Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Bye Bye Birdie


The bird watching was going along swimmingly.  I was enjoying watching the phoebes and juncos at the feeder and a small group of Northern flickers appeared on the lawn.

One morning last week, I went out to take my morning trek down the hill to the barns and I saw the suet feeder on the driveway, metal cage broken apart and all the suet eaten.  The wooden feeder was on the ground minus the seed.  The steel hanger post was bent at a 45 degree angle.

I would not want to meet the squirrel or raccoon that can bend steel.

There were only two plausible explanations:  Superman or a bear!

An Associated Press article in the Sunday paper shed more light on the happening.  It seems that the unusual warmth this December has kept the bears out of their hibernation dens and they are still roaming around foraging for food.  The article recommended waiting until after the snow comes to put out bird feeders.

I will do that.

The summertime peach eating mystery may be on its way to being solved.  It was either a bear or Superman.

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

December Warm Spell

A couple of days ago, I was able to walk down to the barns wearing a T-shirt and jeans -- no jacket.  I'll don a jacket this morning, but by this afternoon, a sweater or sweatshirt will probably do.

They're saying that it will be cold tomorrow after the rain, but then we'll warm up again before Christmas.

The trees have all budded out and I see new lilac seedlings leafed out.  This concerns me, because if the fruit trees bloom all is lost for a crop next year.  For all I know, the trees themselves may decline.

This is unusual, to say the least.

The garden clean up is progressing.  I still haven't decided what to do with the space.

I moved the bird feeder up to the top of the hill and can watch birds outside my window near my desk.  Bird identification books and binoculars are in place there.

I managed to see one "falling star" during the night.

There is less and less light as we zoom toward Solstice.