Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Morning Coffee At Steve’s Country #28.
Good morning to everyone on this very chilly day! There is lots of nice hot coffee waiting for you this morning, so just help yourself and relax with Muffin (😺that me!) and I for a few minutes. We always enjoy having all of you come to visit us each day. Muffin is bouncing around and keeping an eye on that door waiting for the first person to come this morning. It’s cold out there again with a temp of -28F (-33C), but it feels much colder, that bone chilling cold that just eats it’s way right through a person. Hmm, I see the blue jays are chasing that shrike again right now while the little birds are sitting perfectly still in the bushes. The only one moving around is the female hairy woodpecker.
Doubtful that a shrike would go after her, they’re the same size, but if the shrike was hungry enough it probably would give it a try. Might have quite a fight to deal with however. That’s why they like to stay with the small birds that can’t fight back. The blue jays are back already, having chased that shrike quite a distance. All the other birds are back at the feeders getting their much needed breakfast on this cold morning. It’s nice having those blue jays around in winter. They are the police force at the feeders keeping the little birds safe from harm. Yesterday the feeders were very busy, the evening grosbeaks were here 4 times, cleaning up every sunflower seed on the feeder each time. The pine grosbeaks were here a lot too, feeding alongside the evening grosbeaks. Having the red and yellow together was a beautiful sight. I tried for a pic but it didn’t work and taking a pic through the window doesn’t work good. These are old windows and the pics are never clear.
Jasper is here this morning nice and early, playing on the branches. He seems to like looking for branches that still have snow on them, then he “pretends” to be a snowplow running as fast as he can along that branch and making that snow fly! That other squirrel showed up yesterday too but Jasper just had to do some chattering and that other squirrel kept his distance. I haven’t actually seen that other squirrel on the deck recently, so maybe he’s learning. Thank you so much for enduring the cold and stopping in for coffee this morning. We hope that you have a wonderful Monday and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2020 Steve McLeod.
Morning Coffee At Steve’s Country #27.
Good morning everyone! The coffee is ready and just the way you like it too! And yes, we have hot chocolate (😺my favorite), and tea as well. It’s another cloudy day here at Steve’s Country, but mild at least, with a temperature of 10F (-12C). We have had a lot of cloudy days this winter and when that happens we get a milder winter, so that’s always nice. But it does tend to keep the birds away from the feeders until the natural food supply starts to get low. It’s been a fairly busy morning at the feeders today which is nice to see. The chickadees were earlier than normal, it was almost completely dark when the first ones showed up. So I had to get their food out quickly. And on the other end, the blue jays were later than normal this morning with Big Blue being the first one, usually it’s Baxter and Betty. The woodpeckers and nuthatches arrived at their normal times. Theodore has missed a couple days now and hasn’t been here yet this morning.
Speaking of deer, the last apartment I lived at had a lot of deer coming around, more than here, and they were more friendly too. Anyway, I had a carport, which was just a roof over a cement pad, which I used for a patio. Whenever it rained, or snowed, the deer would come under the roof and just stand around or lay down on the cement. There would be anywhere from 8 to 12 deer under there at times. Now, my mailbox was also under there and the lady delivering the mail wouldn’t do so if any deer were there. Fortunately she was very punctual, arriving at the same time each day, so I would wait if the deer were around. One day I spotted her and it was snowing quite a bit so there was 12 deer under that roof, including 4 bucks of different sizes.
Anyway, I went out to get my mail from her and had to walk around all these deer, 6 were laying down, and none of them moved as I went out there. I got my mail from her and she looked at me wide eyed and said, “aren’t you scared?”. I said, “why, is there something wrong with my mail?” “I mean all those deer,” she said. “No, why would I be scared of them?”, I said to her. She just looked at me kind of odd like, then she added, “they could kill you!” “They could if they wanted to, but they don’t want to,” I said. She shook her head and kept on going. It is actually more dangerous when there is several deer like that, it just takes one to panic, or one that wants to start a fight with another one and that gets them all worked up. So it is necessary to watch closely for signs of panic and…never show fear because that will make them panic. I would also say, don’t try that, especially if you are not used to being around wild animals. Deer are beautiful animals, but they can also be very dangerous. I hope you all have a most beautiful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2020 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 