This is Lucky. Lucky is actually my cousins’ dog, but he has decided, by some mysterious process known only to dogs, that I am one of his chosen people. He regularly comes to visit me. If there is a thunderstorm and my cousins are not at home, he will show up at my door about the time I hear the first rumbles in the distance. I do not understand this process, or why he has decided that I am one of his own. But I am very glad he has done so.
Blue Grosbeak
I’ve had some unusual birds at the “Funny Farm” this spring – unusual not for this region, but unusual to me. In addition to the usual suspects – titmouses and sparrows, brown thrashers, cardinals, cowbirds, starlings and bluejays – there have also been some newcomers to my yard: indigo buntings, blue grosbeaks, goldfinches, purple finches, a redwing blackbird. There is a pair of doves who come outside my window and walk along, stately, every afternoon, picking at the spillings left by the other birds. It’s quite a nice distraction, and I’ve moved my desk up to accommodate my need to watch.
One of my tasks for today is to make up some nectar for the hummingbirds that have been visiting in search of food. (I think I know just where the hummingbird feeder was left… hmmmm….)
One evening I saw quite a lot of deer in the field to my north, and I see tracks between the house and the mailbox, but so far I haven’t seen the deer up close. That’s okay, though; it’s everyone’s busy season.
I hope all is well at your house, and that the joys of spring are upon you.
Phoebe Allen’s Webcam – A mama hummingbird sitting on a nest inside a rose bush. Located in Orange Co., CA – the chicks are due to hatch in another week or so. Sound and visual quality is superb – check it out
In our last thrilling episode, Laura was bewailing the ineptness of a certain cat at keeping live mouse prey CAUGHT. In this episode…
Laura: Simon, what’s that noise in the kitchen?
Simon: Mrowr?
Laura leans back on the sofa and looks into the kitchen, where one… TWO mice are gazing at her from the back burner of the stove.
Now, after our last episode, Laura went to the local feed store and bout a set of humane traps. So far they have been patently ignored… she re-positions the traps in closer proximity to the stove.
One mouse is caught the next afternoon – not one of the two adult-sized mice from the evening before (these mice, I have a feeling, are akin to Douglass Adams’ description of mice in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:
Mice are the physical protrusions into our dimension of a race of hyperintelligent pan-dimensional beings who commissioned the construction of the Earth in order to find the Question to the Ultimate Answer of Life, the Universe, and Everything. As such, they are the most intelligent life forms on that planet.
So – I have a young juvenile mouse in a humane trap, and the plan is to take said Mouse with me the next morning when I leave for work, and to drop him/her/it off at the creek about a mile from my house – the OTHER side of the creek, to be as precise as possible, since everyone who has ever encountered a Mouse knows that said Mouse will go to great lengths and distances in order to return to its favorite B&B when transported Out. On the other side of the creek there is water to cross in order to come “home” – cold water, this time of year. And there are a variety of other houses and barns to (hopefully) distract the Mouse and keep it occupied until Nature, in the form of snakes or my cousins’ cats, takes its Course.
But as I was pulling the car over to the shoulder of the road, the humane trap lid jiggled open, and Mouse JUMPED OUT of the trap and onto my coat, and then to my feet, and, by the time I was able to stop the car and get out to try to catch it…. out of sight.
I cannot win for losing, sometimes.
I did stop by a DRUG STORE and purchase a new, larger, and heavier humane trap. We’ll see how well IT works once the mice become complacent to its presence in the kitchen. It’s baited with peanut butter and Cadbury chocolate square. For Cadbury Chocolate, I’d climb into the trap, myself (but I have the rest of the bar to console me, so there’s no need for such measures).
to be continued… sigh.
Angela Messenger has mices problems, too… But I bet her problem didn’t START with her cat!
This is So FUNNY!!!
Simon brought two “gifts” this a.m. –
One was a bird, already dead. The other was – is – this little fellow, still very much alive
UPDATE: I held on to Wittle Bunny Wabbit for about half an hour (I guess the photo isn’t that good, but I couldn’t loosen my hold on him or he’d have jumped straight into Simon’s cluthces again!). Last time Simon brought me a live “love offering,” it died pretty fast from its injuries. This time I – and Baby Bunny – were lucky. After Simon got tired of waiting for me to GIVE IT BACK! he went out on the deck. I carried Bun out to some wild grape vines in the back yard and released him. He took off leaping like a champ!
I asked St Francis to keep him out of harm’s way.
Laura Lowder - One Woman's Thoughts 