Spring activities and sights around our new home

Spring means getting outside - Miss Fatcat Eleia has started her exercise program including climbing trees to see where Mr. Chippy might be hiding, or Mr. Squirrel? She's a busy girl but definitely needs to reduce and shape up.

Christopher on the other hand, figures he is older and requires more sleep and his activities as you can see by the dust on his coat and bits of grass includes more rolling around on the lane or lawn to expose his tummy for petting and scratching. Which I admit, he gets lots of. He usually prefers to snooze in one of the deck chairs.

This set of birdfeeders is well attended as you can tell by their emptiness... the scarlet/orange crest of a red-bellied woodpecker can be seen on the edge of the suet feeder. Lately it has proven attractive to a pair of orioles. I'm hoping they will mate, nest and stick around for a while - such lovely colour. I put out orange sections now - they carry them off - so I'm optimistic.

This set of feeders hanging from the clothesline is very popular with the American goldfinches. There are only a few seen here, but often there are up to 30 or so fluttering like gold pennies around the yard.

Bloodroot suddenly appear amidst the detritus left behind by Hydro crews scouring the landscape underneath power lines... so pretty but gone within a week as summer visits briefly and has them wide open and then gone leaving only their leaves.

The dogs rest in the shade alongside the newly planted beginnings of a garden restoration. This is a favourite afternoon spot with lots of damp black earth to scratch into hollows to cool hot tummies. Not hopeful for planting grass... maybe I leave that space as a dog parking place?

Finally the day glows to an end across the lake - the sun moving northward along the north-western edge of this beautiful area. There are many beautiful views around here, but I haven't yet discovered the opportunities to find wildlife where I can get close enough to photograph them.

Hope you are having a wonderful spring - and thank you to all of you who keep checking back to this blog and encouraging me to get back to writing... So at least once a week, more often if possible - I'll be here.

Cat play

Today since it's still bitter cold out there, I decided to look through old photographs to see what pictures  I had taken at this time last year.

Behold Eleia, my youngest, most energetic and silly cat, watching me as she tries to decide whether to eat the daffodil bloom or leaves. She is a monkey, a rascal cat, and makes me laugh all the time.

She also has brought my older cat Christopher - who arrived on my neighbour's doorstep one evening eight or so years ago as a ninth month old starving kitten - back to life.

Eleia came into our lives via my niece who was looking for homes for five little kittens. I hadn't planned on getting another cat after Zach passed on. But Christopher had gone into a major decline. He had become an only. He didn't like being an only and sat around all the time, sleeping, hiding, and generally moping. He was in deep mourning for his buddy Zach.

Eleia at four or five months old was not allowing that. Though I kept them separate for the first week or so, she soon figured out how to get down the window well of the church windows to the main floor. There was the usual hissing and spitting as Christopher tried to tell her to get lost.

She ignored him. Just as she is looking at me with innocence in her eyes in this photograph, she was secretly planning her next attack as cats are wont to do. She would jump on him. They would roll around on the floor until Christopher would be the one to take off  - in disgust.

It didn't take long.

Her playfulness finally got to him.

Now whenever they see each other they touch noses, sometimes when one is going out and the other coming in. Christopher sleeps on the bottom of my bed. Eleia sleeps in the guest room but comes in throughout the night to cuddle with her buddy - he licks her head, she licks his ears. And then chaos erupts and they battle for a while before going back to sleep. Sometimes they just cuddle, but more often I'm awakened by the silent struggle as they bat one another's heads or play pattycake.

They have become best friends.

Eleia hates the cold, getting her feet wet and wind. So she  hasn't been going outside much all winter. since Christopher often heads outside no matter what the weather, she often has to play by herself.  I find small sponge balls coming down from the loft into the living room or into the kitchen sink where there is another window well up to my bedroom. Or she races from the front of the house to the back leaping on top of furniture, rushing at the dogs, or just running around like a mad thing for the sheer exuberant joy of being alive.

Cat play.

Amusing.

Fun.

And a reminder that it's not only me that can hardly wait for spring! I think everyone everywhere is ready for the season's change. How about you?

Robin's worry

Christopher, my black cat seen here, waits to be allowed out. He woke me at 5 this morning, patting my shoulder with one velvet paw. I suddenly realized that I was listening to the "Buck buck buck" sound of a robin (above) calling to its fledged young. Was Christopher telling me Eleia, my other cat, was out on the deck?

Would she find the baby on the ground? I raced downstairs and brought her in. She will stay inside most of the day and hopefully by that time the baby will be strong enough to fly to safety.

Robin babies often spend at least 24 hours on the ground after they leave the nest - flying short hops from here to there to gain strength and confidence. So many of them don't make it since they are truly vulnerable during these early stages.

Robin parents call repeatedly to the baby - I'm assuming this is an encouragement. However I've heard a frantic calling from them which I also assume is a warning - danger danger - specially when I walk close to the baby or there is some other presumed threat. Of course I get dive-bombed by the parents who make a huge fuss trying to divert me from their wee one.

Bluebirds also do this alerting and encouraging their young. There is a pair of these tiny harbingers of happiness brooding in one of my nest boxes at the moment. So exciting to see the flash of turquoise as they search for flies, grubs and other insects in the lawn grass.

Fledging of all birds is both heartwarming and heartbreaking, since so many baby robins, bluebirds and several ground nesting species like meadowlarks, bobolinks and red-winged blackbirds seldom make it beyond this grounding day. Conversely, I've watched baby swallows fall out of their nest boxes, but their wings pop out like mini-parachutes and they swoop into the sky - "Look Mom - I can fly!" Then the whole family dives and floats, swoops and skims the tops of the high grasses - pure delight to watch.

So if you see a baby robin on the ground - it might just be in the first stages of fledging - not necessarily unable to fly, but only able to fly a short way. Give it room and watch... one of nature's little miracles.

cheerio for now -