the week in wilds

 View this morning:

Today is going to be spent quietly, and every tiny task crossed off the list will be celebrated with a sense of accomplishment out of all proportion to the actual endeavor. It's been a challenging week, and I am not feeling my best. I intend to be as kind to myself as I would be to someone else. It's an experiment.

Meanwhile, here are a few images of visitors to the Wildlife Area,

 taken over the past week:

A chickadee, the official Commonwealth Bird, 
about to fly off with a sunflower seed.

A bluebird(!) waiting for a turn at the water basin or a feeder.

Two mourning doves resting in the young maple.

And three varieties of woodpecker!

"Hairy Woodpecker"

"Downy Woodpecker"

"Red-bellied Woodpecker" 

The lack of imagination - and observational skill - and relevance! - involved in the "common naming" of woodpeckers has always baffled me. I am sure we can do better.

Let's think about it, shall we?

And finally, although it IS snowing at the moment and has BEEN snowing for many hours, it has NOT snowed every day this past week. So here is one character who lacks neither observational skills nor imagination:

grey squirrel

I'm so glad the red squirrels and grey squirrels seem to have reached an agreement to coexist here in peace. I have even watched one grey squirrel and one red squirrel play together, and I watched them for quite a while before feeling convinced that's what they were doing. Made me very happy.

I hope you're weekend is shaping nicely!

~~~~~

friday

cranberry

Today's snow was predicted to begin around noon, with less than an inch accumulation. So when I received problematic paperwork in this morning's mail requiring a couple of hours to sort out in person, I decided not to wait til Monday but to go immediately and take care of it so I wouldn't have it in the back of my mind all weekend. Less than an inch of snow would mean either light snow that wouldn't be bad driving, or heavy snow that would be easy to wait out before coming back home.

Well, the "noon" part was correct. But heavy snow was still falling 

when I got home at three and went out to check on the goats.

Violet on one of the narrow goat-paths.

If you click to embiggen you can see the path.

I know I've said this before: I'd rather have any amount of snow than a quarter-inch of ice. Chores are harder and take longer but they get done. We've got firewood, food, and - touch wood - we've got water.

And of course, daily markmaking.

I hope all is well in your varied and far-flung corners of the world.

Thanks for visiting and commenting on mine.

~~~~~

squirrel

Looked out the sliding glass door today and saw this:

There was no sunflower seed on the ground today.

I thought he'd nose around in the greenery a bit,

then move on toward the bird feeder or the barn.

But instead, he came a little closer, and hung out for a while.

And then he moved over to the exact spot where Della had been yesterday.

He just waited and waited, looking through the door.

He did everything but tap on the glass, and call,

"Will Della come out and play?"

He's on tippy-toes in this one:

And where was Della?

Asleep on the porch.

She had already been outside for a long time,

and had come back in for a snack and a snooze.

Maybe tomorrow, Squirrel!

~~~~~

friday frolics

 

Note on these snaps: not a compressed telephoto illusion - the squirrel was about 14 inches from Della the whole time, munching on sunflower seeds and saying, "Chase me! Come on, chase me!"

Which Della resisted for a few minutes, knowing that the anticipation of chasing was much more exciting than the actual chase would be. This was not Della's first Squirrel Rodeo.

I often see Moxie playing tag with a squirrel - spiraling up and down the big oak trunks. But Della is playing the ground game.

~~~~~

just before dawn

There isn't much light for photographs right now.

The first hint of dawn is just peeking through the trees:

That bright spot isn't the sun; it's the lightness well above the sun.

It snowed all day yesterday, and most of the night.

Heavy, wet snow. Some is already dropping in big wet clumps.

I'm hoping for a light wind, to bring more off the trees.

If it freezes or if we get a strong wind,

there will likely be a lot of breakage.

 This squirrel was quite perturbed by the snow on the feeder.

In a dozen photographs, that tail never stopped twitching!

More snow is predicted for Saturday.

This is the time of year when one does not "put off til tomorrow."

If something can be done now, then "now" is the time to do it.

As soon as the sun is up, I will be outside.

I hope wherever you are, the sun comes up on a peaceful world.

~~~~~