Five on Friday

Joining up with everyone's friend Amy of Love Made My Home and her Five on Friday!!

Thank you Amy for having this party back on again.

Also joining up with Eileen's of Viewing Nature with Eileen and her Saturday Critters!!

Thank you Eileen for hosting ;)

We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day today. The sun was warming us just perfectly, just a bit hot, but not enough to make you uncomfortable. The thermometer said 30C, but it didn't seem like it. There was a cool breeze that continuously made my deep copper windchimes bong all day long. There was lots of activity in and around the bird feeders today. The birds are definitely feeling a coolness to the air, and are restless and hungry! The blackbirds and grackles are starting to gather together too. Soon they'll be on their way south again. My Five this week will be the birds that I saw out there today.

One:  Mr. and Mrs. C (aka Cardinals) 

Many of the birds look terrible right now. Are they molting? I don't know, but they look like they've all been in a cat fight!

Mrs. C 

and Mr. C. ... doesn't he look awful too?!

Two:  Chickadees galore!

Three:  American Robin

This is the closest I've seen a Robin looking happy! They're such a serious bird. The poor Mourning Dove in the birdbath wasn't enjoying getting splashed ... he's not one for bathing himself (he was just having a drink).

Four:  The Bottom Feeders

Grackles, Red-Winged Blackbirds & Mourning Doves. Some Cowbirds joined them a little later, but no photos of them.

Grackle

Five:  Mrs. Downy Woodpecker

She was attracted by all the commotion on the feeder and below it, but she quickly decided to eat the bugs off the pine tree instead ... thank you Mrs. Woodpecker ;)

Five and One-Quarter:  Sparrows

Both the Song Sparrow and the House Sparrows were there as well.

Five and One-Half:  Black & White Warbler

Well, at least I think that's what this next one is. He's not exactly like the one shown in my Peterson Field Guide, but maybe he's not fully matured. These were the best shots I could get of him, He was fairly restless and moved around so quickly! If you think it's some other type of warbler, please let me know :)

Five and Three-Quarters:  Red-Breasted Nuthatch

This bird is the reason I grabbed the camera in the first place, but he's another restless bird and I couldn't get the camera trained on him for a good shot ... although this one surprised me, and I quite like it!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Wendy

Now off you go to Amy's to see what other people have linked up for their Five on Friday ;)

both keeping a wary eye on each other!

These guys eat forty times their own body weight in a single afternoon!

Special Visitors

Thank you to everyone for their birthday wishes for my dad. As most of you know, he has dementia, and he no longer recognizes me, but understands me when I say I'm his daughter. He has lived in a seniors' residence in the dementia ward since my mother went into hospital five years ago and passed away four months later. He has declined since then, and not all days are happy ones for him. He does brighten up considerably when I take him for a favourite walk along the wooded path below his home. My friend tells me there are coyotes in these woods, although I've never seen them. Once we get outside and into the woods, he forgets all about telling me how he doesn't like living there, how he wants to move back to England, why can't he live with me, etc, etc. Those types of conversations are agony for me, and I answer as best I can, but he's on a one-minute loop and will ask all these questions again and again. I've posted this photo of my parents before, but I just love those happy smiles. 

Mom & Dad on their wedding day 1956

Some days when I'm feeling a bit low and missing my mom and feeling sad with how things have turned out for Dad, I am blessed to have a visit from an unexpected quarter. Birds. It never fails. I could be having a quiet sad and selfish mope about how I still miss Mom (even though she's been gone for five years), and suddenly I will look around me and see a beautiful feathered friend of the familiar, but maybe not quite so common, variety. Today was such a day. I was sitting at the kitchen table and was attracted by some movements on the patio. I grabbed my camera and here's what I saw ...

He was eating ants!

you can see his tongue sticking out in this photo!

Isn't he gorgeous?! A Common Yellow-Shafted Flicker ... part of the woodpecker family, and one so striking in his colouring. He licked up those ants with some relish, and I was cheered up by having him come to visit. A few minutes later there was a pair of red-breasted nuthatches visiting the fountain, but they moved so quickly I didn't get any photos of them. I haven't seen them since earlier in August, so a nice treat to have them come by again.

Yesterday I caught a chickadee having a bath in my cheap-O fountain (ie. "free"), and every time he came up for air, he looked a little more disheveled.

He blends in so well with the grey fountain, but he's really having a good splash in there!

Soggy!

Another dip & splish splash!

Completely and satisfactorily drenched!

Chickadees really love this small fountain for their baths. They barely fit in the middle basin, but they sure get a good soaking with the water pouring on their backs as they dunk into the water head first!

Then up in the sky I spied a huge bird getting ready to soar. Wings flapping slowly as he rose up higher and higher, and then he was off and circling lazily around. He was so far up, I couldn't identify him, so grabbed the camera and luckily it was able to zoom in on that tiny speck. Much to my surprise ... an osprey! Not a bird I see from my backyard normally. Earlier in the summer I took the daycare kids to a park along the lakefront and we watched a family of osprey diving for fish right there in front of us. Every one of the birds dove into the water and came up with a fish. It was incredible watching them, but I didn't have my camera with me that day. I was amazed that after they dove into the water and got so wet that they were able to pull themselves up and out again and still have the wriggling fish in their talons. Then as soon as they were flying level, they would give their body a full and violent shake and the water was dispelled off them in every direction. There were a few seagulls bobbing on the water in the same area, and a couple of times the osprey crashed into the water only a foot or so away from a seagull. Great viewing that day!

 Storm clouds were gliding in quickly as we BBQ'd our supper last night. No rain came of it though, and it doesn't look like the threatening clouds rolling over today will provide any relief either.

My backyard neighbour trimmed butchered the cedar hedge dividing our properties last week. Suddenly the windows that have been hidden behind a lovely tall hedge are now exposed to us, and we can see that he really is a hoarder!! This house used to be so nice when an elderly couple lived there and cared for it lovingly. The new owner rents the house upstairs and lives in the basement. There is a pile of discarded wood, bikes, lawn mowers and chairs piled along the fence line ... his own personal garbage dump. Now this ... ugh!

Is it any wonder skunks, possums and raccoons have been running wild in his yard (and now into mine). There's an empty inground swimming pool with a discarded plastic cover draped into and around it filling the backyard. Not very nice to look at or sit beside.  It's on a rather nice street too.

Anyway, just a bit of this and that ...

Thanks for stopping by!

Wendy

Happy Birthday Dad!

My dear old dad celebrated his 93rd birthday recently. 

Happy Birthday Dad!

This photo was taken just before I went on holidays along the path near his residence.