Saturday's Critters

It took time and effort to video this! Luck = preparation + opportunity. Blue Jay courting:

🐣 PHOEBE 5 phoebe eggs, estimated to hatch May 15! They are in a safe place. Critters tend to avoid the house. 

 

This Blue Jay was making strange sounds!

 

Barry Beaver continues to be busy. In the dark, it seems. That's when the coyotes are out... I should warn him.

   

 Along Barry's path, a porcupine. Or a porcupette, it seems smallish. 

   

 Our squirrel, '#75,' was supervising the crows who were gathering deer fur for their nest! We lost a fawn in March to coyotes.

   

 The woodpecker was going at #75's nest box! This is in between banging on the internet tower!

 

More critters at Eileen's blog: Saturday's Critters # 646 !

Daffodils and Osprey

 Despite it being 'Spring' we had a cold spell. That said, the Forsythia is in bloom. It is in front of an evergreen, which helps one see it.

My daffodils are thriving. 

The daffodil garden out back:

This patch has had a shock, as it is 0℃ this morning. They are drooping!

I did some work. Every year I promise myself I will research whether one has to remove last year's growth on the ornamental grasses. I figured I'd just get rid of them. That way the new growth will get some sun.

They are terribly sharp, the stems, and you can get 'paper cuts' from them. I left them until the next day. Pacing myself. It was colder, and long sleeves and gloves weren't too hot. Soon the mosquitoes and black flies will be out. I preferred getting this done now.

The ospreys migrate from our territory. They eat fish and snakes, so winter isn't a good time for them when the bodies of water freeze over. 

This one visited our front yard one summer for some reason. Maybe trying out its wings. It pooped and flew off.

We've quite a few human-built nests around the area as we reintroduced them. DDT did a number on their populations. Oh, humans, such harm we do. 

This is what precipitated my post, a fly by of one osprey. 

Spring has sprung!

 The grass has riz...

Jordan and Caitlin packed up his dorm room at Queen's U in Kingston. They took everything to the new student housing apartment he and a friend will rent for the next year. He is in Ottawa for a week, then goes back to look for a summer job. He's been looking for weeks. I hope he finds something. 

Parent/child bonding! Hot and sweaty, Jorden texted, but they have big smiles. A job well done.

In Vancouver our grandies are outdoors enjoying the sun and Spring weather. 

👮We watched a Border Security: American's Front Line. We used to watch the one filmed in Canada. They stopped filming that. I don't know why.

One show they showed them using this amazing tool. I roared! I need that for opening the kitty little containers. Joe went online, searching for 'large lid opener!'

Mother's Day came early! The cats bought this for me. 

It is amazing. I wanted it to open up the kitty litter we use. It is light, and fragrance free. It is amazing! I put the empty containers out at the end of the driveway, they disappear in a day.

Fred is grooming. When you are doing renovations, you need to do this frequently!

 

Busy Barry Beaver! This is #2 of 4. All on one night.

 

We had a heckuva rain yesterday. About 23 mm, nearly an inch. Spring flowers! 

Pond Study

 April 28 – grass fires, as well as rain warnings? It just petered out. Lots of tornadoes on the other side of the border. We had about 2 mm. 

In the frog pond a wood frog has laid these eggs. I took photos, as I'll watch as they grow and hatch into tadpoles!

This was an accidental photo, in that I was trying to get a photo of the Wood Frog eggs in the foreground, and ended up with this.

There are billions of mosquito larvae in the pond. BILLIONS! It seems as if it'll be a banner year. I can see water striders, faery shrimp, toe biters, as well as other wee things. 

fairy shrimp

toe biter

mosquito larvae

Happily, the toe biter was madly eating the mosquito larvae! You go!

 

God Save the King!

 Gotta laugh!

bazinga!

⚡️In address to US Congress, King Charles urges 'unyielding resolve' in support of Ukraine, NATO unity.

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— The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) April 29, 2026 at 12:16 AM

Trump cuts in front of Queen Camilla to shake some hands

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— MeidasTouch (@meidastouch.com) April 28, 2026 at 10:48 PM

ICE, phoebe, Barry beaver

The news is horrific. 🇺🇸 US Deportations are bad enough (<= I've a list), but to keep people in custody? Of course, ICE makes money off each inmate. ICE has a subsidiary, GEO, who makes money keeping prisoners in custody for the government. US tax dollars at work.

#47.   🇨🇦 Clayton Hermon "one of 58 Canadians being held by ICE as of March (CBC), according to U.S. government data."  

#47. Lack of food, healthcare, water, hygiene, medications...
He's been there 200 days. 
Three Canadians have been incarcerated for over a year. 

🐣 Back to nature. I checked the phoebe nest. Turns out they used some of the deer fur in the nest! 

There is one egg in it as of Sunday, April 26. Monday, there were two. They are tiny eggs!

May 11, 2013

🦫 Barry Beaver is really working on the tree he felled. Last week he took the upper branches down to the lodge. This week he is working on the tree trunk. I was thinking we might need a human crew to clear the path. We shall see!

April 19:

April 24: almost chewed through

The little dweeb avoided the camera in the dark. In the night it disappeared. No sign in 50 videos!

xxx

He's been working hard. Another tree is down.