Cheeky Bastards ...

Damn thing is sticking its tongue out at me!

These two were in the parking area! In broad daylight! While we were home!

There are some weird reflections in this image, even after I cleaned it up in Photoshop.

And I so need to figure out how to get rid of the grass growing in the parking area.

I had to go out to chase them off.

I so need to finish the rest of the deer fence.

It's Back

The Carolina Wren roosting outside our back door.

This one started roosting late last week. Or at least that is when we noticed it.

So once again we'll be using a different door in the evenings. And that's fine with us.

License and Registration Please

"Steve, come over here!" called Patty. So I went over there (I'm not stupid).

And saw this.

A Tufted Titmouse.

Inside my car. My locked car.

Longing to be up in those trees.

Fly away.

I fetched the keys and opened the doors. And out it flew.

Leaving me to clean up all the bird shit.

Happy International Zebra Day!

Also known more prosaically as January 31st. 

And to celebrate, here are some images of Common Zebras.

Enjoy!

Taken in Kenya on our trip in 2015.

🦓  🦓  🦓  🦓  🦓

You can learn more about January 31st, aka International Zebra Day at this link.

Shadow Halos at Home

A couple of years ago, back the before times when I actually went somewhere else to work, I noticed some curious halos in the parking lot outside my then office window. And thus the Shadow Halos post.

Halloween morning I looked out my window to see this.

Shadow Halos on my garage.

Although this time it was a bit easier to see what was going on. Cool to see just the same.

Another Deck Warbler

In the How Many People ... post, I mused about a "Deck Bird List". 

Birders are ardent listers, life list, state lists, county lists (I've been on boat trips where it was very important to know when the "state" line was crossed, so the same bird could be counted four times, once for each state, and once for each county, even though we were miles off shore!), country lists, work lists, commute lists, movie lists, yard lists ... (I admit to keeping the first and last, life and. yard lists*). So the "Deck Bird List" as a joke on that. Anyways, if you have to explain it ...

Here's another warbler to add to that list, a Black and White Warbler.

Just outside the door, as you might surmise from the door mat in the lower right.

I was alerted to its presence by a thud on the window screen. Birds often lightly hit our screens as they pick off insects. But this bird seems to have miscalculated the distance as it hit the screen rather hard. And is here sitting on the deck stunned.

Spoiler alert, it was able to fly off, and did so when I went out to check on it.

We take steps to prevent window strikes, placing the bird feeders at a safe distance and hanging cords in front of the windows, but it is very unusual for bird to fly into a screen hard enough to be stunned. In fact, this is the only instance I can recall.

Weird. I wonder what it was thinking?

~~~~~~~~~~~

* And then there is this ... my coin bird list.

Deer Pressure

I mentioned the deer pressure in yesterday's Contrast post.

And right on cue, the view out our bedroom window this morning.

The heat wave had broken overnight, and Patty was opening the windows when she spotted the deer. "Damn deer in the yard," she exclaimed, sending them running. By the time I got up and to the window only these two were still in the yard. The others off into the woods across the road.

Roosting Wrens

You might recall the Roosting Wren post from a couple of months back. This bird, or one very much like it, has been roosting in the same spot going on four months now.

And now it has a friend.

As soon as it gets dark we look our back door, so as not to disturb them (we've three other doors we can use). Although we don't always remember to.

I don't know when the second bird began roosting, although I did see two fly out the other evening. That was the first time I noticed two birds.

I took the above shot with my iPhone, sneaking up on them as they slept. The shot below was taken by Patty, out our back door with our 'good' camera (it's a little soft as it ws shot through a screen).

Image courtesy Patty Rehn

You can see how little space there is up there. Two birds definitely seems to be the occupancy limit.

And they do seem to be getting more accustomed to our presence. Which is kinda cool.

Roosting Wren

Yesterday we visited friends for an outdoor, physically distanced, but socially close, Murder Mystery dinner.

We've not yet solved the murder, although we've ruled out two suspects. The next detective session is in two weeks at our place.

But this post is about what was waiting when we got home.

This Carolina Wren.

Which has been roosting outside out back door for what seems like at least a month now.

Most nights, should we be returning home after dark (I know, rare these days), the bird flies as soon as we approach the back door.

Perhaps it is getting used to us?

🐦  🐦  🐦  🐦  🐦

You can find all of the Yard Critter posts listed here.

Bird Food

One recent morning as I was getting dressed I noticed a Cooper's Hawk on our front walkway.

I was to slow getting the camera and it moved behind the vegetation.

It is in the highlighted area. It then hopped over into the Golden Ragwort in the Mini Meadow.

It did not appear to have caught whatever it was hunting, and eventually flew off, never coming into clear view.

And later, while I on a conference call in the living room (Patty was on one in our home office*) the hawk came back. Zooming past the living room windows, other birds scattering.

One did not scatter fast enough.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Patty heard the swoosh of the bird as it flew past the microphone of our outdoor in speaker.

Another Feeder Problem

You may recall this post, where I discuss the antics of a ground squirrel with aspirations of being a flying squirrel. To solve that problem I moved the feeder closer to the house, under the roof overhang. And without a convenient launching point problem solved.

Or so I thought.

I thought wrong.

Yesterday, while getting dressed in the morning, I watched as an Eastern Ground Squirrel landed on the window screen and then launched itself onto the feeder.

I'm not sure it was the critter's intention to empty the feeder, but empty it it did.

In the lower right corner of the image above, you can see the bottom of an American Holly. The squirrel must be climbing up and using this as the starting point.

So now I've moved the feeder farther out, hoping it is too far for both screen and roof launching points. We'll see.

"Did You See The Deer At The Beagle Club"

Patty asked that question, via text, as we both were driving to drop her car off for an oil change.

Deer? I didn't see any, but I thanked her for the warning just the same.

It was a warning fo a different sort however. And on the drive back home we acquired some day old venison.

Lucky me.

Which is now rotting away in our parking area.

And now you know the real reason the Turkey Vulture was on the garage chimney.

Waiting for breakfast.

Psychedelic Sun

A Corona around the Sun.

A somewhat craptastical image, phone cameras are not very good for imaging the sun, or any other really bright object. And shooting through the 'could use a good cleaning' window doesn't help. But by the time I would have gotten a better camera the clouds would have been gone. (And the camera I keep in my briefcase was this day four floors down and out in my car. Grrr.)

Still cool to see.

🌞  🌈  🌞

I've also seen it around the Moon (another not so great image).

And around Venus.

So Close ...

... So far.

The birds know.

I think Max does too.

Warming Up

On the garage chimney.

Alas, no fire down below in the stove.

Add Turkey Vulture to the blog bird list.

More to come ...

I'm Dreaming ...

... of a white Christmas ...

... like it was a week or so ago ...

... alas, it didn't last.

And sometimes dreams don't come true. The forecast for Christmas is 48°F and sunny. Oh well.

❄️  🎄  🎅🏻  🎄  ❄️

Merry Christmas!

Here's hoping 
your Christmas Dreams 

do come true!

❄️  🎄  🎅🏻  🎄  ❄️

Making A Break For It

Wild Turkeys are rather common in these here parts.

Except, oddly enough, around Thanksgiving.

Every year since we've moved here the turkeys disappear at the end of November. The last week comes and they are nowhere to be found. Only to return after New Years. Curious. Where do they go?

And if you are wondering, we had ham for Thanksgiving dinner. And it was very yummy.

🦃  🐖  🦃  🐖  🦃