Desperate Times!

It has been raining for the better part of a week! On a positive note (there must be one somewhere), we have hatched and said so long to the family of Chickadees, and one family of House Wrens. A second family of wrens has moved into an empty bird house and has hatched a family. Lots of bugs going into the nest!

 

I have been getting desperate for some photos so switched to bugs and other small critters. I missed weeding some clover and got this shot of a bumblebee as a result.

 I also found this single, all by itself, flower of Strict Blue-eyed Grass. I am not sure why it is called blue-eyed as the center is yellow, but that is what my app identified it as.

I still like this photo of a female Red Winged Blackbird. She was not happy at me getting into her turf.

Then of course there is the Dandelion seed bunch. It is amazing how symmetrical it is!

I guess that it is it for now and maybe for a little while due to my redoing the roof on my garage.

Getting Busy Around the Yard

Both the Wrens and Chickadees are hauling bugs like crazy to the bird house. I saw one Chickadee baby stick his head out and contemplate sitting on the perch, but I was too slow to catch it. He looks fully feathered and not much different from his parents. It looks like any day now we will be "empty nesters" (Pun intended)

They do bring in quite the variety of bugs!

Happy First Day of Summer!

I hope summer is starting great for everybody out there in Blogland!

 One thing (among many) that I like about Alberta is that every week there seems to be a different wildflower showing up.

 Even the female Red Wing Blackbird is happy!

I hope your summer is starting realllly great!

Wrens

These guys are still hanging around and bringing lots of bugs into the nest.

They certainly do not sit still for long!

Saturday outing

The Monsoons let up for a bit and I was able to get out for a few hours. It is amazing how fast the wildflowers have bloomed given all the water. The Wild Roses are still going strong.

 The Heartleaf Anica is appearing

 The Indian Paintbrush is also out. Its early for this.

 There are also lots of Streamside Bluebells

 Meanwhile the Tree Swallows are still attempting to nest.

My friends the Great Blue Herons are also now in the swamps

Life is good in the boonies!

Private Shows

I was out with Daphne sleuthing around the back country when I was treated to several shows

The first was Daphne hot on the trail of a Whitetail Deer. Unfortunately, things happened too fast to adjust the camera to get both in the picture. Here is the south end of a north-bound deer.

The next shots were of my very own air show. I was walking along a oil/gas right of way when this chopper showed up to check on the sample spot.

He came around the corner. I could hear the chopper, but not see it

 

 The inspection place was the white post between the orange and blue poles.






And lift-off. 

That was the only exciting things I saw after almost two hours of walking.

I will try again tomorrow 

How to Annoy a Bird or Two

This was really fun (for me), but probably not for the wren. I updated my Audubon iPhone app and found out that the new version not only has all the field guide notes and pictures, but now has bird calls. So,,, by playing the wren calls I found that I could really get some aggressive behaviour out of them. They would fly right up to me, land and get their tails up and take a wild posture. Oh, yeah and give a real case of Stink Eye. Tomorrow, if the lighting is better, I will try for some photos. How to be annoying and have fun at the same time!

Bits and Pieces

Once again I am behind on my blogging! Daphne was very interested in the Geese, but realized that she could not get at them. Its just as well, because the Athabasca is still running high and fast.

I caught this Red Squirrel eyeing Daphnia and myself closely.

I tried and tried to catch this Red Winged Blackbird in flight but he was too fast for me. I also discovered a new den in the are, possibly a badger or wolf. I will be back to check it out.

 Here is a Song Sparrow ( I think) but in poor light conditions

 Then I came across this new born calf. He looked so grumpy, I had to take a picture. I kept a close eye on the other cows whose territory I was trespassing on. They watched me closely.

Google is not letting comments through to my posts. They say they are working on it.

Update

Its been quite a time since my last Blog posting. A lot has happened! Spring has finally turned to HOT summer (it seems). The yard work is complete and the gardens planted. The trees have been trimmed and the flowers are coming up. I figured I would take a break and compute.

Our eldest grandson graduated this spring. That meant 4 days in Red Deer enjoying the event. He is off to Red Deer University in the fall. Its close to home and the living is good

 

Our bird houses were cleaned out and put back up. I put them on 2 foot galvanized pipe on top of the fence posts to discourage our neighbours cat. We will see if that works or not. So far we have a House Wren settled in. She is not spooky at all. 

House Wren

Also we have a Black Capped Chickadee in the nest at the peak of the garage. Smart bird! No cats will get up there. The male is bringing food to her, so perhaps she has already laid eggs.



Black Capped Chickadee

The other nests are being fought over by two pairs of Tree Swallows. We will see how that works out! Hopefully, your yard or acreage is bloom!







Spring Outing

I decided to take a bit of a walk/drive today. The bush is drying up and the critters are starting to move around. The Whitetail Deer look healthy.

I suspect there were a couple of fawns near by, but I didn't want to disturb them.

Some of them were hard to pick out. They blend right in.

There are still a few single geese around. Not a lot of other birds have arrived back yet. Due to the weather, I figure they are about a month behind normal.

 

Spring Flooding

With the warm weather comes the break-up of ice on the Athabasca River. We made the national news with the flooding this year, the worst in 4 decades. The ice piled on the shore at the confluence of the McLeod and Athabasca Rivers gives some idea of how high the water was, and the power of the water. The boat launch is slightly unusable for a while!

On the Athabasca itself, ice and debris was piled high. The roads were closed to the major flooded area, so I was limited the dams that broke.

Here is a picture of a slough that was full of ice forced in by the Athabasca. I have taken lots of pictures in this area in the past.

 The walking trail was ice choked and impassible!

A Quick Update

Our snow has almost gone! The last two weeks have been spent cleaning up outside.


The patio furniture has been unstacked, washed and placed into the summer position.


The garage has been cleaned out of all the winter accumulation and junk, including the multi pounds of sand that came in with the cars.


The fruit trees have all been pruned back, including our ornamental crab apple. I took about 1/3 of the branches off it as it was getting very scraggly looking.


The dog, Daphne has me trained in two walks a day for a total of about 6 miles. It is much better now that the snow is gone and it is warm.

Even with a sprained foot (mine) she insisted on her walks. It was funny in that I went to get it x-rayed, due to the possibility of a bone in the foot being broken then the next day, rolled it again. The foot swelling went done, but I cant find my ankle bone.

We did get out for some bush walks. Read this as soaked, cold and very miserable walking. I managed to find most trails flooded, but Daphne insisted. She rules, you know. Nobody ever told her that she was a dog! Anyway I did find this critter. He/she was just out of hibernation and a little ratty looking. I had to chase her about 100 meters before she would stop

 and take a picture. As you can see, she was not very happy! I stayed just out of spray range.

I was looking for shots of skunks for about years. Patience is great!

Finally!

After 167 days of being below 0C or 32F, we have crossed over, I hope. It was +10C today and I got out with the camera to see what has developed on the river.
There were lots of Mallards hanging around and taking it easy. It almost looks like they have paired up already.

There were plenty of drake Buffleheads also with just a few females.

There were a lot more Canada Geese also. They are definitely paired!

This one was displaying some territorial behaviour!

Its not an iceberg, just left over ice in the river.

Two Common Goldeneyes.

 Across the river was a flock of sea gulls resting up with two guardians

All in all, it was a great hour!