Tag: news from the birdfeeder

Sunday Report 2-21

On By Jo Mayne CaseyIn Weekly Wrap-UpLeave a comment

In my humble opinion we’ve had a perfect kind of snow, deep enough to cover the earth with a blanket of iridescent white. A good snowstorm feels like the sky is tucking me into my cocoon. The temperatures outside were arctic, but inside the radiators were cooking and the fire was glowing, a perfect excuse to curl up and read…or binge-watch some shows…and cook…and watch the birds.

There were dozens of birds that needed feeders, including some bully birds that we don’t want to encourage (starlings and some cowbirds-ugh), but you can’t be picky when there’s no place else for them to go. The squirrels stayed in their nests for the first couple of days, then returned and took advantage of the extra elevation to make the feeders into their personal buffets; they have their own food in another spot, but would rather own the birds’. The birdbath heater has worked well, always keeping enough melted for drinking.

Now the temperatures have risen to 40s with predictions of rain. All the beautiful snow will melt and leave a mess of mud…and it will start to feel like Spring. Just a Tease, but I’ll take it…

Peace

Birthdays and Birds

On By Jo Mayne CaseyIn 2020, Weekly Wrap-Up, Winter at Sonnystone2 Comments

It was Birthday Week at the Jose’ Casa in NYC!  My #1 and #3 grandies celebrated Numbers 9 and 14!  Oh, those girls!  My heart just overflows…

Emma Magnolia Mayne Jose’ is in the 8th grade at Towne., where she was awarded the part of Rafiki in “Lion King” (ever heard of it?).  She can sing, she can dance (top Irish Dancer), but more importantly, she is seriously a sweet young lady, kind and caring.

Eliza Belle Mayne Jose’ is in the 3rd grade at Avenues: The World School, where she has started piano lessons.  This summer she started right in picking out tunes and I wonder if she might have the old “playing by ear” thing that my grandmother had.  She’s a Super Irish Dancer, loves to skateboard, and is just generally a funny, loving little girl.

Obviously, I love these babies.  I’m hoping to be in NYC in April for the “Lion King” and I Know I’ll be there in June for Emma’s graduation.

We had the Jr. girls for a couple of days earlier this week, requiring me to wake up at 5am…I”m proud to say that I still have my miraculous inner alarm and was able to wake myself when my outer alarms failed to alarm.  It’s kinda fun to get up in the dark and hear the birds singing a prelude to sunrise.

We’ve got so many birds visiting the feeders that we decided to add another suet.  We had two finch feeders out,  and in years past they’ve been covered with upside-down and downside-up little birds, but I’ve spotted just one molty goldfinch in the last month.  I hope they’ve just found somewhere else to feed.  The suet has been a real draw for woodpeckers.  We’ve seen hairy and downy, both male and female, and even an awkward red-bellied woodpecker that also feeds at the houses.  The indigo buntings seem to favor it over fighting at the houses, too.

The dreaded root canal is Wednesday.  I’ll be fine.  Thank goodness the tooth is still hurting just a tinge, or I’d probably back out.  I’ve got plenty going on over at the ancestry blog, posting on Mondays and Thursdays until I finish.   You’re welcome to visit…All My Ancestors.

Peace

birds, coyotes, squirrels, and thoroughbreds…

On By Jo Mayne CaseyIn 2017, Spring at SonnystoneLeave a comment

It happens every year at this time…the spring ushers in waves of thunderstorms, downpours, big winds…the green pops up, bordered by gloomy gray skies on the top and mud puddles on the bottom.  Inside, we’ve had the fires going, cozily going crazy while we watch the birdfeeders…

There has been an influx of rose-breasted grosbeaks at our sunflower-seed feeders.  The male and female look Nothing alike.  The male is quite striking with the patch of rose on his chest and white marks on his wings, while she looks like a large carolina wren sort-of (same eyebrows, totally different beak, etc).

I got this picture on May 2, when we had a brief glimpse of the sun.  Shows 2 males and a female…

In fact, the grosbeaks are kin to the cardinals, but my resident cardinals don’t seem too happy to see them.  One of the female grosbeaks hissed off a male cardinal and she and one of her girlfriends hogged that feeder for a while… Mostly, though, they just crowd in and everybody seems well-fed.  We put out the hummingbird feeders and we’ve had several visitors there, as well.

Speaking of well-fed, a coyote visited Sonnystone today.  We’ve seen him/her before, down at the far end of the property, but today he wandered right up to the birdfeeders by the time we noticed.  Casey said he was after a squirrel and went to chase him off, but he had his eye on two and took off toward the garden where that one scrambled over the fence.  I saw him stand there and sniff, then he took off around to the other side where that squirrel was cornered.  This happened quickly, so by the time we figured out where he was he had the squirrel and was sauntering off…

I have no problem with a coyote eating well, but not that close to my house and my squirrels.  He’s thinking he’s got a buffet here, so we’re on Coyote Alert.  He came back for seconds as soon as he ate the first one, so we’ve chased him off once.  Now the pellet gun is pumped and Casey has a Mission…

Meanwhile, I’m researching for my bets on the Oaks tomorrow and Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.  The archives show how many times the Race has been Run on a rainy, cold day, so nothing new there.

Fresh crop of horses that will have to run in the mud, god love ’em.

2017 Kentucky Derby Horses

We’ll stay warm with some Bourbon sippin’ and make our bets online.  Will still wear a hat, of course…

Peace