is still the small wren.

One morning he decided to see what was in the other feeders the birds made such a fuss over.  I don't think he was impressed.

This is more to his liking

I'm seeing more of the downy woodpeckers too.  So far it seems that the female is out early, the male shows up a couple hours later.

I love that the cardinals have finally caught on to raiding the squirrels corn.  I still have to get a feeder to accommodate them better, that is both squirrel and larger bird proof ad doesn't cost a small fortune.

Some times the song sparrow looks grumpy doesn't it, with all those stripes meeting right at the face?

Yep always have to include more photos of ducks. When you have up to 80 of them visiting, you have to take advantage of that.

The mourning doves are becoming more frequent now.

I've been seeing more the coopers hawk too.  One day I saw two of them. They eyed either other up for awhile, then the one flew off to the other side of the main road.

When I went to the feed store Friday I had told the clerk that in another week I'll have to buy some mealworns.  Oops...guess I should have gotten it right then and there. Two bluebirds were sitting in the trees the other morning. I did put some jelly and orange slices out, but they'd already gone. I haven't noticed them back yet.  I'll be watching for them!

Looks like my wren may have found a mate.  Wren's are known to mate for life.

I was surprised this winter that I had so few cardinals. Most often I would only see one lone male. I'm finally realizing that it may have been the prolonged extremely cold temps that kept the bird numbers down this winter. 

  Remember awhile back I commented on animals reacting to seeing me watch them?  This male stood in that position, foot slightly raised for at least 5 minutes while I watched him and took photos.

The squirrels are getting busy now too.  It rained heavily yesterday and I saw this young squirrel (I assume born late last fall) looking like a drowned rat eating everything it could find. He spent hours out here, along with another fat fluffy squirrel.

Here is the squirrel with a heavier coat.  I'd say a bit more mature and smarter. It planted itself under the holly bush to eat and look for seeds!

And look who else has emerged!  I can't say it picked the best place to dig a hole, right next to a feeder pole. But this lil one also kept very busy eating, stuffing his cheeks full.  He seems to like the pile of rocks I have out on the bank (future stream project if I ever get the permit) He spent a lot of time scurrying all over and through the rocks, then stand on top and groom himself.

Female cardinal

A third squirrel.  Not quite as small as one, nor big as the other.  (suddenly Goldilocks comes to mind.  Not too big, not too small but JUUUUST right!)

Last Friday Sister and I went to the Garden Expo in Harrisburg.  Largely disappointed. I thought there would be more displays, more info on environmental issues and solutions in the garden. More conservation groups. But mostly it was commercial and there were a lot of  wine tasting going on. At least 6 wineries. The only thing we bought was some fabulous Chef Tim's sweet basil vinaigrette and some pepperelli by In a Jam by MaryAnn that was to die for. (The pepperelly is already consumed)  Oh and some cheddar cheese that's made right on the farm.  Gotta love local products! And doubly nice was it was all reasonably priced at the show.  I only wish I'd have bought a bigger bottle of Chef Tim's.  Right now I have some chicken marinating in it. Yum!

Last week I was  watching one squirrel trying to bury it's peanuts, but the ground was still frozen despite a warmer day. I little holes all over the yard from it's efforts.  But already it's changing as I watched a squirrel bury nuts with much more ease.

I did see my female squirrel that has a notch out of her tail. She would only show up once a week or so this winter, so I'm hoping I'll see her more now.  She's easier to identify, not just from the tail but from her reaction to me being around. She doesn't freak out like the others had been doing. Her reaction is more like...oh it's just you I can stay and eat more. 

I've made one purchase for the yard this weekend.  A new stand for my umbrella feeder station. Hopefully it's a little heavier and won't blow over in big wind storms. 

This morning I stopped at Home Depot and decided on trying some of those little seed pots.  I've never had much luck with seed, and despite not getting my light inside I'm going to try to start some of the seeds I'd saved from last year. They had a kit that fits on the window sill. I have only one place I can put it  but I'm going to give it a try.  

I am anxious to get something done outside now. There's a sign that it's been a long cold winter!  I did look to see what might be showing signs of life and discovered that something had bitten off the buds of one of my spice bush plants, as well as chewed off one of the long stems from the blackberry I planted last fall.  

now that all the ground is free of snow I keep looking at the one area I created last fall when I took out the hosta. I remember telling Sister what I was thinking of planting there. I also told her I probably wouldn't remember by Spring.  And I don't.  It may come to me yet, but even if it doesn't I'm sure I'll come up with something! 

Hmm...wonder if I'd made a decision about moving that butterfly bush...