Saturday's Critters

 The hummers are back. I'd missed them. They are both at the feeders and at the bleeding hearts.

Fred is doing extensive renos on the burrow under the shed. It has a 3" concrete floor, so I'm not too worried! He chirped at me, trying to scare me away.

 

Fred in the shed from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The arrogant little twerp knocked the trailcam as it went by!

Fred May 3 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Bunny in the dark.

 

Labbit from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Out walking, I spotted a brown creeper. You'll have to trust me!

 

brown creeper from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

They are a delight. Unlike nuthatches who go down the tree upside down, they go up the tree looking for bugs! 

This we shall call an artistic video! We get deer after dusk and around dawn. 

deer at dawn from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The bucks are growing their antlers back!

Saturday's Critters # 543 <= for more critters.

Saturday's Critters

 I'm so happy to see the sparrows come back!

chipping sparrow from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

They are interesting critters, wild turkeys!

 

wild turkeys from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Brown Creeper – March 29, 2015

This is what they do:

 

Have you ever heard one? I had to look it up on BirdNET, despite seeing it a minute before climbing up a tree looking for lunch. This was this week in mating season.

 

brown creeper from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The crows like the cracked corn. I put some out for the ducks, hoping for tenants for my wood duck nesting boxes.

 

frogpond from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

They like selfies!

 

doe selfie from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Thanks to Eileen for hosting. Saturday's Critters # 488

Friday windstorm!

Saturday morning we awoke to some storm damage from heavy winds. As I explored our damage, I could hear chain saws in the distance. 

That was a storm! We lost power, but it came on just before midnight. The rain poured down, and the wind blew at the frog pond. I'm still not picking up any ducks. Back to square one!

frog pond from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The winds blew the dead leaves around. I love the wind. It got a little more extreme during the evening, though.

windy day frontyard from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Windy day in the backyard: 

windy day backyard from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

It was a quite the wind.  The storm knocked over the lawn ornament (see above), it spins so nicely in the wind. I spent some time repairing it.

It even knocked over my bench.

There were a couple of dead elm trees knocked over, as well as the birch tree branches. It is weird seeing them horizontal.

We lost some more sumacs right beside the arbour. JB was out walking, and he fetched the skilsaw for me. I cut them up and threw them off the path. This used to be an wonderful, intact sumac grove. The people that built the house need lawn, apparently. I'm letting it grow in, but it doesn't seem to be helping the integrity of the grove. The soil is very shallow here, as is the way in Lanark County.

Another dead elm blew over near the 5 sisters, near the meadow. The 5 sisters only lost a few branches.

Down at the frog pond, I thought this tree would go down in the storm. It had some cracks, and has been dead awhile. I knew there was a storm coming and expected it to go over sometime. Happily I didn't put the trailcam on it, but on the tree to the left. The camera seems too far to capture the ducks on the pond. I'll have to go at it again.

On the way back to the house I found another snake, this time a garter snake. Bless their little hearts as they eat their share of crawly critters!

There was a deer in pond. I knew what she was after. I'd put some cracked corn out for the ducks. There are more nesting boxes on the lake, and my pond isn't looking very lakey, so I want to encourage them. I have three boxes, and only had one filled last year.

deer in pond from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Down at the pond, last but not least, I spotted a brown creeper! They have just arrived, migrating to follow the bug population, just like the phoebes, a sure sign of spring. There were 3 phoebies in the backyard lilac tree, as they are deciding upon a nesting site. I slowed down several clips, as it is so fast for me.

brown creeper from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

November is here!

We had winds and hail Friday morning! It's been terrible across both Ontario and Quebec. The leaves of the catalpa tree covers the goldfish pond. It's a lovely sound. We put on the snow tires, so we're good.

NOV. hail from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

It was a storm.

 The winds caused power outages right across Ontario.

Ottawa Hydro outages

Meantime, do you remember the northern flicker nest cavity? I knew it would be trouble later. Creating a nesting cavity weakens the dead elm tree trunk. Funny story, I was looking for a long time to find an image of the cavity. I'd remember the tenant as a cedar waxwing. Wrong! A flicker.

Flicker from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Sure enough...



Then, the poor sumac. I'm going to have to work at this. They are too heavy to move without cutting them up. I'll use the reciprocal saw. I'll need the wagon or wheelbarrow. I'm still pretty sore from going up and down the ladder yesterday. sigh.


The frog pond filled nicely with the rain.



Another branch off in the meadow.



This was a task! The large catalpa leaves ended up in the eavestrough. It was cold, and I wore gloves, but getting the muck out of the eaves was messy and I had to remove them. The metal ladder is frigid. I knew it'd be colder today, though. I'm glad it is done. They aren't usually this bad but the wind just ripped them off the tree.


Little teeny hail!



As I was exploring the damage, I heard something in the forest. The trailcam captured the action. It was a buck who ran off.

bucks & doe from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I still have dirt to move, too!



Also, on my walk, likely the last of these. The eat insects, who will be sleeping soon!
brown creeper from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

In case you couldn't see it! They will be back in late March (Spring approaches!).

April 3, 2014

For more critters:

Saturday's Critters # 307

Spring creeps up the continent!

Yes, it surely does. My paperwhites are slowly growing. I had to have some flowers indoors.


The boats still wear coats. The Rideau is quite frozen in the middle ground.


You can see the melt in the yard, under the warmth of the trees.


On a walk, it looks like this tree is going to go over. It's a nanny tree, a tree growing out of the trunk of another. The first photo is Feb., 2016. The wood of the old stump is slowly falling off. The 2nd photo was yesterday. I think the birch will fall sometime.


On the trailcam, the fisher.
 

As I wrote, spring creeps in...
I could hear it and knew it was something I had not heard in awhile. Listen!


It flew from the cedar to another cedar. I thought I saw a familiar bird, creep UP the tree and believed it was the creeper. I went to All About Birds, and searched for their sounds. Sure enough!
This is an archive photo. Nuthatches creep down, head first. These begin at the bottom and work their way up!

March 6th, 2016

April 3, 2014

Four years ago, bird watching with Buster.
Brown creeper from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

It's a busy pond!

What a fun walkies. Firstly, Maggie deer was about. She's still hanging in – with her broken leg. She's happy there is grass beginning to grow.

Daisy and I found another Barred Owl pellet. I've been hearing the Barred owl in the forest at night. It's not only eaten one of our black squirrels, but a fish, as well!

The frogs at the pond have been very busy, after a winter's hibernation. The spring peepers awoke the first week in April, the wood frogs were next just a few days ago, April 10th. The pond, by now, is about 3/4 thawed.



This is another harbinger of spring. I see them infrequently. Unlike nuthatches, they go UP the tree, headfirst. We were sitting on the dock, when I saw it fly and land on the dead elm tree.


Brown creeper from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.