The Merlin and the fox

 Happily, I finally manage to book a booster vaccine for this month. What a pain-in-the-butt. After computer time, someone noticed the drunk kitchen light. I fixed it. I had an assistant, who is managing a bad cold. I feel so badly for him.

My sore thumb wasn't happy during the repair, but it is improving. I always take a photo of the first incident to check that it is or isn't infected. So far, so good. It's a lot less blue and bruised. I rewrapped it.

Later in the day, after washing the kitchen floor (yep, mess from project above), I gazed out in the backyard. There was a fox trotting along. I grabbed the camera, and it just hunkered down and gave itself a wash up! Cinnamon was nearby, and I captured him gazing off along the wetland as fox took off. 

Right after the fox, I spotted our Merlin!  It flew past the window, which caught my attention, and landed in the catalpa tree. By the time I grabbed the nearby camera, he flew around the evergreen and was gone. It was a frequent visitor to the tree where the crows nested last summer. At first I thought it a kestrel, lower left, but someone on the lake nearby spotted a female Merlin. I suspect that's what it is! Or a sharp-shinned, right. [ Kestrel; #2a Tupper Lake Trip: The Wild Center | April, 2015; Critters abound: hawk on the bird feeder!]

It was funny, because as it did a flypast, the chickadees headed for the spruce tree. The dratted red squirrel (DRS) turned up, Nutmeg was at the window eagerly wagging her tail. DRS saw me, and jumped up into the wee tree. At that point about a dozen chickadees exploded from the tree where they were hiding from Merlin. I love the drama!

 

~~~

 Out the front window, more visitors. A doe and her twins. They aren't really 'fawns' anymore. Yearlings? Juveniles? We were happy to see them – as we lost a doe on the highway last week.