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I hand feed about 7 of the 12 or so Chipmunks in my yard, hand feed a bunch of Squirrels, feed a ton of birds of all types, feed a few stray cats and too many Raccoons. I really enjoy having Blue Jays sit on my gutter while I'm at the kitchen sink just a few feet away looking at me, and I'll toss a peanut where it's expertly caught mid-flight. I also trained one Jay to "talk"... I'll toss a peanut and say "Here ya go", and it will 'say' "here go". They will follow me around the home if they see me in different windows. They are incredible to observe and learn from.
I also have gained the trust of two pairs of Cardinals who will sit on my fence and wait for me to toss them peanuts, and I can also open the window in my kitchen fully and have chirping sparrows sit a couple feet away and feed without concern, and ditto for doves - They will sit on the sill a cats swipe away feeding, as I talk to them. It is utterly amazing. I will also say how very intelligent Chipmunks are, after you gain their trust and they are relaxed... They figure out things shockingly quick, and are a joy to observe. I have named most of them, can identify them all and each has a very distinct personality. I also feed my local crows, and they will follow me around as I take my daily walk, calling out to have peanuts and meat scraps tossed their way. They instantly know me and have an intellect that is scary smart.
I am so lucky many of my visitors treat me almost like one of their own - Unafraid, trusting and inclusive. One of my favorite occurrences is when birds and others will swing by with their fledglings/kits, and I can experience such joy that they allow me into their world... Hey, let's eat all of the food set out for the cats, then splash around in the bird bath
I put it back up, but put a screw in the flap where it would not come apart. I put my game camera out and it showed four racoons two times last night. One even climbed up the bird bath to drink some water. They did not try to climb up the pole, but the bird feeder was empty again. I will put a small amount of seed in the feeder until I figure out what is getting the seed. It does keep the squirrels out.
We had a Monarch butterfly who had just eclosed in our yard. It was sitting for a long time on a toad lily, but eventually flew away when its wings dried. They sure can fly fast! I later found the chrysalis attached to a flower pot. We also had another Monarch caterpillar that has disappeared and I'll be darned if I can find where it attached. It's been about 7 days, so I hope to see another beautiful Monarch soon! So glad I have some milkweed for them to eat.
The goldfinches are tearing up my sunflowers, eating the fresh seeds before they dry out. They are so cute, sitting on the flowers and ripping the petals off so they can get to the seeds more easily.
I also had a close encounter with a Gray Tree Frog. The little cutie was hanging out under the lip of my recycling bin on a hot day. I disturbed him when I dragged the bin to the curb for trash day. He crawled out and stared at me. He was a light all-over gray color. (They can be colors other than gray.) I hear those frogs all summer long, but that is the first time I was ever close to one.
We have a lot of praying mantises and grasshoppers in the yard right now. And some very cute tiny baby toads.
Location: Was Midvalley Oregon; Now Eastside Seattle area
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A squadron of SuperHornets flying low and slow over Redmond . I think they are buzzing about to to determine which lake/body-of-water they supposed to flyover. They gotta keep out and under the big birds flight path into SeaTac.
I put it back up, but put a screw in the flap where it would not come apart. I put my game camera out and it showed four racoons two times last night. One even climbed up the bird bath to drink some water. They did not try to climb up the pole, but the bird feeder was empty again. I will put a small amount of seed in the feeder until I figure out what is getting the seed. It does keep the squirrels out.
The racoons got the feeder again plus they got through the gate to my wife's garden. I started putting the feeders in my shed at nighttime. My neighbor had to do this also. They were coming up her steps to her deck to get to her feeders.
I think one raided my blue bird house also. Part of the nest was hanging out of the hole. It is on a 2" steel pipe. I cleaned the nest out and put a piece of pvc pipe around the steel pipe. This was a week ago and I have not seen any blue birds at it since. Will they come back?
We love feeding the birds and live above a wildlife preserve so get a lot of interesting visitors. A new problem has arisen. We lost the last of our old, bird friendly cats and replaced them with two new rescue kittens last fall and the one kitten has her lineage's strong barncat survival genes.
She has a less than healthy (for them) interest in the young birds. It requires a lot of watching and teaching. And, of course, like any cat, if I can't be there to be a discouraging influence she'll go ahead and follow her instincts. We'll get there. It will just take time.
We planted a new Miss Kim lilac tree last year and it looked like the perfect spot to a couple of robins to build a nest. Unfortunately it was nearly within jumping distance from the ground. So I've been keeping an eye on their progress and so has little Miss Kitty.
It was uncanny how she knew when they were ready to leave. The nest was near bursting and she begin to lay under the tree in the afternoon. So I was a wreck right along with Ma and Pa Robin.
I told DH we needed to try to keep the kitties in for a couple of days. Wasn't sure how much cooperation I'd get as he's got Alzheimer's and also grew up on a farm so he's more hard-nosed about the little tragedies of nature than I.
Well, success. The kitties had to stay in a couple of days and we had to put up with a few kitty tantrums but the babies fell out and apparently the adults got them away from our yard as there was no sight of any of them. Such a relief! One small disaster averted.
Our wrens did the same. Came, had one hatching and left for safer environs.
I turned an older forest cat from Oregon into an indoor cat when my other cat was attacked and killed by a dog. She seemed to be OK with it, as long as she could live in the window 24/7. I bought her a huge cat tree and spoiled her rotten. She lived to about 17 so I guess she was happy.
Haven't seen much wildlife lately. We've got a big blue and black lizard living near the back porch steps, and a tiny baby lizard (offspring?) living under the front porch steps. They are so beautiful! Especially the big one. One of my dogs is digging for the little one. He will never catch him LOL.
We live in a thickly forested area.
I found this what I think is a large barren hornets nest at our wood pile.
It must have fallen out of one of the tall trees.
I was thinking about donating it to an artist that does the wood spinning bowl things with acrylic.
Maybe use this hive instead of burl ?
I don’t know but I think it would be cool.
I had a close encounter with a 4-foot long rat snake the other day. Could have been a black racer snake; I didn't get too good a look at it. I was coming around a corner of my house and there it was. As soon as it saw me, it slithered into a hole my downspout empties into. I am always amazed at how fast a snake can move!
After not having rain for weeks I had a gully washer that pushed out a huge wasp nest out of my gutters/downspout. These were black with white strips on their tail. I squished it and disposed of it. Later that day there about 6 wasps on the underside of my gutter just sitting there. I disposed of them also with wasp spray. We have been wondering why there has been so many wasps while we are sitting on the patio beside the downspout.
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