Coffee At Steve’s Country #17.

Good morning to everyone on this beautiful Sunday! Grab yourself a cup of coffee and relax with Muffin and I for a few minutes. It’s another cloudy morning with just a little light snow. And there is a lot of bird activity today, including that shrike that just arrived again. The blue jays sounded the alarm and all the small birds disappeared while the jays went after the shrike. It doesn’t take long, that shrike knows better than to try and fight a bunch of blue jays, even if there is only 2 or 3. Blue jays know how to fight that shrike and they are not afraid to do so. I’m sure they have saved a lot of birds at my feeder by chasing that shrike away. It’s all clear now and the little birds are back at the feeders, well, all except the evening grosbeaks. They flew quite a distance when that shrike appeared.

A nice hollyhock with a very bright sunny center.

Shrikes generally want the smaller birds though and even the grosbeaks are a bit big and hard to catch. However, if the shrike hasn’t eaten for awhile it will go after just about anything. Normally it’s chickadees, nuthatches and redpolls that are on their menu, the smallest and easiest to catch birds, the ones that can’t fight back. Even redpolls are not often on their list since they also fly fast and erratic, though the shrike can too. Theodore was here this morning so I went out to get some pics and talk to him a bit. He likes to come early so it’s not very good light for pics, but I tried anyway.

Beautiful forget-me-not flowers with bright yellow sunny center.

“Hey, your tail is looking a lot better now Theodore.” Gerbil, gerbil. “You’re sitting in bigger trees now that have bigger branches, smart idea, easier on the tail feathers.” Gerbil, gerbil. “It’s cold this morning? Why it’s only -12C (10F), it’s going to get colder this week.” Gerbil, gerbil? “Yes, it gets colder than this.” Gerbil, gerbil. “No, you won’t die, you have good warm feathers.” Gerbil, gerbil. “Well, yes, you do have long legs with no feathers on them, you have to sit on your legs.” Gerbil, gerbil. “True, that does make it hard to walk around in the snow, and the snow is cold.” Gerbil, gerbil? “At least 3 more months of winter, maybe more.” Gerbil, gerbil. “No, you won’t die, you’re tough. Have a nice day.” Gerbil, gerbil. Poor Theodore. Well, I hope you enjoy the bright sunny flower pics, have a wonderful day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2021 Steve McLeod.

73 Comments on “Coffee At Steve’s Country #17.

  1. This one is amazingly Bright Hollyhock Uncle Steve 😍Loved the forget me not too 😀Theodre will be strong ☺️ Hope your Sunday begins nice and warm, Have fun watching the bird activity ☺️Hope the lockdown ended. Enjoy this blissful sunday 💐

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    • Well, I wouldn’t call this nice and warm, except inside!😂😹 Our lockdown got worse,😳 even tighter restrictions than before🙄 and will last for another month at least.😳 Things just keep getting worse in our province, even up here in the north.😬 But it’s a beautiful Sunday with lots of birds to watch from my window!😀😺☕☕

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  2. Good afternoon, Steve! Thank you for the coffee/tea and beautiful pics! So glad Theodore is hanging in there and so thankful the blue jays are protecting the other birds. Stay warm and have a wonderful day! 😁❄️🌞

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  3. Birds are some forms of consciousness and infinite intelligence. They contain the divine sparkle and spirit and this is why you can communicate with them verbally and non-verbally if they get to know you …

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  4. 😳 Lockdown 😐 Im sorry to hear that😷 Lockdown is a mental pain😕 stay strong and keep yourself busy 🤔dan who invented this Lockdown😳😳. Scary story isn’t it 😐 Lockdown.

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