Good morning on this beautiful Wednesday everyone! The sky is such a clear, vivid blue this morning. The birds are singing joyfully from trees further away, except for a red-eyed vireo who is singing close by. He is out here every day, so they must be nesting close by. The gulls were here nice and early for their breakfast and the crows were right behind them to pick up the leftovers. Both Jasmine and Jasper came this morning, but Jasmine was first and ate 6 peanuts, plus took one with her. Jasper kept trying to come and join her but she said no to that idea rather forcefully.

But Jasper kept trying, however there were no peanuts left when Jasmine was done. So when she was gone I put more out for Jasper. “Not having a good morning?” Loud chip. “Yes, she was rather protective of the peanuts.” Chip. “Oh, you had to move out of your home?” Loud chip. “True, the babies take up a lot of space.” Chip. “You told her you would be nice to the babies but she wouldn’t believe you?” Chip. “Well, you can’t help feed them just yet, they need milk.” Loud chip. “She thinks you might kill the babies? Well, that does happen a lot with squirrels, males will kill baby squirrels.”

Chip! “Yes, I know you’re different, but Jasmine can’t take chances.” Chip. “Yes, I have noticed you are losing weight.” Loud chip. “Oh, it’s because Jasmine eats everything in sight. Well, she does need to eat a lot, she needs to produce good milk for the babies.” Chip. “Don’t sigh, have another peanut.” Off he goes. I went for a walk to the river yesterday and walked further than normal. There were a lot of different species of dragonflies around, including one that is a real sparkly green color. I have seen that one here at home too.

But they don’t seem to like sitting down, so I can’t get a picture. I did get pics of some dragonflies, but most evaded me. Adult dragonflies don’t live very long, depending on the species. In our climate it also reduces the length of their life. From what I have seen, some are only around for a couple weeks to maybe 6 weeks. But I have seen a few that are around most of the summer, they seem to be the smaller dragonfly species. Each species appears to have their main time to live during the summer months, some come out early, some around mid summer, and some late summer. There are a lot around this year, last year they were hard to find. Two years ago they were very abundant, more so than this year. Well, must be time for more coffee on the deck. I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2021 Steve McLeod.