Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
It’s Coffee Time! #85.
Good morning everyone! It’s a cold morning out there, and very windy, feels like winter has returned. But there’s plenty of hot coffee and tea available for everybody. It is quite busy out there this morning, crows were first unfortunately, they scare all the other birds. Most other birds. Not Theodore, who came along next. The crows don’t dare come on the feeder while he is there. Gulls were next, they were having their early morning chat together, which they like to do before having breakfast. There were 3 of them this morning. Until…they all took to the air very fast while some other gulls also entered the area. I was wondering what was happening until this big eagle came over the trees. That’s why.
Gulls don’t like to be caught sitting anywhere when an eagle comes, could end up as the eagle’s breakfast. So they fly, where they are safe. They can out maneuver an eagle in the air, so they are safe and the 7 gulls chased the eagle away. Unfortunately my gulls never came back. Crows are still here. The little birds came next, nuthatches, then chickadees, one junco and some redpolls. And Coffee showed up, got some peanuts and left. He comes early every morning, then I don’t see him again the rest of the day. Guess he’s just coming out long enough to get food for the day, then goes back home where it’s warm. Smart chipmunk. 4am. I awake to some noise on the deck. Muffin is sleeping. Doesn’t she hear this? So I get up, then she does too. Sure enough, it’s the two raccoons. Feasting away at my feeders that I didn’t bring inside last night.
They must check every night. They always know when I forget to bring the feeders inside. Amazing. At least they didn’t break them. I went out and chased them away anyway. It was cold out there. 4:30am. I am awakened by a noise on the deck. Sometimes I wonder why I go to bed. Muffin woke up too. Sounded different this time. I check. Still the raccoons. Why go back to bed, it’s almost time to get up. But I do. I don’t sleep however. Hmm, the birds just scattered, even the crows disappeared. And Baxter is high in the maple tree making an odd noise. Trouble outside. I can’t see anything even though I look carefully. It must have been a hawk. The smaller birds are returning now, Baxter has come for another peanut. All is back to normal. Except the gulls and crows have not returned. And it’s cold, and clouds are moving in fast. Have a wonderful day everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve’s Bird Of The Day #40.
Hi everyone! Our bird for today is the “ring-billed gull”. They look like twins of the herring gull we saw yesterday, but this one has a black ring on it’s beak and lacks the red spot on the beak that the herring gull has. Plus this one is much smaller, as will be shown in the next pic. Due to a population explosion in the last 50 years, this is now the most numerous gull in N. America and the one most people will likely see. The largest colony is in the U.S. portion of Lake Ontario on Galloo Island and has an estimated 82,000 pairs. Here they were not known in the 1960s, there was a few in the 1970s and several thousand by the 1980s. Now there is an estimated 15,000 birds on our lake. Due to large numbers they are becoming a nuisance by taking over nesting sites of other birds and becoming a major hazard at airports. They will eat most any kind of food and one thing that has contributed to their population explosion is our large garbage dumps where food is so abundant. Here they took over the nesting islands of the common tern (a gull-like bird, but smaller) because they come earlier than the terns in spring. But after a few years the terns arrived early with larger numbers and took back most of their nesting grounds.
Have a wonderful day everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 