Fall chores & Türkiye

 Yes, Autumn is here! 🍁Fall Chores are underway. 

I was up at 6 a.m., checking out back, I heard geese coming!

The fish tank is ready. I run the hose from out back, directly into the tank. Then I vigilantly check for leaks. None found. 😊

 

Next job is to drain the goldfish pond in order to catch the fishies. I try to plan this just before a rain storm to fill the tank up again. Otherwise, the water lilies could be damaged in the air. The pond fills via the water barrel, fed by the eaves downspout.

It is a dance!

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As I have said, the critters are preparing either to migrate, hibernate, or are fattening up for winter. Barry Beaver is back at work.

Fred is fattening up... 

The cats are happy with indoor play. Little Nutmeg won the top bunk. She gets so mad when he's up there first. She leaps before she looks, and meets him up top, then jumps down. 

This is a big one! 

Meantime, my son-in-law and his two friends, have been enjoying his trip with his buddies! They are now in the Republic of Türkiye.

These are where people would shelter from invaders. The rock would be pulled in from of the tunnel.

Saturday's Critters

Change is in the air. The last of the August bloomers are in bloom. I find it tough to enjoy each moment, planning the garden clean up I will have to do. Thankfully, Fred is helping!

I heard, and have seen, a frequent flyer is the House Wren. They haven't nested here in a few years. One is hanging about, though. Eating all those bugs in the garden.

The ribbon snake has been out and about, also eating insects. Soon they will enter their hibernaculum. They spend winter underground.

The doe wanders in the forest.

   

 Fred is entertaining all of us. Cinnamon can't understand why he goes down in the hole! Cinnamon is fascinated with Fred. He's such a gentle cat. 

   

 There is one turkey ambling through the habitat. 

   

 Coyote have such beautiful colours! 

 

Saturday's Critters # 663 <= visit more critter posts.

Fall is in the air!

Chilly mornings...  I posted yesterday about finding two Monarch chrysalis. Yesterday afternoon I checked on it, and it is turning dark. That means it should eclose today! 

Something knocked over the branches of the hydrangea! I'd say Butch or Fred. Who knows?!

Soon the Freds will slumber! In the meantime...

Aug. 3, before I readjusted the angle of the camera.

   

 I don't know if Fred is teething! He's chewing on a carpet.

 

This was 13 years ago! This feeder eventually fell apart.

 

People on a nearby lake have complained that a bear knocked their bird feeder over.  I learned not to feed birds in summer here! Here we were in 2017!

This was a two-year-old sent away to find his own territory.

Ah, memories!

🛩Sad news.  UPDATE: Aug. 20

Missing pilot found dead in aircraft submerged in lake in Kawartha Lakes region, OPP says

What a job these people do. Heroes doing search and rescue. There was no transponder in this home-built plane. 

Summer days

Things are winding down for summer. Leaves are thinking about giving it all up for a rest. Cool nights and warm days have been heavenyl.

🛩 Look for the helpers

I've been following the search for a small, home-built plane: ✈Search & Rescue, lost in Kawartha Lakes. They found debris in Wolf Lake. It'll be OPP Search and Rescue that will have to canoe in (?) and try to find him. It is terrible territory for searches. Local camps are offering support and resources. I am curious to know who found it, in pieces in a lake. So sad. Each red square is a QE II Park campsite. 

Wolf/Victoria Lake - QEII Wildlands

Little, teeny garter snake was looking at our black cat art piece! 

 Proof of life: Auntie Fred (left) and MiniFred by the lilac tree. Auntie was in a brood of 4 last year. So was MiniFred, this year. I think Momma is gone. I wonder and worry about them all. 

The sky was quite something as I popped into the library. I like the flowers, maintained by volunteers, but the sky!

Nutmeg does 'turtle.' She likes to watch TV this way. We're into the latest season of Professor T. 

It's been a slow year for monarchs. I've had several caterpillars, but I don't know if MiniFred has eaten them or not. He likes to eat milkweed. Obviously, one escaped and managed to build a chrysalis! I have to work on photographing this one. It is tricky with the bright sky and dark wood.

I found a second one!

I was in mind of the one who created its chrysalis here on frog! (August, 2019) See it on its chin?!

Some people raise them for release. I am dubious about this, though. I'm not sure they are viable if they are raised indoors. Port Carling library, July 8, 2010:

I managed to use the power washer the kids loaned me. I moved the metal hanging bracket here to the back, as I can't put anything on it at the front. It sets off the camera. 

Another rain storm on its way. The gutter drains into the goldfish pond through the water barrel. It is full. I've two water lilies in bloom. They stand so tall since the water has been high and low. 

Here is to the last days of summer. I do enjoy them. water lily,

MiniFred seems to be cleaning up the front garden. It's only milkweed and native sunflowers. He likes them!

 

He is getting chunky. It is hard to believe that he was born this year. This was Aunty Fred and siblings last June. They grow up so fast!

Deer, Fred, and Cinnamon

 Living in the middle of an ecosystem, habitat for many critters, I enjoy watching them. My parents were role models for retirement. They volunteered in a whole bunch of things. I cannot do that kind work any more. I volunteer one-on-one.  And my critters.

This is where Barry Beaver is doing his work. Ignore the time/date stamp. These were this week!

I do appreciate those not living in a wetland who enjoy my critters. It gives me joy. I looked out back, and spotted two deer. Don't zoom in. I was using the zoom, without my reading glasses, or the tripod! 😆

We tried watching tennis, but our Canadian players keep getting injured. I have theories about this: pushing too hard; going for speed, not finesse; too many tournaments. One family earned their trip to the Toronto women's tennis.

The flowers have been wonderful. The golden yellow is pretty, smooth oxeye I think.

I had two water lilies in bloom, this water lily is done, but another is on its way.

I love cloud watching. August has been dry in the past, but not this year! Saturday morning, the cats were roaring around at 5:30. I figured I might as well get up. 

I threw some cabbage out, knowing we wouldn't eat it. Fred devoured it.

   

 Fred has been busy. He's digging up sand from underneath the garden.

   

 Do you know how much cats like sand?!