Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Morning Coffee In The Afternoon At Steve’s Country #20.
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to a later edition of my morning coffee post! The coffee is on, fresh and hot, just help yourself and relax! Sometimes things happen that toss everything around so some changes have to be made. That was me yesterday, which not only affected things yesterday, but also today. So I wasn’t able to do my post this morning, but we’re back now and happy to have you visit with us again. Muffin is sitting at the door eagerly waiting for our first friends to show up!
The birds have been busy at the feeders this morning. All of our normal birds were here, plus we had a nice visit with a flock of around 30 evening grosbeaks, nearly all males with about a half dozen females. Due to reasons already mentioned, I was unable to go out and get any pics. But it looked so beautiful with all those bright yellow birds sitting on the feeder. There were 20 males on that feeder at one time which was just an amazing sight. I like those evening grosbeaks, they really brighten up the winter. As do the pine grosbeaks with their nice rosy red. We had some of those pine grosbeaks earlier this winter, but there are none around now which is kind of odd. Jasper had to once again defend his territory, most likely that same squirrel from yesterday who likely won’t give up easily. But Jasper managed to chase him off again. There was no actual fighting this time, but lots of chasing and chattering.
So I gave Jasper some extra big peanuts when he came over afterwards. “That other squirrel seems to be persistent.” Loud Chip. “Yes, this is your territory, it’s important to protect it otherwise squirrels will come and chase you away.” Chip. “He has his own territory?” Chip. “Oh, he likes the peanuts here.” Chip. “Why do I feed him? I don’t really, I just toss out the peanuts for the blue jays and sometimes he comes and gets some of them.” Chip. “I’ll try to watch, but it’s not easy, he’s almost the same color as you.” Chip. “Yes, I’m definitely on your side. But it’s your responsibility to chase away other squirrels.” Chip. “Yes, I know it’s tough, but you can do it, and there’s all these big peanuts you get afterwards.” I give him an even bigger peanut which he takes and runs off back home. Oh my, it’s cold out here still. It was 12F (-11C) this morning and it’s still that way. Getting cloudy now, we’re supposed to get some snow overnight, and even more snow coming on Tuesday and Wednesday. I hope you enjoyed your afternoon cup of coffee, have a beautiful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2020 Steve McLeod
Morning Coffee At Steve’s Country #19.
Good morning on this very cold Saturday! The coffee is hot and ready to go, so please help yourself and relax with us for a few minutes. I guess it’s not really that cold this morning, -5F (-20C), but it feels colder in the wind. It was nice and red in the eastern sky this morning too, would have made a beautiful picture but this big hill here beside me prevents that. I don’t get to see the east very well from here. The pic I would have gotten wouldn’t look like much and all those hydro wires out there really mess up the pic anyway. From the top of that hill it must look quite nice though. Poor Jasper yesterday. After I told him about Jenny, then about an hour later another squirrel showed up. It was a male though so Jasper had his first big fight protecting his territory. Squirrels can really fight it out at times. But finally the other squirrel decided it was enough and ran off with Jasper chasing him until they were both out of sight.
Jasper was back a little while later, victorious! But he didn’t come over, I was ready to give him a nice very large peanut. He’ll get it next time though. Then shortly after that Baxter and Betty, the blue jays, were out here by themselves and suddenly a third blue jay came along and went after Betty, quite viciously. Then I realized it was a shrike! Baxter was after it in a flash, but shrikes are much more aggressive than blue jays even though the same size. Amazing that it would attack a blue jay though, he must have been getting hungry to do that. Poor Baxter was all alone in his fight though, I think the shrike knew that too. Other winters there have been 10 blue jays around, which gives 5 males to fight any enemies, they work together at times like that, which also protects the smaller birds. No other birds were in sight, the small birds had gone into hiding.
Finally 2 more blue jays came along, the must have heard the calls for help. In all 10 other blue jays came, obviously pairs, and the 5 males took turns going after the shrike and finally chasing it away from the area. Baxter and Betty were okay, and the other 3 regular blue jays stayed around too. I put out more peanuts for them. Generally the females won’t fight the shrike, unless there are no other jays around beside their mate, then they join in. Hopefully that shrike will stay away now. The blue jays work together to help each other, and with that they help the other birds in the area too. A good lesson there for people too. As is typical for Saturday, I have a couple more scenery pics from down at the river, though they don’t show the river, but rather a couple of spots that I really like. I hope you have a very enjoyable weekend and God bless!
Steve and Muffin (presently sleeping on my lap)
©2020 Steve McLeod
