Showing posts with label racoon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label racoon. Show all posts

Friday, June 11, 2021

The Heat is ON

So I am laying low!

Humidity & Rain...Lets talk about it.  We had a beautiful spring but then wham,,,the air flow turned and is now coming from the south east Atlantic---this is the air hurricanes are made of.  It's very unstable as the evening thunder storms give testimony to. 

New Feeder, the birds like it...

I get out as early as possible and do my yard chores, mostly pick up twigs from the last storm, put some seed in the feeders...etc.  I don't put in a lot of seed in rainy weather as it will begin to sprout right there in the feeder in just a couple days if there is any millet in it and sometimes the sunflower seed will spout.  I don't normally buy one with millet in it, for that reason but lately the shelves are nearly empty so I had to take what I could find....
I put in enough for one day and add more daily that seems to work best.  


The Big Blue Whale Hosta is waterlogged

I had to replace one feeder it finally gave up after years of squirrels dangling on it...there seems to be a shortage of bird feeders in stores too...I got that one at the Tractor Supply....and just as I presumed trouble is a brewing over at the Cardinal Feeder.  

his name is Trouble...it helps when you have hands to hold the closing mechanism open..

Waiting....

actually this Cardinal is an old photo taken with my Kodak! It was the best camera I've ever owned, but the on/off button stopped working...it's still in my closet.   Not like you can take it to the camera shop and have it repaired, that was in the old days.

Remember  old yeller? Well my dogs do chase this fellow and It could get ugly.  I may have to attempt to relocate him to the deep woods where he will have all he needs for survival and not be harassed by people and dogs if he doesn't move on soon.  


It's been about 2 weeks now of me chasing him out of the yard, and he just won't give up...I don't want him or my dogs to get hurt. 

Shap
Sharp teeth!

Speaking of hurt, check this out.   I was able to recover a couple of folders of old photos off my no longer operating PC.  This adapter thing worked for one of the hard drives but not for both of the drives.  So the tower is gone to PC heaven, (the recycle center) minus the hard drive I kept that and Im still trying with the other drive.  


2 laptops and a PC

I was thinking the other day what if I put all my lost blog photos back, I'm using Google Photos and Facebook storage to do it, then comes the announcement from Google, that they will be closing it down, yada yada?  I throw in the towel at that point.  This tangle of wires is about how my brain has been lately with the main component unplugged.



this is the one that refuses to co-operate I plugged the thingamabob to the whatsyamacallit, plugged it in and NOTHING but a blue light of the old central nervous system.  

this is what I ordered to do it with...$15 Amazon

It's pretty hard to do any birding other than just what I can see with my naked eye or  hear. Humidity, binoculars, and camera lenses just don't mix...there is this thing called----> fog. You can see it the raccoon photos.

middle set is outdoor top set is indoors

So this morning I got up to no water!  I called, they are doing "repairs to the line", I'm on a rural water district, SO glad I keep a gallon of fresh potable water in my van, and 50 gallons of rain water under the eaves by the front deck.  I keep a lid on that one so no skeeters get in came in handy for the morning flush and I could do a sponge bath with it if necessary.
 I  open the barrel so it can be refilled once it is down to half, so it's currently FULL as I took the lid off during  one of the recent downpours.  
--------------
 Pulled this one from the OLDER than dirt photo album achieves; this is my dear friend Sundance, with Mom's little Pekinese mix, Peppy.  This photo is from 1975, before we moved onto the homestead in '77.  We were renting in town and I asked the landlord if I could put a horse out back and he said "SURE" lol...(try doing that these days in the town limits) and so we built a little corral and a single stall shed for him...I used to baby sit Peppy while mom was at work so he would go with me to give Sunny his breakfast.  I worked from home then as I was getting my upholstery business off the ground (in the spare bedroom)...so they became best friends. You can see the love they had for each other... By the little stall I had a garden....I've always been an Earth and animal person even before it became "hip".

the gentle giant 46 yrs ago!

...the next year I opened to the public in a location  in town and supported myself with that occupation for 30 yrs! I still baby sat dogs and had 3 little yappers with me every day for a  couple years, one was mine, one my sis's, and mom's Peppy.    

