Geez, all we have to worry about here is getting pooped on when we’re eating outside.
Dinner time for all creatures.
Awwww…
The birds and the bees:
Female long horn sheep, Lake Minnewanka, Alberta. (click to see full image)
Cool!
A chicken alongside a highway. It turned around and headed back toward the farm’s fence. As my husband put it, “Why didn’t the chicken cross the road?”
(My theory: Too much traffic.)
Hope you folks don’t mind me spamming with Hummingbird photos. I set up my camera on a tripod looking out our window, and I’ve been trying to get some good photos of my bossy Rufous.
Hard.
They are really fast!
Nice!
Later we saw several dozen more, in clumps, there at that site, and along the roadside at several other places in the area.
Some Fibonacci Flower:
Mrs. L.A. just came in from the catio. She and Abbey saw a doe in the back yard. First deer that’s been observed visiting.
A pleasant surprise today (those have been rare lately for sure).
For ages, we’ve had morning glories, moonflowers, trumpet vines and assorted viney whatnot self seed in the front and side gardens. They just grow; I planted none of them and I just try to control where they grow once they crop up from year to year.
Last year, I grew some Black-Eyed Susan vine from seed inside. Once they were able to take outdoor temps, I planted them in the hanging baskets on our porch and let them do their thing. When freezing temperatures came, they died off and I took the baskets down and put other stuff up there for the winter.
So imagine my surprise when among the viney stuff coming up this year, there’s a Black-Eyed Susan vine! It’s apparently joined its ilk in randomly growing here and there, and is the first thing to bloom among the vine crop this year. Yay nature!
IME trumpet vines can survive a minor apocalypse and morning glories are only slightly less fragile.
But I’ve rarely had luck with moonflowers (which I adore!) from seed & certainly never had them reseed themselves, though I usually harvest some of the best pods the few times they have grown for me, as backup.
They just seemed more finicky to me, but that may refthe climate I was in at the time (north Dallas).
Oh, my contribution: about an hour ago, a robin was having a hissy fit in the big oak across the street, chirping that one single alarm note incessantly.
Went out to see what the fuss was about and had my attention directed to a big hawk sitting quietly, minding its own damn business, ignoring the squawking little tough guy robin a few feet away.
Yesterday there was an osprey right next to the highway, on the ground watching traffic. It was waiting for a break in traffic so it could retrieve a dead critter. It appeared to be quite juvenile, like maybe one that hatched last summer. It was an unusual sight. I’m guessing that the unusually tall, think vegetation we’ve had this year has made things a bit difficult for young hunters. Poor little eagle.
This evening, apparently guarding the nesting area within about 15 yards of my back porch. Even my terrier didn’t scare him off.
ETA: Don’t know what I’m doing wrong, sometimes it’ll show the image, other times not.
Cool bird!
Oh my gosh, he’s a cutie! I’ve never seen one.
Normally by this time of year we have at least 3 sets of parents running around with babies… The last couple of years we’ve gotten 3 hatches. This year spring stayed too cold and wet, haven’t seen any puffballs running around yet. Hope this is changing. He was about 15 yards from the back door, we’ll see them picking grit in the driveway fairly often.
I’ve been a bit delayed in adding stuff, so a couple of days ago I saw a beat-up luna moth on our fence, probably near the end of its days:
