Critters, composter, crummy rain

I was so excited. It looked like we were getting rain. I followed it on the radar, and satellite maps.

I was really disappointed. It was a huge storm, with lightning strikes everywhere. I have found that the lightning map gives a good indication of the direction of the storm. 

The North American radar showed the clouds.

The rain predictions were hopeful, but terribly wrong for us! The clouds tend to peter out over the land after picking up moisture from the Great Lakes.

Elora, Ontario, had what looks like a tornado. Some from that way posted a video. Lots of trees were down. There were power outages.

Today, clouds. I don't know if I should water or not!

 We didn't even have enough rain to gather in the rain gauge. It all petered out as it moved across the continent.

⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡

Years ago, I found that the bears liked my big, outdoor composter. One year Bear knocked it over 3 times! I finally got Bear wise and gave up. I saw a message on the Perth Barter Board on Sunday. A woman was looking for one for her home in town. I didn't really need anything in exchange. I washed off the outside, threw it in the car, and we took it to her. 

There were turkeys on Ian Millar's field.

Cyclists are enjoying the weather.

And walkers...

Skateboarders

🏤LANARK LIFESTYLES is working on their senior's complex new building. It is coming along.

Farewell, composter! 

Æthelred is back! YAM named him back in 2016! Of course, that bear is probably gone. In April, 2020, I posted this in 2020: our Bears are on the move! <= We've had bears over the years.

Bear July 30th from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

  📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷

In my MAC photos app I found something whilst fooling around with photos. On my Apple photo stream, if I open an image, and click on the information icon:, it will show you, according to some algorithm, what your plant might be. I found it accidentally, and forgot about it.

This is the front garden. It is lovely chaos. The hummers love the lilies. The deer love the hosta!

I have photos of good years! Clover seems quite keen on the ones near the house. They haven't been this rigorous in previous years.

I do my best, and I know we moved into deer habitat! What the heck. 

tiger lilies & hosta from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Wood duck, lost egg, clouds, young buck

June 8th – the wood ducks have hatched and flown. No dud eggs, either. I am happy for that. It means they have safely made it to the wetland or the lake. I've tried to check only every 2nd or 3rd day. This was my last view of her, Sunday, June 5th. By Wednesday they were all gone. They only stay in the nest for 24 hours after hatching, then take off in the afternoon, bouncing out of the nest. You can see that the native phragmites have grown over the pond. 

wood duck from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

  This is from 2017, when I thought they had all gone and I was prepared to clean out the nest! I scared us all!

We went into town for gas for the lawn tractor. I noticed the invasive phragmites had been mown by the county, at the side of the road. It's only mown as far as the county owns, and there is a large patch beyond it to the creek. They are working on this stuff. They are making progress, around the county with little robot tractors. 

I noticed something white on the last slab at the end of the sidewalk. It looks like a phoebe egg taken from the nest. I wonder the story there?!

There was yolk. I don't know. It could be nest theft. It was peculiar.

It's sad to document damage, but noticed this lovely lily, lower left, and a bug of some sort had rolled the leaf and snapped off the flower bud to make a home. The one beyond, and on the right are still intact. I cross my fingers. I've wrapped my chicken wire around it, and hope to actually get a bloom. 

Bambi ate them several years in a row until I figured out the idea of putting up a fence! 

During Tuesday's rough weather, Caitlin went to Toronto for a two-day leadership conference. I live vicariously through my children, and I watched the plane online. I checked the radar and, sure enough, more storm clouds. It had to veer around the storm. This was the 23 mm rain day! 

It was funny that JB having traveled a lot for work (i.e., Montreal once a week, Frankfurt quarterly, etc.), just commented that he didn't miss the travel, but sure loved seeing clouds. I know he'll like to see these, Caitlin's photos! Her iPhone takes snappy photos.

The Devil's Paintbrush are starting up. This is why I don't mow too much. 

I managed to capture 17 videos on the trailcam, after hauling myself down there with bugs flying madly. There were 15 videos of crows, one of a blue jay, and one of the young buck.

young buck 2 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Saturday's Critters

Well, typical November weather, lots of precipitation. The Great Lakes are warm, this year, so this means more precipitation. Last November we had winds, snow and power outages! We got this!

❄ NOVEMBER 2021 ⛈

The fisher seems to avoid the camera. Some critters don't care.

You'll find Chad coyote quick and sprightly as a fox! I am enjoying the new placement of camera #2. It captures them twice. They are familiar with camera #3, and sometimes dash by, but I get them on the run!

I took a couple of pie pumpkins down for the deer. Apparently, Chad had to mark them, twice. I hope you find the coyote and the pumpkin as funny as I did. 

On my way down to the trailcams, doe a deer was wondering what I was up to.

The doe, and the doe with a fawn are our frequent visitors. The first clip in this video is beside the mouse hole, which I've been unable to videotape.

I gave up and switched the direction of the camera, which gave me more images!

Finally, the wild turkeys have been out and about. They don't worry about the cameras!

Visit more of: Saturday's Critters # 413.

Overnight storm

 Last night, a bit of a storm. I hope the critters fared well.  We had a decent 16.5 mm. This is for hubby, who asked how much rain!

As the storm crossed southern Ontario, there were increasing power outages.

It was impressive. I'm just sorry it took place overnight and we couldn't see it!

 🐻SNUGGLE Bears

Sept. 11 – they visited Easter Island!

JB bought these on one of his last outings with his mother in Yorkville. They hold glasses. 

The storm on Saturday

 I noticed our doe and fawn were back. 

I took a video of them. They were cleaning up the weeds nicely!

 

Fawn and doe 1 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I divided the video in two. I'm fascinated watching them. As I taped this, the storm rolled in. The poor fawn wasn't sure what was up. Momma just kept eating. This ain't her first rodeo!

Fawn and thunder from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Off it went, to join momma on the front lawn again.

The goldfish pond was quite full, from the runoff from the rain barrel.

On the back deck, I moved a pillow so it wouldn't get wet. The tree frog was hiding there!

It was a heavy storm.

Even the downspouts were back up. With this kind of rain, we cannot use those leaf guards wouldn't work. 

I thought this artistic, the rain was so heavy on the coffee table, the drops were bouncing.

There are many who can capture lightning bolts. I am not one of them. I videotaped the storm and hoped for a bolt. As is my luck, there was one bolt I saw, but it was just off-camera.

The storm rolled in and over us.

storm from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

It was a lot of rain in one day. Very unusual for us. Nearly 49mm, or 2".

And goodbye, August! The girls come for the week, again. We'll see what we can get up to.