I saw a soft shell turtle creeping out of the pond when I stopped a couple weeks ago to take a quick walk at Goodale...I have never seen soft shell turtle there before...oddly enough. 

He saw me and turned around and went right back in the pond.

And since my post is all over the place this week I need some outside help....so my Sis sent me this pretty Antelope shot she got when they visited Yellowstone last week...that look says it all. Broken hard drives, broken bird feeders, broken water system,
yes as Glen Frey sang, THE Heat is ON. 


Thank you sis!

Next time I may dedicate an entire post to the good ole' days. 

PEACE
Every day is a new Adventure.

Friday, May 28, 2021

Random stuff...

I spend a lot of my free time these days trying to match up old photos with old blog post...so IF you see any weird posts pop up and then disappear that's what is happening.  I recently said Summer is Flexing her Muscles and so the heat is rising, afternoons are good to be inside with the AC on while I do my photo replacements...I almost have it down to a scientist, ALMOST...

Eastern Towhee at the Cemetery 

 We need some rain so Im watering the plants every day that is a chore but we have not had humidity so it dries out very fast, the last 2 days we had some humidity and even a tiny shower.  Then last night it poured...so my plants are happy.  Saw this today when I went out, 


I was happy to see they put up a blinking light and these cones to slow people down and they had 4 signs at this intersection...I hope the cows are home safe.  

The Vernal pool was busy with Green Herons all busy looking for frogs...last yr they nested nearby and I think this year they nested here again, I saw 6 in total today..in fact a few of them could have been young ones, they fledge at 30 to 35 days after hatching.  


Im trying out a new to me camera.  I was about ready to give up and relist it, because I need a bigger view finder.  I Love my old camera but now it's giving zoom motor problems.  SO if I don't keep this Nikon B700 I will sell it on ebay and purchase the same Panasonic again, I really love my old camera. (Panasonic Lumix FZ80) It has a huge view finder, it's easy to use, the buttons are all in a logical place...its fully manual if you want, and it's pretty tough and stands up pretty good to my abuse.  I think it's the sand and pollen that has ruined the zoom motor as that lens feeds out it picks up contaminates, especially in spring. I do try to clean it off. 

This was taken with the FZ 80 Carolina Wren in my yard


This was taken with the B700 Chipping Sparrow at the Cemetery 


The B700 is 20.1 Megapixel, the FZ 80 is only 18.1...they both have 60X zoom, and 4 K video.  
I dont want to rush my decision, because I like it better now than the day I first started using it about 3 weeks ago.  Because of the smaller view finder I'm not able to spot birds up in trees as quickly so that is a Big Minus.  It  has taken me this long just to become familiar with the menu of the camera.  And I still don't understand all of it. 

This I took with the B700


This one below with the FZ 80


Quality wise it's about equal but ease of use the FZ 80 is much faster, easier to find the buttons in a quick grab, and just overall I enjoy using it more.  Even with the zoom motor failing it zooms faster. 

So that's something I have to decide.  

I have my very own Blue Jay, he sits in my window tree so I call him my Blue Jay, 


There is racoon visiting my yard again...I tried to photo him thru the window glass and it's at last 50 ft away so not a good shot but I saw movement and zoomed in and that's what I saw...


I know Annie has been going out for barks lately...I guess she saw him. 
I did relocate 4 squirrels outta my yard over the weekend.  3 males and one non nursing female. There's 4 more that are making me crazy so they may be going soon.  This time of year the forest is full of food.  

Solitary Sandpiper at the vernal pool...


A couple weeks ago I took my bike to McBee...the sand is deep there but I had a go at  it.  And I have been trying to figure out how to access a pond that shows on the map in the management area...it looks interesting, I found a service road but the area is fenced and the gate is locked so I need to speak to one of the rangers and see how to get in there...While I was searching I found several  Hooded Warbler, the males would not sit still for a photo but this female did...


If the males hadn't been singing I would never have known this was the female...
So a quiet week in my world...next week is supposed to be cooler so I hope to get out and explore more.  I had my final shot last Thursday.  


PEACE
Every day is a new Adventure.