Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
It’s Coffee Time! #91. Those Critters!
A late good morning to everyone! It’s been a busy morning already and I didn’t get up early enough to do this post first. Things happen. It was sunny yesterday and looked so nice that I decided to go and sit with the chipmunks out on the deck. It was working fine, Skamper came first, then Chester, then Pocket showed up. So the 3 of them were busy for a bit, then another chipmunk showed up and I was having trouble remembering his name, but I found it, he’s Skitter. Poor Skamper, he is still the smallest of the chipmunks and everyone picks on him. So he’s starting to get a bit nervous. Not around me, just generally nervous. Reminds me a lot of Jasper last year. Skitter is next in size I think, although there’s not much difference between him and Pocket.
Then Chester is easily the biggest. But Pocket is the most aggressive chipmunk and chases all the others. And he doesn’t mind jumping on them to get into a real fight. The others are content with chasing each other. Which means everyone chases poor Skamper. No one chases Pocket. Not more than once anyway. Because Pocket doesn’t run away. Then there is still Coffee, but as I mentioned before, he hasn’t been around for a while, don’t know what happened to him. Hopefully nothing bad. Skamper is on my lap getting peanuts out of the cup. “Kind of cold today”, I say to him. He stops and looks at me. Then back to the peanuts. “Can you stop moving so I can get a pic?”, I ask. He stops. Click.
He goes back to his peanuts, grabs one more and leaves. Sometimes I think these critters understand me. I know they don’t, but it is good timing. After a while I noticed it was getting hard to move my fingers, which made it hard to take pictures. They were also a very dark red. Hmm, that means they are getting cold, but at that point I couldn’t feel anything in my fingers. So I decided to come back inside for a bit and warm up. Wow, did those fingers sting. Took them a while to get back to normal and they pained all way. Guess I was out there too long. And when I’m having fun I don’t pay attention to these details. Sunny again today, but warmer, spring weather has returned and should stay now. Have a wonderful day everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve’s Bird Of The Day #44.
Hello everyone! Today’s bird is the blue jay, definitely one of the more well known of our birds and very colorful. Though they have a bad reputation sometimes for raiding other bird’s nests, this is something that is only rarely done. In fact they are very beneficial to have around as they actually will protect smaller birds from predators. Nearly all their diet consists of acorns, peanuts, grains and insects. They also eat many harmful insects like the forest tent caterpillar. They generally mate for life and can live up to 15 years. The male mainly brings nest material to the female and she does the nest building. Usually 4 or 5 eggs are laid and the female does all the brooding, even for a week or so after the eggs hatch. The male feeds her during this time. Though their feathers appear blue, it’s due to light refraction, not pigment in the feathers. They actually have many different calls and even a couple musical songs, normally sung to their mates. These birds are found across much of Canada, though more in the east, and all the eastern half of the U. S.
I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 