We started leaving food out for Junk Pile Kitten and his mom beside the junk pile, since the other cats crowd around the food bowls by the house, and sometimes chase them away.
Then the other cats discovered we leave food there.
In fact, it’s now become routine for the other kittens to follow me as I put food out, ignoring the food by the house and eating the food being left at the junk pile.
I’ve taken to leaving little piles of food on the ground beside the bowl, and even on the log I’ve set up as a seat. I started doing the same thing by the pump shack, too, since not only have some of the kittens started following me there, so do Butterscotch and Beep Beep!
While in town during my daughter’s short shift, my older daughter at home was startled by something fairly large hitting an upstairs window.
Of course she checked it out, and this is what she found.
One very stunned Northern Flicker!
She gently prodded it to see if it was okay, and got squawked at.
It seemed to be uninjured, at least.
What a beautiful bird!
When her sister and I got home, she was outside and the three of us ended up staying outside to play with the kittens, who were running all over.
Then one of the kittens pounced on something.
It was the Norther Flicker, now in the grass!
My daughter got it away from the kitten, but then the others came running.
The poor bird wasn’t going to have a chance!
Between the three of us, we managed to hold back the kittens and pick up the bird, who did NOT want to be picked up. It got away a couple of times, only to have the kittens go nuts trying to get at it. Finally, my daughter got a grip on it and tried to move it away while I dashed to the house to get a box.
We never got to use it.
The Northern Flicker got loose again, and kept hopping its way through the grass, out the yard and finally into the pile of branches by the garage.
Unfortunately, that made it more vulnerable to kittens, with no way for us to protect it. It couldn’t even be seen anymore. The kittens, however, saw it go into the branches and were making a run for it!
So, out came the cat treats, and they were all lured into the sun room to be closed up early for the night.
Hopefully, the bird will recover and fly away soon.
While switching out the empty hanging bird feeder for a full one, I noticed Junk Yard kitten was out.
So I sat down on the log I placed near the junk pile as a seat, and tried to lure him in.
There was a cat toy I’d found while cleaning out the old wood pile; one of the ones we’d left for the kittens that were living in there for a while, last year. Between it and the tree branch I wiggled around, I was able to get him to come within 3 ft of me and play!
He (she?) is such a beautiful cat! Those dark framed, golden eyes are just amazing!
I went outside late last night, and ended up staying out longer to enjoy the incredible view!
Even with the yard light on (we can’t turn it off since the power company replaced the original), the stars were bright enough that I could see the Milky Way!
Then I went out again later, with my daughters, to ogle the sky.
My husband gave me his new phone not long ago, to replace mine with the cracked corner, and I had yet to try night shots with it. I put it on manual and basically guessed at the settings I was changing – I could barely see the numbers, never mind read them. After fiddling with the settings, I would lay the phone down on the ground, then use voice commands to take a picture.
Then I’d fuss with the settings a bit more, set it on the ground and try again. Eventually, I figured out how to do a long exposure shot – and recognize the sounds the phone made, so I wouldn’t accidentally pick it up again, before the exposure was complete. :-D
This is one of the results.
The only thing I’ve done to this image is resize it.
I’m really amazed at the shots I was able to get with just a cell phone!!!
The Re-Farmer 