AstroGypsies

“Müther! Zophia the Zopilote (turkey vulture, she’s Mexican) is making strange nosies! The noises are coming from her bottom!”..well, inquiring minds want to know! (Zophie is a metal bird made by an amazing artist in Ensenada, Baja, Mexico out of all kinds of bits of steel, including rebar and recycled material!)

I fetched the flashlight and removed Zophia’s head, it is attached at the top and it wobbles in the wind, creating the look and movement of a wild bird, many a person has been fooled from afar! Look what we have here! A delightful little deer mouse was busy building a nest! Rocket said he’d stay and keep an eye on it all, until he lost interest a few moments later, a bird flew by…sigh…short attention span theater.

They do check every morning now, just a listen to hear any rustling! Gamora continues to wage her war with the black squirrels…they have no mercy! Mama squirrel has nothing to worry about but Gamora kept three youngsters from coming down a tree yesterday as they all trash talked her from above!

Another regular late afternoon, evening visitor has been showing up…no youngsters in tow yet but she’s cleaning up the compost and it may be that Mike has put a few goodies in there for her as well. I saw an apricot getting tossed her way last night! Out of thin air! 0_0…hahahaha! It explains the disappearing oriole orange halves as well.

She is so adept at climbing the bird feeder pole, baffle and all, nothing gets in her way!

With the deer flies holding me hostage my daily walks out to check the mail have been suspended until they can no longer carry me away…I’ve been exploring the flowers around the house. It’s amazing how many are invasive and/or introduced. Too late to pull everything out, maybe this is part of evolution in one way…

It is also impressive how many are edible! The Orange Daylily flowers, leaves, and tubers are edible. The leaves and shoots can be eaten raw or cooked when very young, lest they become too fibrous. The flower petals and young tubers can also be eaten raw in salads, stir-fried, or otherwise cooked. The petals seem to taste better when cooked, but can also be fried for storing, or dried and used as a thickener in soups or sauces. The cooked flower buds, served with butter, taste like green beans or wax beans. The tubers are a good potato substitute, with a reportedly “nutty” flavor…who knew?! Bladder Campion, the young shoots and the tender leaves are sometimes used as food in some countries of the Mediterranean region. These are considered edible raw before the plant flowers and can be used in salads. The older leaves are usually eaten boiled or fried, sauteed with garlic or in omelettes. Let’s get picking, wait, I have lettuce already! Ha!

I’ve had fun photographing the salsify seed heads after a few rain showers! Water can make things magical! There are still a few Swallowtails around but they seem to be flying almost frantically, not landing…odd. The Northern Crescents are abundant! They love the white clover.

I’ve been chasing the Wood satyrs and a few others…unsuccessfully, will keep at it!

I wasn’t sure if I was seeing a scene unfold from Alien one afternoon or do Ichneumonid Wasps-Family Ichneumonidae-do weird things with their abdomens?! It was an odd one! A friend Bruce said it looks like its laying eggs, although not clear what in. It also may have just been clearing out the ovipositor – routine maintenance, like grooming. Learn something new every day!

The treefrogs have been busy on the windows and I stopped on the road for a lovely, what I thought was a bullfrog, but turned out to be a “Green frog”…brilliant original name there! Ha! At least it looks like it sounds! Ha!

No snakes this week slithering across my path! I’ve sat with our yard birds…mothers and fathers are bringing their practically grown babies to the feeders! Impressive how fast they grow! The Hairy and Downy woodpeckers are busy cracking seeds for their young. I was interested to see they break the sunflower seed out of the shell, then into pieces before feeding it! “Chew yer seed kid!”

No sign of Red-Bellied babies yet but the Rose Breasted Grosbeaks are also feeding there larger than adult sized babies as well!

The yard birds are not forgotten:) The cheerful little goldfinches are a welcome sight, the squallering (Is that a word?) Grackles are getting a bit out of hand! Oh my they are loud! Like, I could start to feed grackles to the owls loud! The Red Bellied takes great pleasure in chasing them off “her” feeder! You go girl!

And there are the Ruby-throated hummingbirds! I caught a glimpse of a female and noticed the male chasing away a rival but very quiet so far, no youngsters, but finally a few more flowers for them!

..and bugs, some unnamed bugs, some new ones. Will figure some of them out eventually! It is such a torrent of new life in June and July, flowers, insects, birds! A new Vireo showed up! A warbling one! Don’t they all? Ha!

The Orioles go about their business not paying much attention to anyone else…other than a rival!

Who knew they had such different preferences for jam! I’d run out of strawberry (Dollorama special!) and used some raspberry we bought at a Farmers Market, OK, it wasn’t the best, too much sugar, not enough fruit but they certainly let me know it was NOT up to snuff! What do I have the Gordon Ramseys of the bird world living with me? Picky picky eaters! Sheesh!

We checked in on the Osprey nest at Beveridge Locks! It is nice as you can see it from eye level standing on the bridge but hold onto your hat, no one slows down along here…0_0! I didn’t see any young but got the evil eye anyway! Maybe they are just late and very small! I will check back!

Time for a drive to see almost full grown blue herons chicks as well! First a trip to the barn to check on the senior horses! Donkeys are loosing their fluff as well so I can SEE them now! Maybe a stop at the Big Waters Bakery! Yum! I feel another food blog coming on maybe! Ha!

Saludos amigos! This Rocket cat knows how to live life, I should take notes! 😉