Livestock

We knew we had mice - had been seeing the evidence (droppings, nibbled bread) and the occasional brown blur - but the rodents are getting bolder.  The other night I spotted one zipping from the kitchen into the dining room (how do they get up so much speed on those tiny legs?) and tonight we saw one in the living room.  The Chief is now setting out more traps.

To quote Mr. Jinks, “I hates meeses to pieces!”

My husband, friend to turtles

The Chief & I were out at the cabin last week.  One day, as we were heading out to run some errands, we spotted something in the road.  Turned out to be a box turtle with its head stretched out toward the side of the road.  The Chief stopped and we waited while our reptilian friend made its way to the vegetation on the side of the road (more quickly than we expected).  Traffic coming the other way slowed to see why we were stopped.  One driver gave the Chief a thumbs-up when she realized why he was stopped.

We still wonder how that turtle is faring, hoping it hasn't encountered a less patient driver.

The sparrows have figured it out!

A week after the Chief & I brought home the new bird feeder, the sparrows not only have it figured out, but seem to have claimed it as their own.  They're certainly the most frequent, and greediest, visitors.  The cardinals have stopped by to check out the feeder, but don't seem to stay long at all.  And the bird feeder seems to be making good on its claim to be squirrel-proof - the squirrels I've seen have contented themselves with eating what the birds drop on the ground.  Or maybe the sparrows have been "discouraging" the squirrels from poaching on the sparrows' territory... :)

The feeder holds 3 or 4 lbs. of birdseed.  The level wasn't moving much at all until last night; it's dropped quite a bit since then.  I wonder how long it would take the sparrows to empty it completely - if we go on vacation for a week, will the greedy little things empty the bird feeder long before we get back?

I was amused to see that a black bird in the raven/crow family had a different feeding technique than the sparrows, which park on one of the 4 perches and chow down.  This black bird would perch, take a piece, hop to the adjacent fence, and eat its morsel.  Then it would go back to the perch, take another piece, and go back to the fence to eat it.  It's taller than the sparrows, so the feeding hole is not at its beak level; maybe it's too awkward or uncomfortable to sit on the perch and eat.

Goldilocks weather

In other words, just right!  One advantage to being furloughed is that I've been able to take advantage of the gorgeous weather 2 days running so far and take a nice, long walk through the neighborhood.  Yesterday it was at home, today at the cabin.  Saw a lot of deer, or at least a lot of tails as they took off upon hearing us approach.  We did see one 4-point buck with a small entourage of 5 or 6, but they headed into the trees as we got closer.