Cardinals, scarlet tanager, doe, cats, finches!

 Glad I took a 'before' photo!

It's my own fault. They smell something in the soil, and hope for food. Or they are curious!

It wasn't Cinnamon!

Nor Auntie Fred.

I blame Butch racoon!

🔥 I am grateful to those working these fires. in Northern Ontario. They are awful. Sadly, our Ontario budget for fighting fires has been diminished.

We are on fire

That July 1st storm was awful. Here is the doe in that storm!  

 They are the silliest cats! 

   

 I daresay the Cardinals are raising another brood! 

   

 I guess it is birding week!

   

 Finches! 

 

We have snow!

It began slowly, and just kept falling. I did the sidewalk, but it still needs work. 

I decided to switch out the feeders. The tray feeder is fun, but doesn't hold much seed.

Not a great photo technically, but it show both the male and female cardinals at the same time. 

Cinnamon hunkers down after hanging out on the front deck. 

Joe's bears were snow covered, but it kept falling.

They look lovely covered in snow.

The feeders need cleaning off, as well!

The back deck has 19 cm of snow. Some of that has drifted off the roof in the wind, but it still needs to be removed. We could get rain Monday. We shall see. 

Coffee is perking. Then breakfast, and next a bit of shoveling to do. I'll see you on the other side! 

Graupel time!

I noticed this on the news, they were talking about the Canada Post strike. We've visited Nova Scotia. 

We are getting into the cold weather! It was -5 ℃ Monday. Bbbbrrrrr. Nothing like Muskoka, in Central Ontario. Some are on Day 5 of power outages. Most of the homes have power back, but not all. There are still about 4000 homes to get reconnected. Thanks to all those who toil in the cold, and snow. York, Peel, Vaughn, and the Toronto airport all sent crews to help. The core of Gravenhurst is done. 

We had graupel! Not ice, but sort of snow pellets.

A drive into town often generates conversation, property for sale! 

2 acres for sale

$249,000

I noticed this strange little road going in. Then, a for sale sign. 

I hope someone tells them that there is a lot of invasive phragmites here, which means it is wet off to the right.

The house that had a fire is finally coming along. This happened in Jan., 2023. I felt so badly for them, although I don't know who they are.

I am happily bird watching from the front window. The cardinals have been infrequent visitors.

They are so infrequent that I had to find an archive photo of the female cardinal. 

Male downy woodpecker.

I hope you stay warm and dry. We've more snow on the way, they say. We may or may not leave the house today. Somebody is happy watching curling!

Bird watching

 Bird watching from the window is grand. This old fart is happy bird watching from the warmth. I did snowshoe yesterday, more on that later!

The seed catcher has been working well. I enlarged the holes in the bottom as the small seeds were getting caught in the holes. It has been fun seeing the Mourning Doves feeding there. They do poop, though. I inverted the old, split plastic piece in it, which will make it easier to clean. I have to clean out the bird bath daily, as the doves poop in that, too!

I did a bird count for FeederWatch.org and reported THREE male cardinals, all chasing one another. The female went after a male, as well?!  Feeder Watch encourages citizen naturalists to report mammals around the feeder. The Dratted Red Squirrel have dug their winter tunnels. The tunnels run from the base of the feeder, under the snow, opening out under the Horse Chestnut tree. We do have an owl and hawk.

I can never tell Purple Finches apart from House Finches. We had three of them. 

Some birds tolerate others more readily.

This was funny, with the mourning dove coming in for a landing, and the male finch taking off:

I asked the Cardinal to move a little aside, you can see the Finch behind him. 

We've three Goldfinches, as well.

This camera on the deck has been tricky.

cardinals Jan 18 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Happy birding birders!