Solitude On My Deck. #18

Good morning to everyone on this another wet day. It is time for some coffee and a look at what is happening on and around my deck. However, we will look at it from yesterday’s perspective, it was much nicer then, and dry. The day did begin cloudy, and we even had some raindrops fall for a short time, but nothing to really wet the ground, or the deck.

Then the sun came out, the sky was a brilliant blue, there was a lot of bird activity, so I decided to go out and sit there for a while. The leaves on many of the trees have begun turning quite yellow now, others just beginning to change color, yet others are still fully green. Sitting there with the sun shining on everything looked just beautiful for a fall day. That is solitude.

It was cool since I was sitting in the shade. The deck is mostly shaded all day long now because the sun is so low in the sky that it hides behind the trees, except for a couple of short intervals. The birds were busy, especially the blue jays who were coming down for peanuts steadily while I sat there taking pictures about 6 feet away. That is solitude. Some of them were a bit nervous and came in and out quickly.

They would be the younger birds. The older birds were braver and would stay, going through the pile of peanuts to find the biggest ones they could. It was fun watching them. Then GPS showed up, that kind of surprised me since I had not seen any chipmunks that morning until that moment. He filled up with as much as he could carry, which is not much since he is still so small, then off he went, looking quite happy with his find. That is solitude.

Right after he left Skitter showed up. I have not seen him since early in the month. While he was still there Skamper showed up. Then we had the usual chase around the deck until Skitter left with a mouthful of peanuts. Skamper came over to say hi to me, stretching up on his hind legs as much as he could. I got down on my knees to talk with him.

He climbed up right away and I gave him some big peanuts. That is solitude. He knows that I carry some of the best peanuts just for him. He ran off with 3 big peanuts. Then GPS came back, several times in fact. Actually, he stayed around until evening. Skitter came back twice more, then I never saw him again. Skamper came back 3 more times, then he stopped.

GPS is a young chipmunk from this year and has not had much time for gathering his winter supply as the others, so he needs to keep working at it. He will not have any trouble getting enough food though, I make sure of that. One of our hardware stores got a big batch of peanuts in, so I naturally bought some. I have enough to last a while now, however, I will keep buying some to stock up a bit so that hopefully I will not run out of peanuts again.

Such a nice time on the deck yesterday. The evening grosbeaks are back, still molting, but soon that will be finished, and they will look better again. It is nice to have them back at the feeder, hopefully they will stay the winter. Chickadees and nuthatches are busy off and on through the day too and I have managed to get pictures of them as well. That is solitude.

Autumn, a colorful time and a busy time for birds. It is nice to sit out on the deck and enjoy all these little friends that come around. That is solitude. Thank you so much for joining me. Happy Saturday and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2022 Steve McLeod.