Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Thursday’s Thoughts #6.
Good morning to everyone on this cloudy Thursday! It’s a bit cooler this morning but still very nice. And a great morning to be out on the deck with my coffee listening to, um, well, sitting there with my coffee and talking to my, um, well, sitting there with my coffee all by myself. It’s been an odd morning. The only birds singing were far away, nothing close. My gulls didn’t show up, the blue jays were not around, no chipmunks, no squirrels. Chuck the crow was here, nothing keeps him away. But what happened to all the other critters?
Pocket and Coffee are always here, normally waiting for me to come out with peanuts in the morning. Same with the blue jays. The male hairy woodpecker finally showed up, took one peanut and never came back. Then a light rain began so I came inside. That’s when Jasmine showed up, but she was very nervous which is not like her at all. She came and got a peanut and sat on the railing to eat it, which is normal. But she kept looking down at something, even chattered once, which is odd for her to do. She ate one peanut, then took a second and ran off with it. Normally she eats 5 and takes one with her.
A grackle and 2 blue jays are now carrying away the remaining peanuts. The chipmunks, Pocket, Skamper and Coffee are busy with the peanuts now. Then a thought came to me. There was a solar eclipse this morning, quite early for us, but it’s also cloudy so we didn’t get a chance to see it. What has that to do with my animal friends? One other time when we had a solar eclipse, it was sunny that day which was nice, but as the sun was hidden everything went quiet. Birds disappeared from the feeder, my squirrel at the time also left, birds stopped singing.
There was the eerie twilight and an eerie silence. It wasn’t just me that noticed it either. I contacted others that fed birds and they noticed the same thing. That eclipse affected the animals. So even though we couldn’t see it this morning due to the clouds, perhaps it still affected the animals. They can sense things far better than people. Since we were not getting the total eclipse here, then the effect on the animals would be shorter. And everything seems to be back to normal now. Just a thought. I don’t know if it would affect them when it’s cloudy or not. Just an interesting observation. I hope you were able to see the eclipse, safely, where you live. Have a great day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve and Muffin’s Wildflowers #23.
Hi everyone! Today’s wildflower is the “clintonia”. It is a native wildflower found in shady or partial shaded areas where the soil is kept more moist. Also found in or near swamps and bogs. They can sometimes form large colonies of flowers. There are 3 or 4 large basal leaves with a single flower stalk that can produce up to 6 flowers. They are pale yellow or greenish yellow and very waxy, almost like plastic flowers. They bloom from May to June and can grow up to 16 inches (40cm) tall. The flowers are about 1 inch (2.5cm) long. They produce a good sized dark blue berry in later summer. Berries, and all parts of the plant are toxic and are best to leave them alone. Though they may not kill someone they can make a person quite sick. Even animals will not eat these plants or berries and they can often eat plants that are poisonous to people.
I hope you have enjoyed this one, have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 