Good morning everyone and Happy Fantastical Friday! Yep, that is a word (fantastical=adjective form of fantastic). And it is a fantastic day! Coffee is ready for everyone, it’s a cooler, windy and cloudy day today, so a cup of coffee hits the spot so nicely. Yesterday we hit a high of 65F (18C) with sunny skies and a nice warm south wind. It was just beautiful, our nicest day yet this year! So I spent a lot of time outdoors and down by the river. There wasn’t much happening at the river which was a surprise, although I did see my first white pelican of the year soaring so beautifully against the blue sky. I didn’t get a picture though since I have trouble looking up while using the camera, I tend to fall down, so I try to lie down.

But where I was there really wasn’t a place to lie down, without perhaps rolling into the river, which wasn’t a fun thought. So I just enjoyed watching it soar. There will be other opportunities. That nice day did take away a lot of my birds, like I thought it would. More than half are gone now, heading out to their breeding territories far and wide, most heading much further north. They will stop in again on their southward journey in the fall. And others will soon replace them here in the coming days as more different species of sparrows begin to show up. Some sparrows are already getting to be quite late in returning.

The white-throated sparrows and song sparrows should be here by now, and a few others. But not one so far which is very odd indeed. But I’m sure they will show up soon, once the weather warms up again. Speaking of bears. Bert was here again this morning, at 8am. I wasn’t expecting that. I had just sat down to do this post and I heard a crash. Oh no. I go look and sure enough Bert broke one of my new feeders and was after the second one. I opened the door and told him to go. He just stood there looking at me. No, no, wrong thing to do, that means you are supposed to leave. I try again, more forcefully this time. He starts to walk away, then stops across from the door and looks at me.

Right now we are 3 feet away from each other. Bert, leave and I point toward the stairs. He walks slowly away and goes to eat the seeds he dumped out of the feeder he broke. Hey, I want my feeder back! So I go down there and he runs off into the neighbors yard. He is kind of cute. But…I need those feeders for the birds, not for bears. They are not meant for bears. Sigh. That’s 3 feeders that he has broken now. I think this one can be fixed with a little wire support. I’m actually surprised he could even reach this one. Oh well. It’s still a fantastical Friday! I hope you enjoy the pics, have a wonderful day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2021 Steve McLeod.