Green Crumbly Acres

Our PM is meeting the US president today. PM Carney landed and was good to go. 

Andrews Air Base

This after war was declared on the film industry, here in 'Hollywood North.

' Now, you know I relax watching 🎥.TV Movies. I track where they are filmed. I found 316/567 were filmed in Canadian locations. There are many reasons for this. Many based on budgets, location, and film tax credits. It's Win-Win. They say foreign films present a 'national security threat.' The US president said we've 'stolen the film industry!'  OMG! According to the ED of ACTRA Toronto about 239,000 Canadians work in the film industry. About 50% are foreign films. 

Films are an $11 BILLION industry in Canada.

What it boils down to is cost. This is why North America outsources manufacturing in many industries. It is discouraging. 

OK, back to nature.

I'd forgotten I'd taken a photo of Batty, a brown bat I found sleeping in the window. This is just as it was set on the railing. It flew off. They are pretty little things. At risk with habitat loss and disease, like White Nose Syndrome.  

No kidlets to play in our pool anymore. If this doesn't work, it's off to the dump.

My Lenten Lily.

My cement bird bath has a bit of a tilt to it. That's a job for another day!

I heard bullfrogs croaking on the frog pond.

Everything has suddenly popped green. We had 7 mm rain last night, and it is a beautiful pop of colour after the brown, and snowy white winter.

Hooray Spring!

Crumbly Acres Bat & Birds

Even the wee Grecian windflowers are a delight in Spring.

The horse chestnut buds are bursting!

Nope, not going to look at the camera! I was indoors, with the camera on the tripod. Swearing at the durn thing. 😧

Do you see it?! It had the right idea. 

Yes, another bat. I let it sleep there the whole day, until late afternoon. The fish net accepted the little thing, and I set the net outside on the back railing. When I went back it was gone. 

 

I took a photo from the front deck, the outside.

The daffodils are wonderful. Fred was trimming in between the flowers. He's so helpful.

Now, groundhogs like having at least two entrance/exits. I piled up the wood in the shed over one of his entrances. This one I left open, although I filled in the hole. Fred's been digging out. 

Apparently, he's been using the end of the broom! 

He's been digging. And digging. What I didn't realize, is that he's digging a new exit. The mounds of dirt seen above↑, has been moved from the front of the shed, along the tunnel, and shoved out of the other hole.

Putting the cleaned bird feeders away in the shed, I noticed said hole. Stepping into the shed, I turned around, and there he was.

We don't have horses, which could hurt them, stepping in a hole. I guess I'll leave it. Determined little twerper!

 

Winds, storm, and a bat

 We had a massive storm go through. High winds all day. The screen door kept banging. I found out why. Thankfully we don't have to buy a brand new system. There are parts. 

The power kept flickering off and on all evening. There were lots of thunder boomers. At the peak, 7:20, there were 95,812 customers without hydro. We've clocks to reset. 

Finally, the storm blew over. There were lots of lighting strikes. 

🎁 I'd sent a wee parcel to Bryony, in Vancouver. She turned 7 this week. They phoned us and we began to chat. We sent money, as we don't know them very well, or what might be suitable. Jesse sent a photo after Bryony explained that she'd bought roller skates! Isn't she cute?!

 

🦇Did I tell you Joe tried to catch a bat in the house on election night at midnight in the living room? He fetched the fishing net, while I was trying to sleep. No luck. I was too tired to get up. 

As we were on the phone, Grampa yelled, "There's the bat!" Oh sigh. I quickly said goodbye to Jesse and Bryony and spotted said bat. It was on the chimney brick. Perfect. It's not our first bat, won't be our last.

I sent Joe to the door, ready when I captured it to let it go. It worked, I held up the net leaning over the back deck, and as I did so, another bat circled me and the net. Our captured bat took up off out of the net.  I was so happy it found its friend! 

RVCA has a grant to study them.

Crumbly Acres flowers and flying friends

 I am enjoying our Freds. The one was wagging its tail. I am sure they are nesting, as I saw one taking dead grasses into the burrow.

  

two groundhogs flirting from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I noticed one of them has a mark on its nether regions! The question is, is that the male of female?

groundhogs 2 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The Northern Flicker is excavating and doing renos!

  

Flicker nesting from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I think our rough-legged hawk from last year is nesting in the area! This was September, 2023. A juvie, methinks, as he dropped his frog in the tree and didn't manage to eat it.

I heard it in the back yard, I could tell there were a pair calling to one another through the forest.

  

rough-legged hawk from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I noticed Phoebe has 4 eggs! That is one a day. I wrote this yesterday. They are up to 5!

 

The joys of spring! Pink tulip and Bleeding Hearts!

Can you see it? Amongst the violets a butterfly.

🦇  🦇  🦇  🦇  🦇  🦇  🦇  🦇  🦇  🦇  🦇  🦇 

Monday night, another bat in the house. [Crumbly Acres catch and release] Joseph Brian locked the cats in the bedroom and closed all the other doors. This time I caught it more easily as it ended up in the empty aquarium. It screamed at me, teeth gnashing, then it fell silent. Fight or Flight, sometimes the best idea is to lie quietly. I couldn't see it at first, huddled in the corner.  

Last night, for the fifth night in a row, a bat. The first one was trapped for 3 nights. Another the next night. (Couldn't be the same one?!) Tuesday night, just after dusk, another. Nutmeg whacked it down onto the floor and I hustled it into the net and outdoors.

Our plan was to see if we can get a better cover on the chimney. The company we deal with doesn't thing they can come in this way, through the wood insert fireplace. Next is a pest control company. 

'Dem Dry Bones' gonna rise again!

We've an owl in our habitat. We haven't seen it around, but it does rotate around roosting locations. We haven't seen the owl since Nov. 3rd. This was the photo. 

Just because we haven't seen or heard it, doesn't mean it has gone elsewhere. I keep looking for the white owl poop called 'mute.' I found some Dec. 16th!

For those inclined to be grossed out, I find that there is no smell. It is far less gross than cat or kid throw ups. It is just bones and fur, and have been through stomach acids. Owl digestion is interesting:

The first part is the stomach  (proventriculus), which produces enzymes, acids, and mucus that begin the process of digestion. 

The second part is the muscular stomach, called the ventriculus, or gizzard. It serves as a filter, holding back insolubles: bones, fur, teeth and feathers (more about this here).

It is best to dry the pellet first. It sat in a dish for a few days. Putting it on the heater, I'd forgotten where it was! (Don't tell the kids. We're not failing!) 

 It was massive. They are normally half this size. Previously I'd found 5 rodent skulls in 3 pellets (Jan., 2019), but this was a find.

I began picking it apart, after it dried out, using my reptile tweezers. The fur is amazingly compacted in the skulls, and around the bones. I could make a whole new vole out of it all! 

Look at the little teeth! It looks like three skulls.

That was the highlight of my day. Happily, we've critters on the cameras.

Coyotes from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

 I was working on a suet ball, but that didn't happen. I took the container down to the forest. The fisher quite liked it.

 

fisher Dec. 16 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Out front, I think this is a bat! They hibernate, but our temperatures have been upsy downsy.

 

a bat from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

We had lunch in Smiths Falls, after having returned the sink drain to Rona. More on that later! I celebrated actually eating out, and getting out of the house.