Good morning everyone! It is such a beautiful morning, I think perhaps it’s our nicest morning this year. The temp is a nice 43F (6C), the sun is shining beautifully on the trees, there is a couple of robins singing, 1 is close by, the other seems quite far away. There is a mallard duck sitting on the roof, when I went out to feed the gulls then he flew away. Sir George and Sir Henry were here for their breakfast and they each took some back for their mates who would now be sitting on eggs. Both Baxter and Betty (the blue jays) come around now which means they have young in the nest now. Yesterday Baxter was on the ground with the little sparrows looking for the peanuts that come in the wild bird seed mix that the smaller birds get.

He didn’t bother the small birds and the small birds paid no attention to him. They can get along very well together. It is very quiet out here this morning, most of the small birds have gone now, spreading out into the forest to begin getting their territories and build their nests. There is only a couple of evening grosbeaks here this morning and I haven’t seen any purple finches. The goldfinches should be coming back soon. Only one squirrel has come so far this morning, one of the females that I haven’t named yet. She has gotten quite tame in a short space of time.

I was out yesterday buying some plants for my deck garden. I’m trying a new flower this year, can’t remember the name, something weird anyway, they look like small colored daisies. I hope they do well, just never know when trying out something new. I see there are a few evening grosbeaks out there now, but the grackles just came and scared them away. Sigh. Guess I might have to intervene this time. That purple headed grackle was there so I went carefully out and…he was gone. But I waited for a while anyway, none of the grackles came back.

There was 3 squirrels, each had their own spot, then a 4th showed up which was just too much. So two of them ended up in a huge fight in the peanut box! One finally lost and came flying out of that box and he took out his loss on one of the other squirrels who ran off and the last squirrel didn’t even hang around to try and fight, she just left very quickly. So he came back to fight with the first squirrel in the peanut box again. This time first squirrel came out and chased the other squirrel through the trees. No squirrels came back until Jasper’s twin showed up just as I was coming back inside.

Jasper and Freddie were not involved this morning, but the one in the peanut box was Chase. One of the other squirrels was Leap. I have only seen one junco this morning. It looks like things will be much quieter around here now, but more birds, different kinds, will soon be here to take their place. It never is as busy during the summer as during this first stage of the migration. I’m going to need to spend more time at the river to get more pics. And today that begins. It’s supposed to be in the low 70s today! Great weather for a walk. Have a wonderful day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2021 Steve McLeod.