Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Wandering Through Wednesday. #19
Good morning everyone! It was a beautiful, clear morning earlier and the sun began to shine so beautifully waking many of our birds. But birds were singing much earlier than the sun this morning. Robins, song sparrows, white-throated sparrows, white-crowned sparrows, Harris’ sparrows, ruby-crowned kinglets, plus loons were calling in the distance as were the geese. Theodora, the wild turkey, was here around 5am looking for some food.
And soon the evening grosbeaks, pine siskins, chipping sparrows, grackles, red-winged blackbirds and cowbirds were here at the feeders. Plus one male rose-breasted grosbeak. There were two of them here yesterday and twice I almost got a picture of them but something scared all the birds one time, the other time a grackle came and scared them away just as I was going to take a picture. Amazing timing. I had managed to get out the door without scaring them and then that grackle showed up. Sigh.
One has a nice bright red triangle on his chest, the other is more pink. That one is a young first year male. Getting a picture of either one is fine with me. The one with the bright red would be a bonus. I did get some very nice photos of a Lincoln’s sparrow yesterday, and they are hard to get. Lincoln’s sparrows like to stay hidden from view and this one was no exception to that rule. But with some patience I managed to get some good pics during his brief forays into open areas.
They are a small sparrow, much like the chipping sparrow in size. The Harris’ sparrow is large, about the same size as our thrushes (not including robins). Crunchy, the new addition to our chipmunk family, is getting braver now although he still will not come onto my lap. But I did get some pics of him yesterday which was nice. Skamper and Coffee have stopped coming around, hopefully that does not mean something happened to them.
They may be spending time digging out new homes, or at least new storage rooms to use. Something scared all the birds again just now, even the grackles and other blackbirds flew this time so perhaps a hawk came along. It turned out to be such a nice sunny afternoon yesterday, I should have gone to the river. But I decided to wait until today which was supposed to be sunny as well. For some reason that sunshine has disappeared again and clouds have moved in to replace it. Sigh.
It is bad when you cannot even trust the “next day” forecast. But perhaps the sun will return later. I see the birds are slowly beginning to return, they must have had quite a scare, they were gone about 10 minutes. Well, it is still bright, even though cloudy, so maybe I should go out and try for some photos. Thank you for reading, have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin. (Praying for the people of Ukraine)
©2022 Steve McLeod.
Tuesday’s Chatter. #19
Good morning on this very wet Tuesday! We did get quite a bit of rain yesterday and overnight, about 1 and a half inches (37mm). Of course since the ground is still quite frozen in most areas all that rain just mainly ran off the land into the lake and river. That will raise the water level quite a bit in the river for a while. It will also make it harder to cross that one wet area along the path to the river. I might not be able to get across that area at all.
Originally today was supposed to be mainly sunny, but now it won’t be clearing until later today. So I will not try for a walk to the river, I would prefer a sunny day for that, and tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, the only day this week. The feeders have been very busy again the last couple of days, including this morning, though something just scared them all away. It is amazing to see so many evening grosbeaks around still, usually they are gone by now except for around a dozen that stay all summer.
There are some purple finches too, plus grackles, red-winged blackbirds and numerous different sparrows. Nearly all the juncos are gone now except 2, all the redpolls have gone finally and oddly the pine siskins are also gone. They usually stay around all summer. Sir George, Lady Pearl, Sir Henry and Lady Patricia were all here earlier for their breakfast. I am surprised they are not nesting yet. There are several Harris’ sparrows out here this morning so I hope to get some pictures of them if the sun comes out.
They will not be around long this spring since things are so late and they breed further north. I had a mourning dove here for 2 days, there is a pair that usually nest in the area but never too close. However, it seems to have disappeared and because of the rain and dark skies I was unable to get a picture of it. So sad, I have been hoping each year to get a picture of one. And yesterday I was sitting here and looked out the window and saw a male rose-breasted grosbeak in the birch tree.
I have been trying to get a picture of him each year too, but the males usually only are here for one day and then move on, which does not give much chance. But even though it was raining I grabbed my camera and went out slowly. I turned my camera on before going out so I would be ready. I thought. I go out, take aim and…nothing. I did not turn the camera on. I thought. I turned it on again and…nothing. The battery was dead.
I went back inside quickly, changed the battery and went back out and…nothing. Something scared the birds, not me, and there was none left, not even that rose-breasted grosbeak. Sigh. Maybe today? Oh well. I did laugh about it quite a bit though. Thank you everyone for participating in naming our new chipmunk! Muffin and I had fun with it too and what better way to choose the name? Looks like it will be another indoor day and that means more coffee! Please help yourself to another cup, thank you for reading, have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin. (Praying for the people of Ukraine)
©2022 Steve McLeod.
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