Crumbly Acres Critters

Time to explore!

I came across this video. We'd purchased leftover pumpkins one year from Miller's Bay Farm (2022) for the deer. They had a bumper crop that year. Peter, the buck was quite keen.  That won't happen this year with a drought, and fewer produce than in other years.

Oct. 16th, I noticed a robin in the bird bath. There was another, then they were scared off by the mourning dove! 

 

The lady beetles gather in doorways in the sun before winter sets in.

   

 The skunk is still hanging around! It's looking for grubs, and digging little divots.

 

We've a dump of rain today. It is wonderful. I roared around on the lawn tractor mulching leaves. Mostly on the driveway, as once it rains they stick.

Our robin pair are still bathing!

Cinnamon gave me a tick. I could feel something crawling, and used the camera to check. We stuck it on a piece of tape. I won. 

We've done pretty well this year. I track them just for data. 

Garbage is out. I didn't get soaked. Let's all have a good week!

Crumbly Acres Tails

 We had such a sunny Monday. The snakes are finding their winter shelters, called hibernaculum. Lots of critters hibernate. Right now, hibernators hang out within 100m of their shelter settling in once the real cold begins. This includes bears and porcupines.

The cottontail has been around, looking for the bird feeder I think.

It was unusual to see it during the day!

 

I tried the panoramic setting on the phone. The frog pond looks quiet, with leaves on top of the weeds.

My VISA was compromised last week. I finally got a new one and proceeded to update all my automatic payments. Using the list of things to change from when this happened before (6 months ago), I sat out in the back in the warmth, with the lady beetles buzzing around. 

It is lady beetle season. They are looking for a place to hole up during winter. They are everywhere around the doors, in the sunshine. I open the front door and they fall off and around me. 

This is their life cycle. All done for the year.

Trees, fall leaves...

 The poor dead pine tree. 

I think this looks spooky! Pareidolia 

I thought I'd explain my pooter! It looks a bit weird, but it works. We've invasive aggressive lady beetles, unlike the native ones.

The colours continue to astound!

We're losing lots in the backyard.

The goldfish pond is so quiet! The froggies are sleeping. We're expecting rain Thursday, which will fill it up.

I saw two snakes on my walk to fetch the trailcam memory cards. The ribbon snake is so pretty. It was about 60 cm! The photo isn't great, but the second is from my archive.

We've lots of snakes preparing for winter. They will find a hibernaculum, underground, where they can stay warm, or at least not freeze during winter.

I met Clover on my walk.

 

clover in forest from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Tonight is the big meeting regarding the proposed gun club. My speech has been written and revised. Despite being somewhat agoraphobic, this has to be done. After the meeting 'staff,' AKA the Planner, will get back to all of the councillors and recommend it or not. Then there will be another public meeting. sigh. 

Fall colours, foliage

 The colours change one day at a time. 

We're up to 18 frogs in the goldfish pond. I do have to remove them as the freeze/thaw of our current Climate Change patterns just kill them. It's my fault, as the pond isn't deep enough, but the froggies don't know this.

I've a plan. I have to bring in the goldfish first, which requires a nice day. I cannot remove the frogs now, as it scares the fishies. It helps to have a semi-warm day for the fish. Then, I can whittle away at the frogs. I've been very cold working on the pond in past years, and it's no fun. It looks like the middle of next week would be a good time.

Back to my wandering...

This is interesting. Maggie Magnolia has these red things. I looked it up and magnolias do produce fruit and there are seeds inside.

Maggie Magnolia dates from 2012: Mother's Day. JB even wrote me a poem! I had to plant it myself, which was a challenge. The deer quite like it, since they are native to Ontario. This is why it is well-wrapped with chicken wire. The first photo is from 2012, the last two 2021/

Cinnamon appeared, and helped me. Somehow. OK, maybe he just distracted me!

He was awfully tired in the afternoon.

It was a lovely day. The windows I cleaned are sort of good to see through, I guess I could try again! As I sat here, I noticed all the bugs. The orchid is still blooming and growing well. The orchid cactus (on the right) is indoors, and nicely pruned last month. 

I gave away a bunch of leaves to a friend. I hope he enjoys them. Last time I rooted them and gave them away on Barter Board, but that was a pain-in-the-butt, with people showing, not showing, and all. The second photo (below) is just prior to when Butch Raccoon knocked that plant over and broke the pot!

In the evening, I waited for the sun to shine on the shed sumac, but I missed. Still, not a bad shot!

UPDATE: I know there is an app for this, but I hesitate to load up my phone! Caitlin looked it up for me. They are groundcherries, genus physalis (AKA bladder), in the nightshade family. I looked up nightshade right away, but couldn't narrow it down. Yam suggested nightshade, as well.

I finally did me a sketch! It was based on my photo.