I see you in there!
blue jay
Whatcha doin’ in there?
This jay seemed curious about what I was doing behind the camera.
He kept tilting his head back and forth as I took photos, looking at me, like he was trying to figure me out. :-D
The Re-Farmer
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Thanks for the seeds
This blue jay seems to be enjoying his snack. :-)
I think they have made the connection between us humans and food magically appearing on the feeder. They used to fly off when we came near to top it up, and not come back for hours. Now they come back right away.
The Re-Farmer
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I see you in there
Since we set up the bird feeder, instead of leaving seed on the ground, the blue jays have been harder to get photos of. They see me moving to the camera on its tripod and fly off.
It seems they are starting to get used to seeing us in the window now. Or, at least one is.
He’s watching me.
I love the little head tilt!
The Re-Farmer
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Blue Jay Watching
Lately, they fly away as soon as I get near the camera. This time, it hung around to watch me take its picture. :-)
The Re-Farmer
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A bit blustery out there!
First up, here are a couple of bird photos for you to enjoy. :-)
My husband got this purple finch at the feeder not long ago.
And I finally got a blue jay picture!
The blue jays have a habit of taking off before I can get to the camera, so these days, it’s a challenge to get any pictures of them at all.
This was another indoor day, for the most part. There were plenty of storm warnings for the southern province which, for us, translated to rain early in the morning, and now high winds. I had to go into town to pick up some prescription refills, and made a point of checking the yard out before I left. There were a few downs branches that were of little concern. In the areas of the maple grove I haven’t cleaned yet, I found myself looking at some branches and wondering, is that new? Or what that already there?
About the only good thing right now is the wind direction. If one of the trees by the house does come down, it’ll be fall away from the roof, instead of on it. Though, looking out my window at the trees behind the storage house, it’s the opposite. At least that building is empty and has no power.
Speaking of which…
The second tree care company came by on Monday, and I got the estimate emailed to me last night. It’s basically the same as the first company; $1500. Looking over our budget (barring any unexpected expenses), we should be able to get it done in November. Choosing the company is going to be a bit more difficult; they’re pretty equal in every tangible sense. One also does yard work and landscaping, which I would want to keep in mind for the future. The other does trees and nothing else.
So we have some talking to do and a decision to make. I’m just glad it’s something we can get done before winter, instead of waiting until spring. Though if we get some sort of cash infusion (like the shares the housing co-op we moved away from still owes us!), it would be good to get it done earlier.
The Re-Farmer
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Father’s Day is for the birds!
A Happy Father’s Day to all the wonderful dads out there! Especially to my wonderful husband. Thank you for all you do for us. <3
My husband has front row views of the bird feeders out our living room window, and has been getting some photos, as well. He got a bunch from yesterday.
The feeders had masses of goldfinches on them for the past while, with the occasional nuthatch popping by. Yesterday, they were outnumbered by another bird. I’d thought they were some of the ones we’ve been seeing for a while, until I could see the yellow in their wings.
From what I’ve been able to find, they are pine siskins – and they sure love the platform feeder!
This morning, the crowd of them was back. Just as I was getting up to take some photos, they got chased away by this guy…
Finally, I was able to get a good photo of a blue jay! For the past while, I’ve found myself wondering if they can somehow feel the camera’s sensor, because as soon as I try to focus on them, they fly off. :-D
I am thinking of looking over the area in front of the living room window to see if there is level ground closer to the house I can move the feeder to, so we can see them better without having to zoom in so much with the camera. :-)
The Re-Farmer
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Another Stunner
It was a rather cold day today, but peaceful. At least for us. From what I’ve heard, two more homes were lost in yesterday’s fire to the North of us. At this point, I know nothing more. The province’s website that is supposed to have an up-to-date interactive map of current fires has not been much help. It didn’t have either of the local fires on there at all. I’ve seen others comment on the site’s lack of updating, as they’ve had to turn to social media to keep on top of the fire situation.
We never got the predicted showers, but at least with the reduced wind and colder temperatures, the fire risk has dropped a bit.
It was another day of the birds, outside. I think it might be a while before the deer start coming back.
Oh, my. As I was inserting the above photos, I heard another thump at the dining room window. I went outside and found a little junco on the ground. My younger daughter came out to hold on to it, to keep it safe from the cats, until it was ready to fly away on its own. I’m hearing her come back inside right now, so it must be gone.
This is the second junco we’ve tended to after it hit the dining room window, just today. The earlier one took quite a bit longer to recover.
Here is the female, dark eyed junco from earlier today, in my daughter’s hands. It was very calm about being held, too.
It started to stand itself up and look around after a minute or so. Note its bent under foot. The other foot was like that, too. No damage, it turned out. It seems that it just wasn’t aware of it, quite yet.
