Tag Archives: wildlife

Pretty Bird

For the second time recently I’ve heard a loud bang in the kitchen and ran outside and found a conked out bird on the deck.

If I wrote about it last time I can’t find it.

I ran out there and carefully picked it up in a t-shirt while assuring it that I would take care of it until it could fly away. I put it in a little box and left it outside.

The issue is we have two cats that hang out in the yard and target the bird feeders. One of them I can chase off. The other doesn’t care what I do except when I run the sprinkler.

I have found feathers out there more than once.

The hurry was to keep the stunned bird away from the cats until it regained its wits. Last time it took about 45 minutes and it was a sparrow.

This time it took only about 20. Look how pretty it is.

The first time I checked on it a bunch of times and it took awhile to fly away. This one zoomed away the first time I checked.

I wonder how many times this has happened and I didn’t know about it? I’m going to get some stickers or whatever you’re supposed to do for the window to save future birds.

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Today’s Lesson is About Bunnies

Once I started seeing it, I couldn’t stop seeing it.

There are little bunny turds all over my front and backyard. 😂

I still don’t mind the bunnies. They are so cute. Everyone I talk to in the neighborhood comments on all the bunnies. And then I talked to someone in Portland who mentioned all the bunnies. Then someone in Seattle. Then an author I follow who is in rural Washington.

Is this a big year for bunnies?

I asked my search engine. This is the quick version.

According to WA Fish and Wildlife there are a bunch of species (rabbits and hares) native to WA plus 2 species introduced. Also there a number of articles about people letting their pet rabbits go in the wild. Why would anyone do this?

(There’s a neighborhood east of us that is known for its feral rabbit population. This is an older article about it.)

The most common neighborhood bunny is the Eastern Cottontail (even their name is adorable!) They were brought to WA a long time ago as a game species and they adapt well to urban living.

It is normal for them to have boom population years.

It’s funny how often I will pull clips from my camera card and there will be an animal in the front: raccoon, opossum, skunk. And the bunny will be in the background.

Here is an 8 page PDF from WA Fish & Wildlife if you want to increase you bunny knowledge.

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Cool Sightings In and Around the Garden

This is a public domain image.

From where I sit at my home desk I can look out the window and see the top of a very tall tree of my neighbor’s. I should probably go figure out what it is but I’m going to say it’s a Doug Fir and guess it’s about as tall as a 4 story building.

This morning I looked out just in time to see a bald eagle land in the top of the tree! I ran outside and watched it. Mostly it just perched there looking all around. It made shrieking sounds a couple of times.

I did not take a picture because my camera wasn’t made for that and it just looked like a far off brown bird in a tree. I watched for a long time but finally went in because I had things to do and I missed when it took off. It was a very exciting way to start the day.

Check out the different sizes of my blueberries. I have an early season, mid season, and a late season. The mid season is the small one and the late season is the big one. The late season isn’t especially prolific but it’s always exciting to pick them because they are so giant.

A thing that happened this morning that wasn’t exciting was when I unloaded the camera card from my trail cam and dropped it through the crack between the deck boards. No way of getting that back. I have lots of cards and also lots of clips of raccoons drinking water so it’s not a tragedy but still annoying.

I don’t think I’ve posted any clips since I got the new cam up so I will do one for later this week.

Seen while waiting for bus. Reaction was to gag. Other thoughts? The food industry’s ideas for getting more sugar into people have no end.

I have seen quite a few praying mantises (praying manti?) in my yard lately. Aren’t they good luck or something like that? The one’s I’ve seen were very small. One was white-ish — so maybe a baby? I’m to lazy to do praying mantis research right now. I am happy to have them.

I also have a lot of dragonflies. Aren’t those good luck, too? I like them. Also this morning while I was watching the eagle, a hummingbird perched behind me on one of the above ground wires. It was great.

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Bunny March

This is my sea of daffodils when I look out into the backyard. Love this time of year — this view always makes me happy.

March has been hectic and I can’t seem to get back on top of things. I had my taxes 90% done for about 3 weeks. I finally sat down and finished those.

I have lots of clips — hopefully I will get around to posting them.

This is a red flowering currant that is a native plant that is supposed to be good for pollinators and hummingbirds. Last year it did not have a single flower and I was disappointed and figured I planted it in the wrong spot or something.

No — it is doing amazing and so pretty.

Here’s the bunny. Last week I went to do a lap around the yard to see how things looked and he hopped out of the daffodils and hung out in the yard with me.

The next time I went to work in the yard he was out in the garden nibbling on the clover that I planted as a cover-crop. I didn’t want to bother him. hehe.

I don’t understand how cover crops work. No matter what I do, it seems like I don’t get much cover. I already turned a lot of the clover under and planted something else but he was eating this little bit.

I know it is ridiculous to encourage the bunny to find food in my garden but I’m going to leave that little corner of clover for him. I’m also going to scope it out and make sure there aren’t any baby bunnies out there before the lawn mower takes a lap.

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Last Week’s News

I intended to post the obligatory snow photos while there was still snow on the ground but I had the other post scheduled and didn’t get organized in time.

It wasn’t much but more than I expected. We didn’t need to go anywhere and were able to enjoy it from the windows. We woke up on Day 4 and it was completely gone. The rain washed it away overnight.

