Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Morning Coffee At Steve’s Country #13.
Good morning to you all on this somewhat cold and cloudy Sunday! Please help yourself to some coffee and relax with us for a few minutes this morning. It looks like we will get a little light snow today which is fine. The snow is still on the branches of trees and shrubs from our last light snowfall. But we had some freezing rain first that froze the snow in place. So it might hang on for awhile yet. I foiled our little raccoon friend last night by bringing the feeders inside so he wouldn’t find any food. He probably wasn’t too happy, but it was much quieter out there, which is better for sleeping. And that’s always a good thing.
Yesterday morning we had some light lazy snowflakes swirling to the ground, which later turned to some light snow. And with it came the evening grosbeaks, a couple dozen of them! The snow stopped shortly after the birds arrived and the birds promptly left. Now that’s a puzzle. And they never came back the rest of the day. But Jasper and his mate Jenny showed up about mid afternoon. She is still shy and prefers not to come on the deck, but yesterday she did come up briefly to take some peanuts and then scampered away to a more distant spot to eat them. It’s a start at least. Since it’s a bit colder now, and I’m therefore not outside as much, it might take a little while longer before she will take a peanut from my hand. But we’ll see.
Hmm, Muffin seems a bit more excited than usual this morning, bouncing around all over the room. Maybe it’s the weather. Or she’s especially excited to see everyone this morning. I wonder if the snow today will bring more birds out to the feeders? That would certainly be nice. The chickadees and a nuthatch are here. The ducks flew over this morning heading down to the river for their breakfast. A flock of white-winged crossbills also flew past. I see them nearly every day, and at different times of the day. Now if they would just stop in for a visit, that would be fantastic. Well, I chose some nice bright flowers to share this morning, both are Iceland poppies. They come in several bright and cheerful colors. I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2020 Steve McLeod.
Morning Coffee At Steve’s Country #12.
Good morning everyone! Coffee is ready so just help yourself, sit back and relax for awhile. More heavy clouds here this morning with a temp of 20F (-7C). Plus there are a few lazy type snowflakes gently floating their way to the ground. I was out there early this morning, it was barely getting light, and the chickadees were already here coming to the empty bird feeders. Hmm, I always make sure there is food out at night so it will be here first thing in the morning when the chickadees show up. I have been able to do that now that the raccoons have gone into hiding for the winter. But earlier this morning as Muffin and I were still enjoying some much needed sleep…a very loud crashing noise happened out on the deck.
We both jumped and went to the window. That much noise must mean a bear. It wasn’t. It was Bandit, the raccoon. Somehow he managed to knock down all the milk crates I had stacked up out there. That broke my deck storage container. Sigh. Prior to this he obviously emptied the bird feeders and he was still looking for more food. I tapped on the window so he looked up and saw Muffin and I looking at him. I had turned on the deck light too so it was easy to see him. He left when he saw us in the window, and went down on the lawn below the deck. Now, Junior (one of my deer friends) who is a four point buck was down there walking through the yard. Bandit came down next to him and Junior seemed curious about this little critter and kind of moved his head back and forth to look at this strange looking animal.
That’s when Bandit growled at him. Bad mistake. Junior didn’t seem to like that very much so he put his head down and chased Bandit out of the yard completely. Good for you Junior! Even Muffin seemed to enjoy watching this little outdoor show. It’s too bad these things happen at night, if it was during the day I could perhaps get some nice pics. I did try since the deck light was on, but it didn’t work at all. Oh well. That little raccoon ate about 2 lbs of sunflower seeds. He must have been hungry. He’s really not that big, probably not much bigger than Muffin, he just has a lot more fur. But perhaps he had a friend with him earlier, there usually is 2 of them. Something a little different for today anyway. I hope you all have a wonderful Saturday and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2020 Steve McLeod.
