Crumbly Acres Critters

The bird feeder is going full tilt. I change it up over the winter. Here it is for now. I'm hoping the bears are close to denning up. 

The Blue Jays concentrate on the one at the left. They half emptied it during the day. 

Downy woodpecker:

The globe feeder is for the smaller birds. The big ones can't get in. 

Goldfinch: 

The mourning doves like to line up on the branch. 

The cardinal is peckish, as well. No sign of the female.

I don't know if this is #75. We have two Gray Squirrels, black morph. This one was under the feeder.

 I am quite behind on my videos. It's hit or miss. Feast or famine. Drought or flood. 

If you watch the video, you can see the bunny beside the tree, the deer staring at it. Then Labbit hopped up the driveway. It's two clips from two trailcams.

 

We've had a pair of coyotes hanging about. On the driveway and in the forest.

   

 The fisher was back. Two days in a row.

 

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! 

Still snowy and frozen!

We haven't seen King Charles in a few days. This is the last image I had. He's not been near the house! He devoured the last pie pumpkin beside the frogpond. This was prior to the ice storm. 

King Charles IV from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I figured out that likely the security camera card is frozen. Rebooting it only established that it didn't see the memory card. I only managed these videos because the app was open, and it saved directly to my laptop. We expect 5 mm rain on the weekend. Oh, yikes.

deer feeder from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I'll climb the ladder, and try remove and reinsert the card. Or maybe I'll wait until we thaw this weekend.

I've my camera on the tripod in the living room window. I don't know if it is a reception room or a snug. We've been enjoying Escape to the Country UK. It is so interesting. We'd never heard of barn conversions before, where the barn has those amazing huge beams. 

The 'bird bath' has been popular. It is so much easier to clean this one in winter. They are thirsty birds!

They are pretty, mourning doves.

Goldfinches are cute, as well.

 A junco:

The elusive female cardinal appeared. The next photo shows them in parallel play eating!

The TV takes time to thaw in the day. Some channels work, others do not. I could get out the ladder and roof rake but with the thaw coming... 

We went into town for our COVID shots. The trees are all bent, with the weight of snowflakes and ice.

 After we had our vaccinations, we had our lunch, then watched the women's soccer game we had taped. They gave away the result, but it didn't matter. The tribute for Christine 'Sinc' Sinclair was amazing. A lovely woman, with a great spirit. 

We'll see what today brings. A slow thaw is what I hope for. 

Pumpkins, walkies and bird watching

OK, I harvested some pumpkin seeds. I roasted them while I was preparing dinner the other day. Nothing like standing around watching food cook. That's what my former client, age 96 with 10 kids, used to complain about. Anyway, the next day, I couldn't find them. Turns out, I'd left them in the oven, having turned it off to fetch them later. Ain't old age grand?

I went walkies. This tree grew overtop a dead log. It has an interesting kink. Now that the log is rotting, I hope it doesn't fall over. 

Birdwatching has been fun. The goldfinch are wearing their winter suits. This one kept moving from behind the small bird feeder. 

Last weekend (Nov.11/12th), there was a flock of about a half dozen robins! They have since disappeared.

🐸Moving the frogs

We've had a mild spell. I relented and moved 4 more frogs to the wetland. This brings my total up: 

I've officially moved 141 frogs. One escaped me in the pond. We've rain today. It might pop up in the double-digit weather.