When it finally did start to flutter away, it just moved over to my daughter’s arm. And immediately pooped on her! :-D
It seemed fully aware at this point, looking around and watching us closely, but content to stay on her arm for several minutes more.
After a while, it flew off to the bench seat on the platform to our old clothes line. There was a cat about, though, so I came over to encourage it away. It moved to this bush and stayed there for another minute or so before finally flying away, none the worse for the experience.
While it’s unfortunate so many birds are hitting our window hard enough to stun themselves, it is so amazing to be able to hold them and watch over them until they can fly away on their own. They seem to like the warmth of our hands as they recover, too.
Pretty awesome!
The Re-Farmer
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A Day for the Birds
With the fires in the area, it’s no surprise that we aren’t seeing any deer, at all. It has, however, been a day full of birds outside our window.
Mr. Blue Jay allowed me to take his photograph today, though they certainly did make me work for a good shot!
In amongst the masses of bark eyed juncos, this bird went off into the flower garden and started digging like mad into the dried leaves.
I’ve had two strong suggestions as to what this bird is. Either a fox sparrow, or a type of thrush. I spent some time looking and comparing photos online to ones I’d taken myself.
Bird identification sites often have really unhelpful photos, I’ve come to notice.
Ultimately, it was the markings on the head that made the ID for me. These are fox sparrows, of the “red” variety.
Speaking of red.
I had taken so many pictures of these red birds before the snow fell, but it never occurred to me to try and identify them. I think I may have just lumped them in as another type of bird in my mind. While looking up local bird species online, however, I found photos of these guys, and it turns out they are purple finches. In the above photo, you see both the bright red males, and the less showy females.
As I was zooming in to get photos of what I though might have been the thrush/fox sparrow I wanted to identify, the bird turned and I realized I was looking at a new visitor!
This is a male white throated sparrow. Love that distinctive patterning on the head. It made it much easier to identify it, though it wasn’t any easier to find online. My bird book doesn’t have it at all, though it does have several other types of sparrows.
Just look at the face! :-D
Looks like some females were in the crowd, too.
Weather willing, I will soon be raking near this area, to get some of the leaves out of the flower bed and clean up dead branches. We are finally starting to see some green forcing its way through the dead leaves. Not too much longer, and we’ll be able to start trying to identify the plants around here, as well as the birds! :-)
The Re-Farmer
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Blue for You
Alas, no pictures of deer today. I did see one cautiously making its way towards the house, just a few minutes ago, but it saw me move in the window and dashed right off.
Sadness.
I did, however, manage to get a photo of a blue jay today. For the past few weeks, even if I’ve been at the window, watching them for a while, the moment I get behind the camera, they all fly off!
This morning, I managed to get just one decent picture, through the sun reflected on the window.
I love how they collect so many seeds in their beaks like that, before flying off.
It was a fairly quite day today. We’re still in recovery mode and pretty low on energy. My younger daughter and I made a run to the dump with our garbage and recycling, before heading to town to find a new handle for our garage door. In the process, I remembered to pick up some chain and a carabiner to replace the heavy duty wire that’s been used to hold our main gate steady. It has a sliding bar across the top to close it. I’m not sure why it also needed the wire to hold it closed, and one of these days, I’ll remember to ask a sibling about it. :-D The chain and carabiner will be much easier to handle than twisting and untwisting the wire every time. It’ll look better, too! Plus, we’ll have the ability to add a lock as well, if we ever need to. Sadly, there have always been people who seek out solitary farms as targets for theft and vandalism. At best, the RCMP are at least half an hour away, and that assumes they can even find any individual farm. My oldest brother and I are already talking about adding a security camera on the garage, which would catch anyone coming in or out of the driveway, and another on the house itself.
Such is life, even in the sticks!
My daughter and I went to two different hardware stores, looking for a garage door handle. Both stores had only one option available! They were even the same brand and style. On the plus side, the second place we went to had a much, much better price.
On the down side, while driving to town, I went into a coughing fit so bad, I had to pull over and get her to drive the rest of the way.
It’s so nice having another driver available!
This cold has really done a number on my chronic cough. :-(
We had some other things happen that were polar opposites. Such as my husband’s disability payment coming in early (they do that every now and then!) on the plus side, then getting a call from the tax preparer and finding out he’s now owing $3000 instead of the $1300 that came up when we tried using Turbotax at home. I don’t understand how he can owe anything. He’s supposed to be paid back taxes, retroactively, from two years ago! And here we thought getting our taxes professionally done would mean it would be better, not worse. On top of that, it’s going to cost us almost $70 in fees.
*sigh*
This has happened every time we’ve moved back to this province, no matter how late in the year we’ve returned. We would be expecting a return, only to end up owing thousands. This time, though, I am sure that has to be some kind of mistake.
Living here was supposed to save us money. Instead, it’s been unexpected expenses, one right after the other!
Ah, well. We’ll figure it out in good time.
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 