A hawking good tail

We've lots of hawks around. 

Juvenile sharp-shinned, I've been told. 

This one was eyeing #75's nest box. 

These three photos are from a company who goes around to festivals and fairs. Very educational.

kestrel

red-tailed hawk

This was from Bala, when we lived there.

This hawk hit the window in 2018. I am sure it was chasing a bird. 

hawk 2 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

rough-legged hawk from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

This broad-winged hawk came in a pair in summer. It hung around for a couple of days. 

It was screeching something in hawk-speak: 

 Why are these men on the roof? That was an adventure. They brought a hawk to scare away the gulls while they harvested the gull eggs to limit the gull population.

We had a hawk visit the feeder this week. I am giving up identifying hawks. Sharp-shinned, red-tailed, Cooper's,  or kestrel. We have a kestrel in the area. Birders with much more expertise have seen it around. I won't lead anyone astray! It was small, not as chubby as the mourning doves. 

It cleared the feeder. They slowly came back, first the chickadees. It was still sitting on the branch in the tree. I went out and it flew off at great speed. 

For more critters: Saturday's Critters # 637 visit Eileen!

Annual check ups

They are quite the pair. The vets estimate they were born June 30, 2019. This was their first check up: Kitten vet visit. It was 2019 and they both fit into the same carrier!

Wednesday was my day to take the cats in for their annual exams and shots. There have been many successful visits, but I had a problem. Joe is sick with a horrid bout of coughing, wheezing, and I was going solo. 

I have so many bad visits with cats. I tried not to think of those. One year we had to cancel and rebook. Nutmeg was so loud, Cinnamon and disappeared in a panic. 

This is what she is like:

One year a dog sat and barked for our 15 minutes in the waiting room. The cats were scared to death. Noises trigger my social anxiety. 

Another time we turned up in the parking lot and a woman was there looking for her cat who had escaped her arms or the car. It was so sad. She never found it. 

This time, I had to wait a bit. There was a dog in one room. I covered the two cat carriers with my coats, hoping to shield them. The dog was being noisy in the room Another big dog entered, and he was very excited and was yapped loudly. I just shook. He was very kind and took his dog outside after apologising. I was so stressed. I was nearly weeping. I was tearing up.

I finally realized what was wrong with me. I'd missed my antidepressant pill the day before. I couldn't figure out was was wrong. Not until dinner time, when I went to take my meds. Oy vey.

Nutmeg wasn't a happy camper. They lived at the vet about 6 years ago. They were rescued by someone who found them on the side of the road. We adopted them from the vet, where they lived for a few weeks until we took them in. 

Cinnamon was quite relaxed. He is an easy going boy.

She settled on the table, and didn't budge. Her weight is 100 gm down: to 4.5 kg. Not bad. 

Cinnamon (6.8 kg) has gained a half kilogram. Whoopsie. They are both on a senior's diet. He needs more walkies.  When the snow goes...

He was calm enough to rub up against my leg.

We arrived home safely. I took her into the basement. I wasn't lifting him any further than I had to. I let him out of the carrier, and off he went.

Good Bunny Labbit, Cinnamon cat

 It was a surprise! She saw me watching her from the window, and moved to the lilac bushes.

I'd noticed her tracks out back, she came from the burrow under the septic bed, and headed back along another route. I enjoy seeing her.

I did a 'Jenn's Mess' dinner. Broccolini, red peppers, and pineapple, as well as pork chops. 

After dinner, we watched Cinnamon. You might have had to be there! He approached the box, putting a paw on the edge, and her pulled it over. He ran off in surprise.

Apparently he did 't scare himself too much, as he came back to sit in the box. We had a good giggle.

Wednesday was busy, taking cats to the vet. Joe isn't feeling well, coughing and wheezing with a cold. I took them myself. More on that tomorrow. 

It's warming up! Despite that we had snow, but it was quite melty. Spring is on the horizon. Soon Butch racoon will be visiting again! Here are two we released last fall.

Odds and sods...

Winter, winter, winter... The birds are managing just fine! I'm kinda getting weary of it all.

The turkeys are enjoying deer food. Two of the three flew up on to the fence. 

They usually walk, sinking into the snow, but if there is a reason they will fly.

One can only spend so much time outside. 

I am having fun watching the people at Smiths Falls Home Hardware store online. They have been doing the best AI ads on Facebook. They really make me giggle. And we all need that these days. 

I made an AI image of Fred Groundhog based on my photo. She is, of course, sleeping in her burrow under knee-deep snow. It'll be a minute before we see her!

Indoors (it's terribly cold out), we played. Nutmeg went for the box. After I chucked 4 toys and then a cat treat in it. The next day, Cinnamon took ownership of the box!

Cinnamon appears to be studying the night light!

Jordan had a great study week at home during Reading Week. He took the Flixbus back to Kingston. I happened to have an image of a bus from my drive into Carleton Place last week.

Who goes there in the night?

We had more snow. I managed with the blower. I was so happy to have it back. This was 14cm worth.

 

With snow comes more tracks. I'm finding that Good Bunny Labbit is so fast, she doesn't register on the camera. I have to go clip by clip. Ah well. It satisfies my curiosity. 

There are tracks here, perhaps #75 squirrel, and another mystery. 

The snow height discouraged it. 

I looked at these as I took the garbage out Monday morning. Not as long and thin as Butch raccoon, and the pattern is different. I wrote a piece on animal tracks for our local lake newsletter. The stride of this track is short. Fishers have five obvious toe pads. 

Look who I found on the camera! Skunks are omnivores, both plant and other animals. They eat just about anything: bugs, mice, eggs, insects, worms, grubs, bird seed,  plus fungi, roots, leaves and berries, most of which are scarce right now! 

The gate patterns I haven't seen before. Mostly the skunks have been around in the other three seasons. Not winter.

 

We often have a skunk roll by in the dark, this one was lactating. While they are crepuscular (active dusk and dawn) they den up in winter for extended periods. They aren't true hibernators, like Fred Groundhog. A lot of our little mammals do this, like Butch who holes up in the really cold weather.  

I seldom see them in the day time. This one pretty much ignored me.