Happy 2024!
May you be full of wildlife surprises! (I had a nice garland for this but it got lost in the pre-Christmas party cleaning spree 😆)
Summer is well under way,
and the garden is going crazy this year. The Blue Jays had a really good nesting season, and their youngsters are all around right now. In my efforts to capture baby birds, I also get some critters, and this squirrel was especially cheeky. Live streams will be down for the next couple of days for maintenance but back late Tuesday.
The evenings are getting cooler
but the garden still thrives, and there are sill many many baby birds around. This is the time where I like to put a camera to the ground to try and capture some of the more camera-shy visitors. The Blue Jays are very entertaining and all over the yard, the Grackle youngster are getting teen feathers, the Redwinged Blackbirds are bringing their peachy-faced babies, there are still Grosbeaks around, and today, a teen Cardinal visited too. As always when a cam is on the ground, some furries have access too.
Critter cam!
I worked some more in the garden today, and when I do that, the birds are more shy because of my presence. So I used the opportunity to put a camera on the ground. These are not perfect photos but I found them hilarious. The adult Groundhog is a momma of four, and the second photo is one of them. So far they are staying in their condo under our shed away from the house but I hope they all move out and seek their own stomping grounds. They are super stinking adorable but as adults can be a destructive force. I had to reinforce the veggie garden fence because momma had found her way in.
The furries
are also quite active, now that all the plants are lush and the flowers start to bloom. This weekend, we also saw a young Groundhog (the one here is Forrest, the big guy), as well as a bunny and some toads. There is a mole digging tunnels all over the backyard too.
We did more gardening this weekend,
also because there isn’t a lot of bird activity going on because everybody is either incubating or taking care of very young babies. For a change, I did put a camera on the ground because I wanted to see if I could get photos of one of the adorable Grackle babies that have started to show up. And I was lucky. As you can see, they are very demanding, but Grackles are excellent parents and will dutifully feed those pink lined beaks. As always when there’s a camera on the ground, some squirrels also came by. This one had such a hilariously smug look on his face that I included him here even if he is out of focus.
In nestbox news, Gayle is incubating her five eggs and learned how to handle the Wren guard, and the Wren has surprisingly laid an egg the other day in the other box. I had kept removing sticks to keep the Wrens busy but they apparently were more determined than I anticipated. She has three eggs as of today. Interfering with an active nest of a native bird is illegal, so they can do their thing now. Hopefully, the Wren guard on the BB box will continue to work and all will be well. The Wren chose the two-holed PVC box with 6 inches in diameter. Since other birds keep exploring that box as well, I have added a hole reducer so that only Wren size can enter. Here’s to a good week!
Another stormy day here
in Michigan, and I decided to not put out cameras on a tripod because of it. Instead, I put them on the ground. I would still love more Junco footage, and Cardinals too but the weather has been so weird and erratic that things are just super duper boring. However, here are a hilariously “shy” squirrel and a Goldfinch with lots of stuff blown towards him/ her. Come good into Friday!
I am sorry for not posting more frequently
right now, but work is busy and there is also not really a ton going on bird-wise. Nature is amazing right now and providing a lot of food to birds and wildlife. It is a bumper crop year for Black Walnuts and acorns here, and I am excited to see what that means for the winter bird population. Here is a view into the current regulars, furried and feathered. Also, since it is Thursday - check out the Ostdrossel calendars!
Videos: Critter cam!
It’s been a busy work week and there was little time for photo editing, but here are two videos to hold you over. I have always loved seeing what the Birdsy Cam recorded at night but of course it is especially fun when something more unusual shows up. This week, the Flying Squirrel came over again (last showing on cam was last October!), and two frogs were practising the famous Lift Scene from Dirty Dancing in the pond 😆
I am processing photos as we speak and will post some in the next two days. Friday is finally here! Have a great one!
Snow day!
We got a lot of snow last night. I made Pelmeni, knitted and watched the cameras getting buried under snow. This morning, the yard was covered in about 12 inches of beautiful, fluffy snow. I shoveled the cameras and the bird bath free (they all made it like true champs!) and put out food. There is a bit of a feeding frenzy going on, so hopefully there will be some nice photos tonight.
And here’s Dasher. I had seen his tracks in the snow but wasn’t quite sure who could have made them :D
Stay warm, everyone!
Every person
that feeds birds at one point will encounter one situation. The critters will find out that there is food, and they will try to get to those goodies. There is a number of ways to keep the bird food budget tight - with the help of squirrel-proof feeders or foods - but some also enjoy watching these entertaining rodents. This one looked so adorable that I decided to include it in the calendar this year. Meet the September “bird”.
You can get an Ostdrossel calendar here on ostdrossel.com or here.
New mask style on Redbubble
Redbubble has made fitted masks available, and I have added a couple to the shop too. They can be found here: ostdrossel.redbubble.com, but I am also linking the photos below. Code DEALS2020 takes off between 20 and 60% of selected products there all weekend, according to Redbubble. Profits of these will go into the donation bucket.
Everybody was enjoying
this nice, shadowy spot. At least until…
On a sidenote, that Titter looks so happy!
Squirrel break!
I heard the young Cardinals calling again yesterday, so I thought I would put the camera on the ground to see if I could capture them. Well, look who got busted :D I really enjoy that background, and the squirrels also contribute to the garden by planting sunflowers all over the place, so they deserve representation here too.
New in the shop!
I have added the squirrel and the groundhog to the shop, they are available on several products like greeting cards, stickers, clocks, pins, travel mugs, backpacks as well as face masks. Face masks are also now available in three different sizes. Furthermore, I have added two aprons.
For direct links to the shop, go here for the squirrel, here for the groundhog, here for a backpack and apron with the King of the Yard here, for the red Flock of Chickadees here. I will also add direct links on the main page. Let me know if you have any wishes, I will see what I can do.
These guys are not the same species,
but they look like kindred spirits and I loved the color combo. Teenage Gracks have the coolest colors going on.
