Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Daily Pics #220.
Good morning everyone and Happy Friday! It was beautiful this morning, the sun shining once again and a milder temp. Not much bird activity, but Sir George and Lady Pearl were here early, right after Sir Charles had his breakfast. The chipmunks were here bright and early as well so I gave them their first batch of peanuts which disappeared rather quickly. But with 7 chipmunks, possibly 8, peanuts don’t last long out there. I have finally figured out a way to keep the crows away from the peanuts so now I don’t have to watch all the time. Such a simple answer, an old plastic milk crate upside down. The chipmunks go freely through the handles to get at the peanuts, but the crows can’t. Should have thought of that before. However, if my blue jays do come back then I won’t be able to use that idea or the blue jays won’t be able to get the peanuts either. We’ll see what happens.
Jasper was trying to get at the feeder again, managed to get a good foot hold on his second jump. Good for him. He was enjoying himself and I looked over to the rock hill. Jasper was running around on the rocks. What do you know, 2 Jaspers. They could be twins except that Jasper 2 is a bit bigger and overall I don’t think his color is quite as rich as Jasper. Jasper 2 also doesn’t like the chipmunks and chases them. Jasper 1 says, why waste all that energy, sit and eat. Anyway, Jasper finally noticed Jasper 2 and started to move to get a better look. He shouldn’t have done that. Suddenly…zip…plop! I could just imagine him waving good bye as he disappeared from view going all the way to the ground. Poor Jasper. Sometimes he can’t win. And he’s such a nice squirrel too.
The featured image at the top is another beautiful “cosmos”, a nice dark maroon. And in the picture above is another different hollyhock. There are so many different shades of the many colors of these hollyhocks. Not many survived in my landlord’s garden this year however and some colors are gone completely which is sad. I hope you all have a fantastic Friday and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2020 Steve McLeod.
Daily Pics #219.
Good morning once again to all of you! It is a fabulous morning here, mild, with the sun shining so beautifully. The sky is such a deep, rich blue this morning. The tall ash trees in the neighbors yard are swaying gently against that blue background, it looks like thousands of emeralds glistening in the sun. Summer mornings. Such a beautiful time. Sitting on the deck with my morning coffee watching the goldfinches at the feeder with their young ones and the purple finch family at the other feeder. The hummingbirds join in showing up at their feeder periodically. There are at least 2 males and 3 females, though I’m sure there is likely more, but that is what I have seen all at once. Though no more than 2 actually are at the feeder at any one time. Any more than that and, um, some discussions arise.
I often wonder how people get pictures of 5 or 6 of these hummingbirds at a feeder all at the same time. I have never had that happen, usually only one gets on there at a time or fighting erupts. Or should I say, discussions erupt. A family of white throated sparrows are around daily now and the male sings his beautiful song every morning and evening. There isn’t much singing anymore among the birds, not even the robins sing much now. When I go for my walk it is silent. Two weeks ago it was alive with smaller birds, mostly warblers, singing all along the path. Now those birds are gone. Packed up and headed south. But the chickadees and nuthatches have flocked together, so they are usually around somewhere along the path, but not the large numbers that were around last year at this time. There are some flocks of sparrows too, they should be around for a while yet, but they are not singing, just little chirps here and there. And some days there is not a sound of a bird back there. Seems so strange.
Summer mornings. Coming to an end. For our pictures today are two flowers, same type just different colors, but I do not know the names of them. They are odd looking flowers, I call them alien flowers due to all the antennae sticking out in every direction. But they are interesting flowers, if you know the name please let me know. I hope you all have a beautiful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
