The Merlin and the fox

 Happily, I finally manage to book a booster vaccine for this month. What a pain-in-the-butt. After computer time, someone noticed the drunk kitchen light. I fixed it. I had an assistant, who is managing a bad cold. I feel so badly for him.

My sore thumb wasn't happy during the repair, but it is improving. I always take a photo of the first incident to check that it is or isn't infected. So far, so good. It's a lot less blue and bruised. I rewrapped it.

Later in the day, after washing the kitchen floor (yep, mess from project above), I gazed out in the backyard. There was a fox trotting along. I grabbed the camera, and it just hunkered down and gave itself a wash up! Cinnamon was nearby, and I captured him gazing off along the wetland as fox took off. 

Right after the fox, I spotted our Merlin!  It flew past the window, which caught my attention, and landed in the catalpa tree. By the time I grabbed the nearby camera, he flew around the evergreen and was gone. It was a frequent visitor to the tree where the crows nested last summer. At first I thought it a kestrel, lower left, but someone on the lake nearby spotted a female Merlin. I suspect that's what it is! Or a sharp-shinned, right. [ Kestrel; #2a Tupper Lake Trip: The Wild Center | April, 2015; Critters abound: hawk on the bird feeder!]

It was funny, because as it did a flypast, the chickadees headed for the spruce tree. The dratted red squirrel (DRS) turned up, Nutmeg was at the window eagerly wagging her tail. DRS saw me, and jumped up into the wee tree. At that point about a dozen chickadees exploded from the tree where they were hiding from Merlin. I love the drama!

 

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 Out the front window, more visitors. A doe and her twins. They aren't really 'fawns' anymore. Yearlings? Juveniles? We were happy to see them – as we lost a doe on the highway last week.

 

Bathroom, bears, rain

I enjoy the self-deprecating humour of fellow bloggers. Here is one for you! OK, two stories. I had two jobs: 1) to clean out the water fountain, it gets icky. 2) to wash the bathroom floor. Everytime I enter the bathroom, I figure I ought to do the floor, leave the room, and promptly forget until I enter the room again! Ah, old age rears its ugly head. 

There were only a couple pieces of toilet paper left. I took the old roll off, and threw it into the cat's water fountain. I meant to chuck it into the garbage. No wonder I'm not playing softball anymore! (Actually, that's because of shin splints at the time, but I digress!)

I should have hurried. You KNOW what happens when toilet paper gets into water!

I didn't want cats drinking toilet paper water. I got on that. The fountain is cleaned, dried, and replaced. floor is done, I finally remembered.

We had a bit of a clean up this month, more a decluttering, last time the girls were here. We sent them home with the bin of Lego, to donate as appropriate. The girls just don't play with it anymore. They read. A lot! 

JB kept three little Lego kits aside, and took them into town to a worker he chats with at the park in the early morning. The man has a son, age 8, and JB thought he'd enjoy them. The son made him a thank you card! Isn't that sweet?!

 🐻SNUGGLE Bears

The latest: bear reading a book about bears! "What Bears Teach Us" It's a great book. The photos are amazing.

Her friends wanted to her to read to them. 

Saturday morning, actual rain! Only 2 mm. It's been a really dry month.

You can see how brown and crunchy the lawn is. I went over it with the tractor the other day. In the shade, it is better. The front garden is toast.

I was so happy to see rain, I snapped photos. The poor false sunflowers are drying out. The phlox is doing well.

I went out to water the cherry tomatoes, and found a visitor. The first photos were at 9:24, the last one 10:54. I rather think it eclosed there. That's a long time for a monarch to stay put. I scoured the plant for the evidence, but couldn't find it.

You can see how the wings aren't quite flat. Eventually, they dried and he flew off! You can tell it is a male, since he has a dot near the bottom of the wing.

 We've still got female hummers. hummingbird  

A 10-point buck! 10-point buck  

The Fox was here in the daytime. 

In the backyard, I spotted the merlin. I found this archived photo of a turkey vulture and the merlin. They are so quick.

They just soar. I'm getting better at filming with my reading glasses on! merlin 

July unfolds as it should

I took a deermouse, a small one, away from Cinnamon. Putting it back in the garden, I thought it safe. 

I found it, again, and it startled me! It was on top of the plant stand. There is no food there. It scampered down.

Two days in a row I've been gazing skyward and spotted the merlin fly over with a chipmunk or something. Tuesday, I heard a commotion,. The baby crows are still quite vocal.  Just as I put down the the video camera, the merlin popped out of the forest canopy, chased by a crow.

I thought that once the snow left us, Oregano, our feral friend, wouldn't be here. There are potential meals all over the place.  Lo, and behold! He was eating a part of a bagel I'd thrown out. oregano 1  

  

Not only that, but he must have followed the wetland shoreline, and was down in the meadow. Oregano  

  

You'll recall I found Blond Butch with two kits a few weeks ago. Here she was with three kits. They had a brief fight over the bagel pieces. Blond Butch & kits 

  

Deeper in the wetland, Momma deer and fawn. Apparently, the fawn needed a bit of a clean up! Fawn doe buck  

  

The other day, sometime in June, I spotted the male rose-breasted grosbeak on the railing. I didn't have a camera handy. This time, it was the female! My feeders are gone, of course. There are too many critters about, including Butch and the bears. female grosbeak  

 

We're in for some rain, a strange long weather system going east. You can tell from the built up ant hill!

I cleaned and drained our kiddie pool yesterday. Today's high is 16 C. Not particularly conducive to swimming! 

Inuk leader Mary Simon named Canada's 1st Indigenous governor general

The big news in Canadian politics is that PM Trudeau has named an Innu to be our new Governor General (GG). (The previous one, a former astronaut) resigned for being a bully to her staff!) The GG is the Queen's representative in Canada. Debating the need for that would be moot, as it is a ceremonial role. She sounds like an amazing person, speaking English and Inuktitut.