Crumbly Acres Critters

 The birds are back! Tons of them. Grackles, Red-wing Blackbirds, Starlings, Phoebes, it is terrific!

🐻Bear season is upon us. Hibernation is over in Ontario. Bears are hungry. 

The mother bears, and/or her suitors, kick the 2-year-old bear out of their territory – usually in May. The young bears have to look for new a habitat. It usually affects us, since the youngsters are desperate for food and haunt bird feeders. Often I see them on the trailcams. Not in the flesh fur! 

It was 2022 that I had a shock. It was self-inflicted. We'd had a bear in May, and I put the feeder away until July, wanting to see the rose-breasted grosbeak, I put it out. Whoopsie!

In Ottawa in 2023, police shot and killed a young bear. If a bear is roaming backyards, it can be deadly. 

Thursday, they had another bear which was tranquillized, this time, and relocated.

Phoebe hasn't decided on a nest site yet.

Phoebe is back! I love the song. I went for a walk in the forest with Cinnamon. You can see Cinn roaring by me at the end of the video.

   

The Flickers are so interesting. 

 The Northern Flicker has been working the ground for bugs and grubs.

 

Big rains predicted today. We'll see what happens.

Saturday's Critters # 593 visit Eileen's meme.

Sunny Days!

We did another Chorus Frog drive. This used to be a lovely water treatment, with a water fall. That takes work. I know, working on my goldfish pond.

It's a lovely drive in the sunshine.

We went to the quarry, where we listened for frogs. It's a long straight road! There are several sites along this road, with Chorus Frogs singing. 

We didn't hear any elsewhere, I just wanted to hear them once more. They only sing during their 2 - 3 weeks of mating season in April. Someone needs to pick up their garbage. 

I'd like to see a Chorus Frog. I don't think that will happen!

It is interesting that a Conservative, Scott Reid, has held our riding since 2000. I've seen precious few signs. Suddenly, with PP losing some momentum, the Conservative Party leader's signs have appeared in our riding. The leader isn't running in our riding. Those with the most elected MPs form the government. We don't elect our PM in ridings in Canada. We elect local people, like Reid or Liberal Michelle Foxton, in this riding.  It's like they panicked and put up whatever they had. 

The funny thing is that they are worried PP will lose his seat and his Carleton Riding . Our kids in Ottawa live in between Carleton and PM Carney's Riding. I'll be glad when it is over. Let's deal with this tariff crap and there are multiple families who have two adults who work in the auto industry. The impact on communities is profound, with more and more people being impacted. 

Crumbly Acres Crocus

The trailcam watching the dock has been fun. So far, a hawk, and some people and a cat doing Walkies.

Caitlin and Jean-Luc were doing a pond visit on the weekend!

Spring flowers! 

I cleaned the goldfish tank. I had a helper. He had a drink of water when he leapt up onto the tank top.

The birds are slowly migrating back here to Ontario. I've seen so many birds returning: Phoebe is quite noticeable. Lots are calling for mating season. 

I saw 6 hens and a Tom turkey in full mating mode. They strut and are so funny. This is an archive from 13 years ago! I was downstairs and spotted them.

 

Looking out of the bathroom window, I spotted two hermit thrush. This is an archive photo, since by the time I would have fetched the camera, they were gone.

Hermit Thrush

Earth Day on Crumbly Acres

 While Earth Day was Tuesday, I went out on Monday, April 21st, to do some ditch diving. I think there was only one face mask, unlike other years post-COVID. The cigarette packages, frequent flyers, with their gruesome messages and images on lung cancer were out there, this year there were several discarded vaping tools. Then, the cigarette butts have these message:

I went at it. After my first foray, I went back to my bench, grabbed my water bottle, and had a rest. 

As I sat getting my breath, I realized my daffodils were in bud, planted in Oct., 2023: Daffodils are in the ground!

As I sat there, the cowbird was singing his song up in the maple tree. It was lovely. I taped it on the Merlin App, but it didn't record well. You can listen to it on the All About Birds Cornell University site.

We've a pair of cow birds at the feeders. They are brood parasites, she'll lay her eggs in another bird's nest. We had that happen one year. Happily, the cow bird hatched before the Phoebe eggs, and all was well with the world.

May, 2023

Susie Snake made an appearance. It was a bit of a surprise. I talked to it. And carefully walked past it. I was in the bottom of the ditch. I was afraid it'd climb the ditch and go on the highway.

There were a lot of cans, plastics, and recyclables in the lot. Many bottle were tossed on the rocks at the side of the road and were broken. The alcohol containers can be taken to get a deposit back. Thing is truckers are known to limit stops by urinating into bottles. There were some with yellow liquid in them. I used gloves and threw them all into my garbage bag. 

Happily, no condoms or diapers this year. Just a remnant from when they replaced a Hydro pole. I moved it up on the rocks, but couldn't take it far. It is really heavy.

Just at the edge of our property, what iPhoto tells me is Liverwort. 

This is my haul. There was a deer killed, accident debris, and the lid of a garbage can. 

This is our haul from last year when our Ottawa kids helped me. We're on a roll!

They are very busy these days. I asked for help, then realized we should relax. Caitlin has a choir concert this weekend. Aster is preparing for several school band events, including graduation for her sibling in gr. 12. 

 Jordan is busy signing up for university and scholarships/bursaries. Word is, he's taking Astrophysics at Queens U. Grampa went to Queens! We offered to help with transportation next school year. Kingston is about an hour away, double that from Ottawa. That's fun. We like that city for day trips.

We're on a roll!  this was 2024

Let us see what today brings. We're having out snow tires taken off today. I hope we don't jinx it!

Easter visitors

We've been treated to some lovely weather. It was 22℃ on Friday. A lovely, warm day. The nights are still cold, though.

Our Ottawa kids visited for an Easter sleepover! Grampa brought home tulips for the table.

We baked the pie before they arrived.

Jean-Luc did ham (from our local butcher), broccoli and carrots, as well.

Jordan and Aster were asked to help move the snowblower to the shed. It didn't go well. Gramma had to shove it all the way there. They may be taller than I am, but I've still got the muscles. 💪

After that, we went for a forest walk.

I found 2 and Jordan found 3 Barred Owl pellets. I heard owl calling that morning.

There was Facetime with Jesse and his kids out in Vancouver! Cousin Bryony is 7 next week. We sent a wee parcel. 

Aster chose a movie. It was lovely.

Song of the Sea

We had a few things for them Easter morning. A drawing pad, pencils, Sharpie felt pens, a calendar with kittens and puppies!

A chocolate hamburger to share!

Before they left, Aster wanted to dissect the owl pellets from last week. They have dried out. We found this interesting skull. It might be a shrew skull! 

While Aster dissected, Caitlin and JL went for a walk. They spotted Labbit near the wood pile. I spotted her Monday morning when I put out garbage.

Look what they found! An oil beetle. It spits poison at predators.

The kids are going away for their 20th wedding anniversary later. The other gramma will be there the first week. I will be there the second week. Caitlin showed me their new (used) EV and gave me some pointers.

A great visit!