Crumbly Acres tracks

 The day began with an actual sunrise. It's been cloudy, it seems, for ages.

I decided to go for a snowshoe and fetch trailcam SD Cards. I caught myself on the camera! 

Who else did I catch on the trailcam? The fisher and the deer, running!

 

I love the forest. The deer, coyotes, and I follow the paths critters create. 

Did I mention how nice it was to see the sun?

The coyote use the deer tracks and seem to step right into the centre print. 

There are lots of reasons for them to follow the path. It's easier than trudging through deeper snow. It saves energy.

The critters feel safe on the frozen frog pond.

Actual blue sky! There was a plane roaring overhead, but it is the sky!!

We had our hydro metre replaced. It was starting to fail, and took him 10 minutes. It is supposed to connect with a satellite to deliver readings to the company. It doesn't work out here in the country with trees. 

I warned him not to fall into the goldfish pond. He asked where the goldfish were, and I said I bring them in for the winter. 

I remember showing Aster the frozen pond one winter. She was wee. She wanted me to dig them out! 

Look at the snow on them! Hopefully we have had the last delivery of propane for the winter. The dude asked us to clean out a path.  (The last dude didn't need that, he told me. He had snowshoes in his truck.) 

He said to just use the snowblower. As if. I couldn't get it up the rise and around there. Mind you, Hydro does like to hide these around the side of the house, but it isn't convenient for those who deliver the propane. 

 I created a path with my snowshoes. They are terrific. I've had them for years. They were a present from my kids. I think ~25 years ago!

Animal Power

 Yesterday, I wrote about Fire and Flower Power. Today, Animal Power, but first, a fire update. Maritimes had rain on their 🔥forest fires, which is a darn good thing. They are starting to get a handle on the Nova Scotia fires. We've a new fire, today, west of Ottawa. near Renfrew, they have evacuated people. Blogger Karen has mentioned a couple of fires in Algonquin Park that are out of control. Her family has an evacuation plan. 

Fires near Centennial Lake, Refrew

Monitoring Canadian fires

We are grateful for international help! Both Australasia, and South Africa.

#2023WoFCanadianDeployment
Song and dance from #MZANZI1 as they arrive in Edmonton, Canada.#MZANZI1@environmentza@CIFFC@epwpza@kishugu pic.twitter.com/alj2IEnkuJ

— Working on Fire (@wo_fire) June 4, 2023

🐦The birds: the males came back, and then the female hummingbirds.

The hummingbird feeder attracts other birds: the oriole, woodpecker, and rose-breasted grosbeak. Mr. Grosbeak hovers at the window, looking for fruit, perhaps. It truly is able to hover. 

 

I keep forgetting to check for fireflies in the dark. This one I found dead in the water fountain. I was so sad.

Then, there is Fred. I've decided to try gender-neutral pronouns. (It is Pride Month!) They are definitely building a cozy home (see video). They excavated in the shed floor, but focuses on their home under the lower deck. 

UPDATE: They have now dug a hole under the propane tanks. This is what surrounds the house: large stone and sand for drainage.

They have since stopped!

Fred groundhog from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The catbirds have been pretty active in the front yard this week. I have a video of them from June, 2016. This was so fun! I was out gardening, watching the traffic, and heard these three.

Gray catbird from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I call him Pepper, but he isn't our cat. He's been an unpredictably infrequent visitor. In order to visit us, he has to cross a highway. This is the first time I've seen him in the daytime, and I heard him yowl through open windows at 8 a.m.

pepper from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

OK, must bundle up and put out garbage. Hopefully rain later, the front from the north brought some chilly overnight temperatures.  

 

Tomorrow, I've bear and wood duck news!

Bugs and blooms

Finally, it took years, but I have two rhododendron plants, and one is flowering. I wrapped them all winter, and the deer have avoided them. So far. 

I made it up there, with the ladder, JB handing me the drill. The piece had slid down, and while I put in the first screw, attempted the second, and third, the wasp came back looking for its nest. The 2nd screw split the wood. The third was too long and didn't go in. I gave up! Either way, the wasp is thwarted. I was not stung, so I won.

This is the before and after.

It's called Lychnis flos-cuculi, "Petite Jenny!" I love it! 

Honeysuckles and serviceberries are in blossom!

I've two lady slippers in full colour, 9 plants total on 16 acres! I ended up putting on bug spray to go down there. That helped! 

OK, the gypsy moth caterpillars are slowing down on the deck. I reused the container, and put in dish soap. The irony is, they are falling down on the deck from the roof, and crawling all over the bottle. I wiped down the railings every couple of hours. They have finally slowed down. Now, we await the second stage and third of the larvae, the caterpillar stage. Each growth stage is called an instar. They molt and grow 5 or 6 times until they are mature larvae, 50 mm long (Gypsy Moth, Ontario Government).

Down in the meadow, I looked up and the tree was covered in gypsy moth caterpillars. The irony is that this is an elm tree, and it will suffer from Dutch Elm Disease sooner rather than later. 

They are mostly on the back deck, but the propane tanks were covered in them, as well. I gave up, other than on the railings.  

Phoebe is still on the nest. (Any minute now they'll hatch!)

Robin only has 2 eggs. Maybe she took a break yesterday. They usually lay 3 -  5 eggs. 

I'd moved the trailcam down to the meadow. I'm glad I did! First fawn of the season! fawn May 22 

You asked a good question, Karen! It could be the 3 raccoons from yesterday's post are from the litter of six we had. I cannot imagine that they would travel with unrelated raccoons, they are so hostile with one another!