Good morning and Happy Sunday everyone! I hope you have time to stop in and have coffee with us today, it’s nice and hot, so please help yourself and relax for awhile. It is a nice bright morning and it looks like the sun will be shining soon. We received another 2 inches (5cm) of snow overnight. And it feels very cold this morning, although it really isn’t too bad with a temp of -2F (-19C), and it is windy which always makes it feel colder. I need to go out later and shovel that snow out of the way, fortunately it won’t take very long, but I think I will dress a little warmer than I did when I went out to feed the birds earlier. The joys of winter. There is a lot of bird activity this morning, I think this is the most chickadees we have had this winter, plus around 30 redpolls, the nuthatches, woodpeckers, blue jays and over 30 evening grosbeaks.

So it is quite busy out there this morning. Hmm, the evening grosbeaks have vanished and so have the blue jays, that’s kind of odd. The little birds are still active however. It’s important for them to eat a lot on these cold days, they need to eat enough to keep them warm through our long cold nights. And the next 3 nights are going to be cold. Although compared to a normal winter, these temps are really not very cold. This has been a mild winter for us, we get these winters now and then, and it is nice to get a break. Speaking of Jasper, he seems to have gained control of his territory now, though Chase, the other squirrel does still come around, but usually when Jasper is not here. I don’t think he wants to fight Jasper anymore, whenever they do meet Chase gives up quickly and runs away. But yesterday I saw a new squirrel here when Jasper was away.

Jasper and Chase are very similar in color, which make it hard to tell them apart unless I see them up close, or together. But this new squirrel is darker and therefore stands out quite nicely. Red squirrels are like that, it’s hard to find 2 of them that are the same color, they can be anywhere from a very reddish brown to golden (like Jasper), to dark chocolate brown and even quite grey, and everything in between. They are unlike other species of squirrels that way. Most are some variation of brown. Like this new squirrel, which also showed up this morning with Jasper. But they were not fighting. They were chasing each other around, but it was playful chasing, and mating. Jasper found himself and new mate! Yay Jasper! Since it’s Sunday it’s time for our nice sunny Sunday flower pics which I hope you will enjoy. Have a wonderful day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2021 Steve McLeod.