Solitude On My Deck. #13

Good morning to each of you! It is another warm and sunny morning here. Just perfect for sitting on the deck and watching all that is going on around me. I hope you can join me this morning for a cup of coffee as we take a look at all the critters. The hummingbirds are busy at the feeder, though sometimes I think they spend more time chasing each other than anything else. Reminds me of the chipmunks.

There is one top female who keeps all the other females away. Then there is one top male who chases everyone away. It is amazing to watch them, or try to watch them, they fly rather quickly. Baxter the blue jay came back yesterday, and he is here this morning too. So I put some peanuts out where he can get at them easily.

Although he will crawl through the handles of the milk crates to get at the peanuts, just like the chipmunks do. I would like to get a picture of that but he never does it when I have my camera. He knows. Very strange indeed. The evening grosbeaks, 2 families, are now coming for food each day. So are the chickadees. The nuthatches have been here too but not every day. The goldfinches come every day though.

The sky is that real vivid blue again today. Yesterday was a beautiful day so I decided to walk down to the river, finally. It was my first time since July 13. I am certainly feeling it today. I definitely need to walk that path more often. I took a lot of pictures, I am showing some today. So much of the ground cover plants have begun dying off for the season, changing to all kinds of colors from yellow, orange, red to brown.

Several birch trees were almost totally yellow already. Some maple leaves were turning orange. It was starting to look like fall back there. The tall grass was turning brown too. I saw 3 dragonflies and got pictures of two of them. I also got a picture of a different kind of insect, but I am not sure what it is yet. There were an abundance of mushrooms now and there should be even more show up soon. I am still learning to identify mushrooms.

I know some of the more common ones. Some were already past their prime and were turning quite dark. Some were quite large, up to 6 inches (15cm) across. Too bad I missed those. Lobster mushrooms were plentiful again and they are apparently good to eat. But please do not take my word for it. I have never tried them and I only repeat what the book says.

Always consult with someone who is knowledgeable about mushrooms before eating a wild mushroom. Some varieties are good to eat, I have tried some. Others are poisonous. We have some very poisonous mushrooms in our area. I was down on the ground again getting pics of the underside of mushrooms. I enjoy getting those pics, but it is not easy since mushrooms are generally not very tall. And the ground was kind of wet, so I got a bit dirty. Oh well.

I also got pics of an odd looking wildflower called “Indian Pipe”. Usually I see the pink form of the Indian Pipe along the path, but this was the white form which I have not seen in years. So I was quite excited to find this one. Sorry, no pic of it today, but it will show up tomorrow morning. This is getting long so I shall say good bye for now, thank you for joining us this morning. Have a beautiful Saturday and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2022 Steve McLeod.