Spring Wings! The birds and oh, those bugs!
They are all so busy, these birds! I am feeling lazy! The arrival of the black flies and mosquitos has put a damper on wandering far into the woods or down the road to check the mail, even the cats are hiding under the truck on their morning walk…bugs are bad, for us, but good for other birds! Gamora is no longer terrified of my hat and mesh bug cover, previously the poor cat thought I was some kind of creature from the black lagoon come to eat her! The soil is waking up, I can smell it, hopefully, most of the freezing nights are behind us, they better be, I just planted my tomatoes! Ha!
The cottagers are arriving, the snowbirds! The colorful guys having spent their winters in Mexico and South America! The blue jays must hate these guys, back with a tan and a belly full of margaritas! Ok, maybe not margaritas, I must be dreaming…The rose-breasted grosbeak is the harbinger of warmer temperatures to come, followed by the red-bellied woodpeckers, orioles, and hummingbirds! They arrived yesterday, the Baltimore orioles, no, not the baseball team, and a lone male ruby-throated hummingbird came by this morning! The marmalade and orange halves have been out for a few days waiting for their arrival and the hummingbird feeders are all topped up! I even bought some corn (their favorite) hoping to lure the red-bellied woodpeckers into hanging around and nesting here. I missed them last year, those calls, and colour!
I was hoping for another colorful sunrise this morning like yesterday when the oranges and reds were exploding across the sky. When I see those colours I just have to get up and drag myself outside, it is pre-coffee by the way! Ha!! There was just the smudge of smoke on the horizon today and the whole sky felt dim. The smoke from Alberta and Saskatchewan wildfires has arrived. At a high altitude but it affects the light we see. I pulled the canoe last week with the heavy rains, we had over three inches and tipped it over upside down on the dock, saved me bailing it out!
Our resident beaver was NOT happy I stopped to say hello! With a huge tail slap he left in a huff in front of the dock creating quite a splash! It made ME jump! From destruction, momentary beauty from the smoke. This morning fog was rising from the lake but you could see the smoke on the far horizon, it colours everything with a different tone, odd, a bit reddish and purple, didn’t look right, somewhat eerie, almost like smog in a city.
We’ll see if it clears in the next few days from the upper atmosphere. The birds don’t care, either do the other four-legged wander abouts! A young buck wandered past the front of the house and around the side later, nibbling and trying everything he passed. Gamora felt it might be a dog and maybe she should attack…he looked small far away! Ha! He’s losing his winter coat and looks a bit scruffy but it will soon shed out, those little nubs of horns are so cute! The resident raccoon is very quiet, maybe babies have her busy, she is cleaning up any delectable tidbits in the compost pile on a regular basis! The croaking of the tree frogs has become quite loud as well. I grabbed the wheelbarrow only to squawk and drop it, as it was soft and gooey, I had a frog in my hand instead. I set him on the pallet and warned him of the dangers of sitting on wheelbarrow handles!
The chipmunks have been busy as well as the squirrels, a black squirrel was chiding me for being too close to the flat seed feeder…oh yeah? and who fills it up, buddy! Wasn’t the point he said;) Gimme more peanuts! Luckily no chipmunk fatalities, they have managed to keep one step ahead of the traveling mewberries, with a bit of human help! The cat are all apparently more interested in our new metal bird, Cora the Corre Camino than anything else. She must be sniffed each morning by everyone. Cats are so wonderfully weird! That and exploring the horse poo buckets, manure from the barn for the garden these cats are full-time entertainment!
So Spring, and those new wings. I’m just glad to see leaves on the trees and the thermometer going up a bit more each day, it’ll be too hot before we know it. Time to get down to the barn and shed the horses out a bit more, I could make carpets out of those coats coming out! I will check on the resident dinosaurs as well, there is a raven’s nest on the old silo, but we’ll leave that for next week. Saludos amigos and enjoy the leaves and reflections and the shiny little red canoe!
