Friday Fun With Coffee! #7

Good morning and Happy Friday everyone! It is cloudy this morning with a fairly strong wind and a temperature of -2F (-19C). That wind makes it feel much colder however. The good point is, the wind is from the south and is bringing some warmer temperatures with it for today through to Sunday. It is actually supposed to reach a high of 25F (-4C) today. That is rather hard to believe, but it might happen.

There were some Pine grosbeaks here this morning, but they left already. I heard some Evening grosbeaks too, but they never came down to the feeder. The chickadees, nuthatches and redpolls are here. There were two male Downy woodpeckers here earlier, and they spent most of their time chasing each other. I have seen 4 blue jays so far, but they did not stay around long either.

A cold Blue Jay coming in for a peanut.

The deer have not been coming around either, probably due to the dog who keeps chasing them. Speaking of Chase, he is still coming and getting a little braver. And fatter. He needs more exercise. He used to get lots of exercise when Jasper was here to chase him. He was thin then too. Speaking of being chased. I used to participate in a lot of bird studies at one time, for the National Audubon Society and the Canadian Wildlife Service, plus a few others.

One of those studies involved owls. Now, owls are generally only out at night. I prefer to sleep at night. However, it was fun getting out on lonely roads, walking through the forest in different places, and calling for owls. I got good at that and was able to call owls right in very close to me. It would have been more fun, and safer, to have someone with me, but no one shared my enthusiasm in looking for owls. Oh well, what could happen around here at night anyway?

A Hairy Woodpecker at the suet feeder last winter.

Anyway, this one night at about 1am I stopped at this one location off our main highway and started calling for owls. I did hear one, a Great Horned owl, but it was far away. I got back in my car and wrote down some notes. That is when another car pulled up behind me. What are the chances of that? I always carried my “persuader” with me, just in case. Suddenly there is this blinding light shining at me and flashing lights. Oh, the police, no problem.

The officer told me to turn on my interior lights, then to come out of my car slowly. Hmm, this is different. He asked for my license and what I was doing. I told him and showed him my ID card for this owl study. That is when I noticed the second officer on the other side of the car, with his gun out. Interesting. The first officer suggested I should go back to town.

Bohemian Waxwing on a snowy day. Those white streaks are snowflakes.

Apparently they were looking for someone who was considered armed and dangerous. So much for a nice, safe area. But things can happen anywhere. So I went back home. They did catch the man they were looking for. That was good. I waited a couple more nights before going back out again though. Well, I hope you have a fantastic Friday everyone and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2023 Steve McLeod.