Wood frogs and spring peepers

There are moments. A robin:

 

A Flicker, with a red-winged blackbird. We have a half-dozen blackbirds, and another half-dozen Grackles. 

I swapped out the green ribbons for March, to yellow for April. 

Our snow is gone. Joe Brian did a bit of a rake.

There are enough outdoor chores with out making more to do inside. Something happened with the coffee machine. The coffee overflowed, and dripped out, down, and under. We had to scrub it all. Great fun. 

Outside it is a mess, wet, muddy, with more rain on the way. We'll be begging for rain in August, I bet. Meantime... there are flood warnings and watches around Simcoe, Sudbury, Muskoka, and Lake of Bays in Ontario. YIKES.

 

The wood frogs are signing. OK, mistyped that, but they are signaling for mates! 

   

 A couple of days later the Spring Peepers chimed in.  

 Down in the pond, the mosquito Larvae are squiggling around.

   

 The yellow-bellied woodpecker is doing its thing. They have learned that banging on the metal towers amplifies their sounds. He is looking for a mate.

 

MiniFred

I fished 5 dead frogs out of the goldfish pond. The water barrel is hooked up to send eavestrough water into the pond. The overnight temperatures are worrying, but I hate wasting the rain water.

The ice takes interesting shapes.

Good old MiniFred. We think it is the daughter of Fred. I know she spent the winter here under the shed. Momma appeared before the hole was uncovered by warm air and did not seem to come back. They are solitary critters. We'll see what happens. 

Last Thursday we had a taste of Spring.

As the snow melted, miniFred emerged in the afternoon. Joe had given her some leftover broccoli.

   

 Then she began gathering leaves for a nest.

  

Fred has checked out the area under the deck. Three holes have been worried. 

The fourth hole I removed the stone over. It prevents us from falling in the hole over the winter. 

This is the burrow under the flag pole. She was peeking out at me.

By the time I walked up to look for Barry Beaver and came back, she was back out and trimming my Yucca plants! 

I noticed she has a bit of fur missing. It should grow back.

On a sad note, it seems as if we have a small raccoon with distemper. We'll have to do some research. It was holed up in the shed overnight. It is right near MiniFred's burrow exit. 

Trump vs. The Pope!

 I had to post this, so that me and my raised (lapsed) Catholic husband could discuss. The Pope preaches tolerance, and compassion and following the Gospel. Trump threatens the Pope. 

I am not Catholic. Lots of party faithful are shocked. There are a billion Catholics around the world. 

Larry the cat gets it:

The ecosystem wakes up!

 Sunday morning began with a bang. On the window. It was one of those aggressive grackles! It hit the window, but took off. All is well. This is one of my favourite grackles photos from a walk around Long Lake, in Muskoka. (2010)

Serendipity led to a discovery. I could hear a sound. A bird, for sure. Merlin told me it was a Sandhill Crane! A woman in the neighbourhood posted a photo of a pair of them on the highway. Which supports Merlin's contention. 

I taped the sound, and found some photos. I knew I'd seen a pair but didn't remember how long ago it was: Day Trip: cranes, heron, otter, ducks, August 24, 2016!

I tried to get the sound with my video camera. On this you can hear the Sandhill Cranes, ducks, geese and wood frogs on the frog pond.

I took the two photos I had, and put the sound to the video. Maybe not my best work, but their song is interesting.

Barry Beaver's Work (and ours!)

 It's been lovely, the return of our migrating birds. The bird songs are so joyful. Off I went for a walk. 

The tulips are growing out front. 

Down in the forest beside the wetland, another tree is being worked on. Barry started this before winter set in. He had a winter hibernation and is back at it.

Things are quite frozen, but you can see how it freezes at night, then thaws at the edges in the sunshine in daytime.

💐 Spring Chores

 Keeping up, there are lots of chores to do. I have stayed indoors for a couple of days. It was cold, and rainy. 

I took a photo to remind me. There are plants that need to be moved. The ornamental grasses are being overcast by the growing evergreen on both sides.

I still need to work on replacing this base. I removed the dead wood, and put the Bluebird house on it. Repainting the topper has to wait for warmer (dryer) weather! Joe Brian helped me pop in the rebars that keep it steady.

 

🕷️ TICKS

In the meantime, the ticks have woken up. They like it above 5 C. We had 22 last year. Our biggest year I gathered 200 off of Daisy. 

No good deed goes unpunished. I worked on the flag pole and found one tick on me later. We treated the cats. 

The wood frogs are singing for love! This is an amazing sign of spring.

Saturday's Critters

 There was great excitement up above the earth through NASA.

Here on earth, life carries on, the circle of life unfolds in the new season. The deer have scattered, except for our regular pair of mother and fawn. They are fawns for a year. Then they are yearlings. We'll see if we get any fawns. They are born around May. We didn't see any with spots last year. It was unusual.

I do have archives!

An altercation may have done this, or a meeting with a fence.

 

 

 Good Bunny Labbit hasn't been out too much. I caught it on the driveway. I think it has given up on Fred Groundhog's burrows. 

The birds have been amazing. Many winter migrators have returned.

 

Saturday's Critters # 643 <= visit more critters at Eileen's blog.

Walkabout

The frog pond is going through a freeze-thaw. 

OK, the snow has mostly melted. Can you see what I found on the ground? My missing SD Card I'd dropped in the snow a week ago in the snow.

The point has had visitors. Lots of scat about. I like my forest walks.

The wetland is filled. It looks like a creek running through. The water is high with spring melt.

We've rain on the way, so much will melt soon. 

In the meantime, I leave you with indoor play. I videotaped Cinnamon on this side, but Nutmeg is now in the game. With the number of times a day we visit the bathroom, it makes for some silly fun.