Good morning everyone on this frosty day in May! Hard to believe watching people walking around wearing winter jackets, gloves, winter hats, on May 4th. Yes, that was yesterday, I also saw someone dressed like that this morning too. I had my winter jacket on as well while standing out there trying to get pics this morning. Then something scared all the birds so I came back in. My hands were cold anyway, no, I wasn’t wearing gloves, I can’t wear gloves and take pictures, too awkward. Bert was around Monday evening. He came at 6pm so I got to see how my new idea worked. It was sensational, fantastic, a great idea! It only had one teeny tiny flaw. It failed.

It took that bear less than a minute to figure out how to get that feeder, and break it. That’s feeder number 5 now. Sigh. You might notice something from the pics today which came from Monday evening. Something scared him and he climbed into the birch tree. He is losing a lot of fur, that brownish color is his skin. He has mange. It’s a terrible disease caused by mites that will eventually kill the animal. Our fox population was nearly wiped out by mange a number of years ago, but they are coming back now. I have heard that the coyotes have it too. It weakens the animal so they look for easy sources of food, one of the things listed is bird feeders. Thanks. It also brings them out during the day more. Not a good thought.

Where bears can be a problem, never wear dark clothes. Great, my two jackets for this time of year are black and dark blue. Wrong colors. Don’t bend down or get on your knees out in the forest. How am I supposed to get pics of wildflowers or butterflies if I don’t do that? How about if I stay inside, lock my door and hide under the bed? No, wait, the last time I went under the bed I got stuck. Muffin came to rescue me but she wasn’t much help. She lay there and swished dust into my face with her tail. That made me sneeze. That made me yell, due to the position I was in. Muffin disappeared.

For those who don’t know, my sneezes are huge and very painful. And since I was stuck under the bed it was even more painful. Why is it painful? Long story. I should probably explain sometime. Most of you don’t know about my health problems. Which is why I was stuck under the bed. It took me another 30 minutes to get out of there. Sigh. I lost a bird yesterday. There was a screech and all birds disappeared. Even the crows. Only Sir George remained. Only a couple things scare him. Ravens and eagles. Anyway, I figured a hawk came through so I went to look.

Sure enough, it was a Cooper’s hawk. We don’t get many of them. They usually just pass through during migration times. They are a woodland bird hawk, deadly on birds. We have their smaller cousin, the sharp-shinned hawk, and the larger cousin, the goshawk. They are all deadly on birds, that’s what they eat. I don’t like having them around my feeders. This one appeared to have a female evening grosbeak. I tried going out to get a pic but he flew right away. And then a little later…wait, this is getting a bit longer than usual, I should stop. I will try to remember this one for tomorrow. Hopefully. Chapter 2 of my latest mystery story, The Square House, comes out today. I hope you all have a wonderful spring day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2021 Steve McLeod.