Hello Mr. Skunk

It is 2:41 A.M. and I have having a stare down with Mr. Skunk.  He is outside the sliding glass door looking at me.  He keeps nudging the glass. Maybe he is not happy with the change in temperature.

 

Whatever is in the Attic...You are Going to DIE!!!

Very restless night last night as there were creatures having a party in my attic over my bed!

Scurrying, jumping, and what sounded like digging.  At one point I became paranoid and thought they might be able to dig a hole through the ceiling and land in my bed. 

Some type of poison will be going into the attic tonight.  Yes, I know it is cold outside, and yes, I love my backyard creatures, but I have a very nice barn that they could all live in comfortably without disturbing me.  I never even go up to the barn so I wouldn't care what they did up there.  Moving into my house with me means WAR!

Creatures, I am telling you now ... prepare to DIE!

Skunks

It has been a night of skunks. 

John worked on the west side of the house until after dark.  As he was going to his truck a skunk ran in front of him out to under the greenhouse.  (Not to be confused with the green building.)

As the youngest was leaving tonight he came back in and said that he was not going to leave after dark again because there was a skunk in the garden as he was trying to carry his clean clothes out to the car.  

John wants to start shooting them.  Since I haven't shot a gun since before boys were born, I don't think I will be trying to eliminate them in that fashion.

However, I am going to have to come up with some plan.  

Running Out of Bricks

There have been several new "skunk holes" around the foundation.  I keep filling them with bricks.  Unfortunately, I am running out of bricks. 

John starts working here again on Friday.  I think I will ask him to bring back the trap. 

Crazy Doves

I cannot figure out what is up with the doves in my backyard. 

For the last 2-3 weeks they have been lining up on the telephone line and then taking turns flying in at my window and then sliding glass door.  One by one they swoop down at the window, get as close as they can, then veer off to the left and see how close they can get to the sliding glass door and then go back to their place on the telephone line.  Usually one of them ends up hitting either the window or the door. One day 10 doves were lined up and 3 hit the window. 

It is like they are playing a game of "chicken" or something.  It is the weirdest thing.  

Yesterday, I had the youngest out putting up a new bird feeder when all of the sudden two doves rushed out of the tree.  At first I thought they were going to attack him, but no, they headed right towards the glass door.  The one in front hit the door really hard.  It went backwards after the hit and then after dropping quite a few feathers it started flying until it landed on one of my shepherd's hooks, where the second dove attacked it.  It all happened in a matter of seconds, but was fascinating to watch.  There were a lot of feathers left under the shepherd's hook, but both doves seemed to be okay when they flew off towards the field.  

Maybe all the heat this summer has left the doves rattled but whatever is causing them to play these games, I wish they would learn to wash the windows.

Happy Easter Mr. Hawk

I was talking to Mina on the phone today around 11:00 A.M. and as usual as I was looking out my sliding door into the back yard.  As Mina and I were talking, a hawk came swooping down within a foot of the sliding door, looked in at me and then flew up into my catalpa tree. 

Happy Easter to you too Mr. Hawk.  :)

Not a Bad Day

Since my work place will not accept the restrictions placed by my doctor, I am still at home recovering. 

Today was not a bad day.

I had bunnies, squirrels, lots of birds, including a woodpecker on the porch swing feeder, and a coyote in my backyard entertaining me as I sat and worked on paying bills, and pinning quilt pieces.  (Loni, I am two pieces short.)

Mina and Loni are traveling this week so I will be watching the Wednesday night shows by myself, including Survivor.  Definitely won't be as much fun as it when the gang is here, but at least I won't be bored.  

In fact the only bad thing so far about the day is John just called to say he was coming over to work on the oldest's bathroom, which means I need to go put on a bra and a real outfit in order to be decent.  

So Glad We Prepared

The youngest and I prepared all the feeders for winter weather Sunday.  I am so glad we did.  I am enjoying all the creatures feasting.  The wind has been so fierce that one of the feeders lost a lot of seed while blowing in the wind, much to the delight of these little birds.

Cold Winter Day at My House

Birds, Birds and More Birds, plus a Squirrel or Two

My backyard has been so full of birds lately I find myself sitting in the chair for an hour or more in the mornings watching them. 

The biggest population of late has been Blue Jays.  They fill the oak tree off the patio and squawk at everything.  They really don't like the squirrel. 

