Dee Dee was miffed!
She was forced in while Toby loitered!
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It was such a delightful evening we loitered ourselves, watching deer grazing in a remote field.
Their white tails swishing away insects always draw your eyes to their presence.
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After we came in, our “token” squirrel debated whether it should chance approaching for a nut or two.
Token because at the moment it is almost the only squirrel around.
It has been the pattern every year for squirrels to disappear quite suddenly and en-masse, but they have never stayed gone this long before.
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And not just the squirrels.
There have been no woodpeckers of any description, no grackles, no red-wings, towhees or grosbeaks.
Groundhog activity has been strange.
“It’s as if we’ve got plague!”
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What we can be sure of is that injured animals will show up giving us something else to worry about, as there’s rarely anything one can do.
It’s not always easy to identify individual squirrels, unless they have injuries.
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This poor sweetie always seems to be wet. We assume the injury on her back is due to being bitten by another squirrel.
It generally looks bedraggled, but it gets around alright and certainly wants its food.
The difference with this squirrel is that it seems far more wary of us than any of the others.
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This squirrel also had a circular injury.
Have they all been having a big punch-up somewhere and these are the survivors?
This one came to pose, not in the least concerned that I was standing just the other side of a glass door, which is their normal behaviour.
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This chipmunk got its butt bitten!
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A young blue-jay sat watching me take pictures of the chipmunks.
Usually when they see me at the door, they fly off.
This one seemed a little, I don’t know, vague. As if it didn’t yet quite grasp that his kind are supposed to be stroppy.
“But what if I don’t want to be stroppy?”
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A few days ago I think I mentioned a disabled groundhog.
Disabled, but totally mobile.
One day I could clearly see significant scarring on its back.
One, or maybe even both back legs seem paralysed, but it drags itself around.
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“Did you just take a picture of my backend?”
“That’s so rude!”
Groundhogs have very strong front feet because they dig. This one seems very capable right now despite its injury.
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Other squirrels stop in on rare occasions.
This one suddenly hurtled toward us:
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“Thank you for these very superior nuts!”
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“What’s that you ask?”
“Where are the others?”
“I’m sure I couldn’t say.”
She had her snack and left me unenlightened.
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While I have been missing all those absent creatures, there have been bird sightings.
We often hear catbirds but rarely see them.
This, we decided was a juvenile.
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Two days ago, a bird we have never seen before showed up and what a poppet!
A Phoebe.
I had always hoped to see one of these neat little birds, so I was thrilled.
And it posed so beautifully.
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I think the absence of your guests is caused by their attendance at the newly opened MMA club. That would explain all the injuries too!
It literally looks like the animals had a bit of a fight amongst themselves – lucky for “Yeti’s safe & care home” 🙂. The blue-jay is lovely, but my favourite is definitely the phoebe – what a cute little thing!