The Fauna of Nature

I'm on my way to the Portland airport this morning to retrieve Gail from her stay with North Dakotan grandchildren, teenagers at that.  Before that trip there are the critters to appreciate.

While watering the plants in the front of the house I heard the goggle of a wild Tom turkey.  They are the latest of regular visitors to the yard.  Tail up and fanned he was wandering around amid his harem of about a half dozen hens.  They come through about every other day, or at least that's how often we see them.  Instead of the typical cock-a-doodle-doo in the morning, or in our case, that along with a yelp from the peacock, we are blessed with a trialogue among a rooster, a tom and a cock, each saying their piece in turn and none listening to the others other than to outtalk them.

The bird feeder was low, so they received a refill - on the house so to speak.  The humming bird feeder also needed a refill, again on the house.  There must be more wild food in the surrounding woods as we don't see as many birds and the refills are less frequent.  Early this spring it appeared that there were as many as eight to ten humming birds and dozens of different seed eaters.  The sapsucker ignores the seeds but peppers our young tree is little holes.

A momentary interlude:  I was and am hearing a sound in the foyer that I don't normally hear.  Maybe it was the dog scratching on the rug at the front door trying to arrange it to be more comfortable.  As I walked toward the door I realized the sound was coming from inside the wood stove.  So now I get to invent a way of removing a bird from the stove without letting it fly around the house.  More on that later.

The chicken left us a dozen fresh eggs this morning.  The peahens have not started laying yet although the cock is trying to do its part, tail high in the air.  Dr Skittles and Toby, the feline of the community joined me as I placed their food in the dish on the table in the barn.  They are barn cats; there are not house cats.  They affect my eyes with itching and swelling.  Sheba, of course, received her morning meal first thing.  She will be glad to hear that she can ride along to get Gail this morning.

No deer this morning; that's not unusual as it seems like there's about a 50-50 chance of seeing them every other day.  When we see them and smile they're on the other side of the fence.  We don't smile when they in the front yard or when we find the tops of flowers eaten off.  They're very good at that.  I removed the protective fences from around the tulips and bluebells as they have more or less completed their cycle of blooming.

Remember the rose that was showing color a couple days ago; it's in full bloom today - yellow.  And the population of blooming iris have doubled.

Off to the airport.