I have two squirrel feeders on the ground. For the last few mornings the Blue Jays have taken a dislike to the squirrel feeding at one of his feeders.  Now the second feeder is full of food and totally open for the taking, but they want Mr. Squirrel out of the other feeder.  One Blue Jay will swoop down and fly at the squirrel and he will shake them off to keep eating. Then the Blue Jay will sit next to him on the ground and make a lot of noise, which he ignores.  That Blue Jay will give up and go back into the tree and send another one down. 

I like that Mr. Squirrel stands his ground.  He knows that feeder is his and he is not going to take any lip off a bird just because it is rather large and loud.  We all could take lessons from Mr. Squirrel.

Mr. Woodpecker has been visiting in the mornings too.  I like looking out and seeing him. 

If Mr. Skunk is around, he hasn't made his presence known lately. 

I love my backyard.

Mr. Squirrel

I have a lot of different types of oak trees in my yard, and there seems to be a bumper crop of acorns falling to the ground this year.  Mr. Squirrel is quite happy with all the acorns. 

I have been watching Mr. Squirrel hide acorns the last few days.  I can't figure out how he decides where to hide them.  He put several around the fence and the porch edges, and that seems reasonable to me.  Landmarks.  Today he is out in the back field just hiding them willy nilly.  How will he find them again?  There are no landmarks out there.  It is just a big open field.  

He sure is cute when he is digging.  I like how he looks around to see if anyone is watching him.  Another squirrel came around and he chased him off.  

Mr. Squirrel has also been getting a lot of drinks out of the fountain lately.  He is so cute when he jumps up there and lays down to stick his face in the water. 

I love squirrels. 

A New Bird in my Fountain, and More

BFF and I saw a different bird yesterday.  It came up on the patio to get a drink from the fountain.  We did not know what it was so the bird book had to come off the shelf.  We finally figured out it was a Starling. 

I am so excited to have a new bird in my wild area, even if it is an agressive bird.

Hummers are out in full force this morning.  

I also woke up to find 18 dove in my feeders, and more on the ground.  They always seem to know when dove season is upon us and start hiding out here.  Some days you can't even see the power lines there are so many dove up there.  They go through a lot of feed during that time.  Some of the juveniles were playing the fountain yesterday and having the best time, until the starling arrived.

Just  now a little house finch decided to sit on the pole where the hummingbird feeders are located.  The hummers let him know he needed to go back to his own area and leave theirs alone.

It is really hard to get anything done with all  this fun activity. I never want to leave the living room, especially now that it is starting to look normal again. However, I have a lot to do today to get ready for the new phase of remodeling.  Oldest is coming to help, thank goodness.  I have no idea where I am going to put everything for the next couple of weeks.  Yes, I said couple of weeks.  My "Eldin" mentioned something about weeks Friday.  I didn't know we had that much left to do, but evidently I was wrong. Good thing he is so fun to have around. He reminds me of my dad because he is really quite the gentlemen when it comes to how he behaves. The best part is he goes home to his wife at night.

Hummingbirds in My Backyard

Bird Watering Station

I hate how yucky bird baths get here in Texas in just a day. I fill them up in the morning and before I get home from work they have dried up, are crusty, and full of yuck.

Today I ordered a Bird Watering Station that gets great reviews and I hope will solve my problem.

With the heat we have been having my backyard feathered friends need fresh water daily.

Wish I Could Undersrtand "Hummingbird"

I have had the best morning watching the birds and rabbits in my back yard.  The hummingbirds have been particularly entertaining this morning.

One hummingbird in particular has  been cracking me up.  He is very aggressive and does not want any other hummer or bird around while he is feeding.

He was sucking up nectar in his feeder ,which  is about ten feet away from the bird feeders ,when a couple of purple finches came down to feed.  The hummer immediately flew over to the finches, hovered about a foot away from them and obviously had a "conversation."  Within seconds the finches left and the hummer went back to feeding.  The finches did not come back until he left.  What do you think he said to them?

Afternoon View from my Chair

This afternoon's view from my chair includes 2 doves sitting on the line, a red headed woodpecker eating out of the red feeder, a blue jay sitting on one of the shepherd's hook, and a rabbit drinking out of the swimming pool, all at the same time. I love looking out my window.