This is from the deck.

There were lots of other fun animal prints to try to figure out. I had left prints going to the bird feeder and it looked like something had stepped in my footprints. I never got out there to study them.

There were also lots of bird prints.

Remember when we exposed the hardwood floor in our bedroom? I am amazed by how quickly the dust bunnies accumulate. Did the carpet hide the dust blobs? It seems like every time I drop a sock and get a glimpse under the bed, there are giant fluffy wads. I vacuum under there every weekend.

I am guessing it’s the flannel sheets since I don’t have issues with dust wads in other rooms. I wonder how long it takes flannel sheets to completely disintegrate into fuzz?

Does anyone remember there were always rumors the J.D. Salinger was still writing but throwing the writing in a vault? I can’t remember the exact story — maybe he was disenchanted with publishing so he wrote for himself but told his heirs they could do what they wanted when he was gone? I might have made some-to-all of that up but whatever happened to that? Was there a vault filled with manuscripts? Are there no manuscripts?

It seems like the story is that something is coming out. But is that real?

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Who’s Been Brawling?

In January, on the weekdays, it’s dark when I leave the house and dark when I get home so I don’t see what’s happening in the yard until the weekend.

I looked out there and saw white fluff in the garden.

I figured it was a poor little deconstructed bird although I was surprised by how white the detritus was. I figured little birds probably had white fluff.

When I finally inspected it, I realized it was fur. It must be opossum.

I didn’t see any other signs of injured opossum so either it was (a) a light brawl, (b) the injured party scuttled off to some other yard, or (c) they were out there making baby possums.

There are two that show up on the trail cam and I will try to post. One has more brown on its fur and the other is smaller and more white. I saw the brown one the other night around 6pm when the motion-light went off.

I don’t know what it was doing but it was wiggling around at the spot where it exits from underneath the shed and I was afraid it was stuck. Obviously I didn’t want to leave it there but also, I wasn’t sure how to help it without risking a bite.

It toddled along eventually.

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A Little Ice Bucket

This is the ice I tipped out of the bucket. It lasted for a long time but it’s gone now.

I missed last week! I kept thinking I could get to it on a weeknight but also I try to stay off the computer when I get home from work.

It seems like just about the time I get started I get interrupted for dinner or else my brain can’t do anymore computer things.

Also I got a new computer which I am still in the process of setting up and adjusting to my ways of working.

I did not update my operating system for years and was still using Catalina (10.15) which was from 2019. My new machine uses OS 15 and has changed a lot. I’m fine with change but every single thing I do requires at least three extra steps and after while I want to jump out the window.

I haven’t had time to dig in and learn the new OS. I’ve said this before but I hope I live long enough for all the tech-bro people to get older and realize how hard it is to completely relearn something every year.

Obviously my Photoshop was outdated, too, and now I have the most up-to-date version of that.

Every app and plug-in is begging me to use AI when I don’t want to. I can compose an email thank you very much. But when I want AI to help me with photoshop it’s still the 1972 version of help. I was kinda pulling my hair out just getting these photos up and cropped.

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A Leopard Cannot Change Its Spots

This one is a little bit hard to see but the raccoon was hilariously playing with the hose. I was a little worried about the hose when I saw the clip but I did a close inspection and it was fine. It’s a pretty nice hose so either it was built to withstand raccoon teeth or the raccoon wasn’t trying to destroy it.

I had the feeders down over the summer but put them back up in the fall. It’s especially active out there now. More than once I have seen a cat wander through. I think they like to troll the birds. Sometimes they sit under the feeder and relax like little jerks.

The other morning I was sipping my hot chocolate and went to look out over the activity but instead of birds, there was Noah the cat, sitting under the feeder. A little bird stopped to checkout the fly-through feeder and 1-2 pounce! And my little guest was caught. Noah took his prey and scooted back over the fence to his house.

I was very sad. I never saw the cats actually going after the birds so this feather-shed was upsetting. But also: nature, baby.

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Sunflower Hearts

I just put the bird feeders back up.

I had them down for the summer because it seemed like it was attracting the deer and too many animals.

It’s been fun having them back and all the chaos and flying around. One of the feeds I use has peanuts and the bluejays are very possessive about the peanuts.

I filled one of the feeders most of the way with sunflower hearts and I was amazed by how fast it was getting emptied.

I went out there and saw most of the seeds on the ground. Meanwhile, the bluejay is smart enough to know the lady brings the peanuts so he stood by.

“No more peanuts until you eat the sunflower seeds,” I told the air. I wasn’t scolding the bluejay directly.

I looked it up and I guess it’s a normal bird behavior and today when I was out there the ground was mostly cleaned up. Birds and squirrels and who knows what else ate the sunflower seeds.

All the feeders were refilled.

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Raccoon World!

I knew there had been activity out there because the water in the bucket was dirty and the pollinator water dish was nothing but dirt.

Look how many have been out there. I think this is a mom and her almost grown babies. I’m not an expert in raccoons so don’t quote me. They are cute but so destructive. All my pumpkins have been chewed on.

They even tried to steal the camera. I guess they don’t like being spied on. I need one of those signs to warn them they are on camera.

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