For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Good morning to all of you! So glad to see you here with Muffin and I again this morning! It is a cloudy morning and a bit milder than it has been, though it still felt cold out there when I was out feeding the birds earlier. Something has happened to my birds the last couple of days. Well, the grosbeaks anyway. There are maybe 15 to 20 each of the pine and evening grosbeaks now. That is a big drop in numbers from what I had last week! Still lots of the smaller birds though. Especially those redpolls.
Watching them yesterday they had filled all the feeders and they were literally all over the snow outside, like watching a multitude of ants crawling around on the ground. Plus they were on the roof of the house next door and in the trees as well. I am sure there must be close to 200 of them now, too hard to count them accurately, but I can get past 150 before they fly up into the trees. But there is always more than what I count. There are a couple of possibilities for the drop in numbers. One could be that shrike who seems to enjoy hanging around here.
But the shrike generally goes for the smaller birds when they are plentiful, but they will take grosbeaks too, even though pine grosbeaks are the same size. Then there is the neighbors dog who comes running onto the deck barking at the birds and scares them away. That could also be the problem. Birds don’t like that. According to some studies done, dogs can be more of a problem than cats, just because of the noise factor of barking, which birds do not like. Cats, being more of a hunter, come in quietly, might catch a bird and then leave the area quickly.
It is a more predator/prey relationship which the birds are used to and can live with. But a large dog bounding toward them barking, well, that just scares them. I am not against dogs by the way, I like dogs. I admit that I like cats better, but I still like dogs. Kind of like squirrels and chipmunks. I like squirrels, but I like chipmunks better. Oh well. There is a male pine grosbeak sitting in the tree outside my window right now, very much fluffed out! All the birds are fluffed out these days, trying to keep themselves warm.
The trees are all covered in frost this morning. It would be so picture perfect if the sun was shining and the sky nice and blue. Frosty trees do not show up nearly as nice against a cloudy background. We are supposed to get another 4 inches of snow today. We have not had any larger snowfalls this winter, but we are getting a lot of small ones, and it adds up. Looks like it will be a very late spring this year, takes a long time to melt so much snow. Oh well. Time for more coffee, thanks for reading today! Have a great day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
Β©2022 Steve McLeod.
Could squirrels and cats be friends or not much ?
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Perhaps if they grew up together, I have seen that, but otherwise there isn’t much chance of it happening.
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These days, I’m against both, Dogs and Cats. They both are annoying to me π π€£Dogs keeps me awake at night, Cats make me feel frustrated with their nail marks on my new bike π€£π and you heard the news that flock of birds die in Canada. That was very strange, I saw the footage, very scary. Well, your bunch of birds are a quiet a sight to sit back and relax π₯°π Enjoy the views, have a wonderful day β¨π₯³π₯³
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The dogs are just trying to sing you to sleep Simon!ππΉAnd the cats are just giving your bike that nice new “lived in” look!πΉπLast summer I put a new bench on my deck and that very night a cat came along and peed on it to mark his territory!π² On my new bench!π Why did he choose my bench to pee on?π€π Lots of other things out there he could have used!
Yes, so nice and relaxing to watch my birds. Muffin just wants me to bring a couple in for lunch.π³πΉ
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ha ha ha LOL why did he chose ur bench π€£π€£π€£ and these are truly annoying you know π π . Not evrytime but most of the time π π . These animals ππ. Very funny. and lovable too. Muffin, how long she can simply fantasize π she wants to taste too ππ
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I wonder if he did it because I chased him away the night before?π€ Getting back at me with his revenge!π¬πΎ Oh well, a little washing cleaned it up and he never did it again.π
Yes, I’m sure Muffin would love some fresh chicken for dinner, but it’s not going to happen!ππΎπ³
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ha ha ha, so u say that’s a sign of revenge π π may be…. you should fulfill.muffins fantasy one day.π have a good night Uncle Steve π₯°π₯°
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Muffin will have to keep dreaming, she’s not getting any of my birds!ππΉ Thanks Simon, good night!πππ΄
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oops that’s very hard for muffinπ π you better supply her some alternativeπ Good Nightπ₯°
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Yep, she gets her veggies which she loves, especially broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and peas!π€π»π»
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Veggies? Poor Muffin π π€£π€£π€£
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Not at all, she loves them!!π»π»
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Does she know? she loves veggies? ππ€ͺπ€ͺ I don’t think so ππ
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She really does!ππ»
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Muffin, im expecting a no from youπ€ͺ
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Meow,meow=Me love my veggies!πΈπ»
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No, thats totally wrong, you are against nature Muffin, you are a CAT ππββ¬π
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Meow,meow=but veggies good for you. I also like grass and dandelions and lettuce and coleslaw!! My human grow grass and lettuce inside just for me!π»ππ»π₯πππ₯¦π₯π₯¬π₯πΎπ§
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π alright alright π I’ll try veganπ
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πΉπΉ
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is ther eno fence to keep the neighbor’s dog away?
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The neighbor is the guy that lives in the house, so we share the yard space. I’m going to check with my landlord about putting a gate on my deck at least, that might help.
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good fences, or gates, make good neighbors…
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So true!
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I sent comment , came unexpected error !! you can check spam holder π·π
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I checked, but there was nothing in my spam folder. I don’t know what happened.ππ
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π·πβ₯οΈπ·π
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