Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Daily Pics #166.
Good morning everyone on this beautiful Sunday! It is nice and sunny this morning, the gulls are circling overhead, their brilliant white looking so bright against that beautiful blue sky. There is a nice light wind blowing from the south this morning, bringing with it some nice warm temps starting today. But of course with it comes the thunderstorms overnight and early tomorrow morning and possibly later tomorrow as well. It has been a busy morning out here on the deck. Mama hairy woodpecker is busy trying to get her sunflower seeds. The gulls were here earlier and had their breakfast. The 12 crows sat impatiently in the trees waiting for their turn, but only 2 of them managed to get a small piece of bread, which is all the gulls left for them.
Lady Pearl was first at the feeder, one crow looked like he was going to try and come on there too but Sir George looked over the edge of the roof at that point so the crow just sat waiting. A male hummingbird was at their feeder too, but he was scared away easily by all the traffic around with those big birds. Woody and Gopher, my two squirrels, we here as well. Woody will take peanuts from my hand now, but Gopher is still not brave enough. All 3 chipmunks were here, Skamper is my friendly little one and will crawl all over me. Pocket, who lost half his tail, is the next most friendly. And then there is Skitter, the newest one, who is not brave enough to come to me yet. Actually, this morning I almost thought there might be 4 chipmunks, but it was hard to tell. Time for more coffee and a look at some pics…
In this first pic, above, is a couple of ring-billed gulls. There was actually a dozen of them swimming around and eating dead moths that were floating on the river, that’s all those spots on the water.
And in this pic above is a nice family of Canada geese, one of 3 families on the river that day. They too were busy eating the dead moths. The greenish color of the water is just the reflection from the trees along the shore. The bird in the featured image at the top is a dove that I kept encountering when on my vacation in Nice last year. I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2020 Steve McLeod.
Daily Pics #165.
Good morning and Happy Saturday to everyone! Hard to believe another week has gone already. Plus that means only 10 days to go. Time goes so fast, except when you want it to of course. It is another nice sunny morning here, still a bit on the chilly side, but warmer than it has been at least. And that is definitely a big plus for me! And warmer weather is returning this week, and that is another big plus. The gulls were here bright and early again, but it will be that way for a few weeks. That’s something else coming up soon, the longest day of the year is coming up in only a week’s time. Then the days start getting shorter, such a sad thought really.
But summer is here, actually, for us, summer begins June 1. But what’s a few days anyway? The birds are really singing this morning, that phoebe is so close but hiding among the bushes somewhere, out of reach of my camera unfortunately. Back when I was in my teens we always had phoebes nesting in our garage each year, twice a summer actually, raising four young each time. I didn’t have a camera to take pics of them at that time so I keep trying now to get a pic of one. One of these days it will happen. And there is a “black-throated green warbler” singing so nicely. Another one that is hard to see among the thick tangle of bushes out back. Time for another cup of coffee and a look at some flowering bushes…
In this first pic above we have flowers on the chokecherry bush. They have that name for a reason too, if you try to eat too many at a time. But they do make a most delicious jelly and also syrup for pancakes! Definitely my second favorite after crabapple jelly.
And in the above pic is the Red Osier dogwood flower. They are not particularly common, but can still be found around most places in our area. These flowers are from a bush right out back. I hope you all have a wonderful Saturday and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2020 Steve McLeod.
