Today Hurricane Irene is marching north along the eastern US coast dumping tens of inches of rain. I wish all those folks well and hope everyone stays safe. But I sure do wish we had some of that rain here.
Temps are hovering between 105 and 110 again. All the animals are terribly stressed. We are keeping bird baths brimming with fresh water every day all over the yard. Today I saw 3 of these finches camped out on the window sill in the shade. They have given up trying to get anything out of the hummingbird feeder. After these guys flew away I put a container of water on the sill. I hope they come back and find it.
We have goats that live down the street. They are a frequent stop on most neighbors’ morning/evening walks through the neighborhood, and they love to walk up to the fence to be fed whatever snacks the visitors bring them. One of the goats died recently, leaving the remaining old goat, Otto, by himself. He seemed very lonely. So we were happy to see these two new baby goats in the pen with him when we drove by tonight.
As I walk out back, I can usually find lots of bird feathers on the ground. Sometimes a pile of them, marking the spot of a scuffle, sometimes just a single feather. The birds out back must really have to be on their toes at all times.
This is one of the blue jay feathers I found. Love the iridescent blue color.
They’re everywhere! Saw this guy walking towards the gate at the end of the driveway as I pulled up to the house this evening. I got this shot as he scurried along the fence line.
I’ve lived here 15 years and never saw a live armadillo until about a month ago. They’re tearing up the back. Varmits!
We enjoyed a lazy Sunday at anchor. One definition of limin’ is to relieve from attention or effort; relax.
We definitely had that down today. Red Sky peeled off first thing in the morning, Va Bene left about lunch time. This is a shot of the 5 boats that were left. Joe joined us later on Prelude.
We floated for quite a while. This is a shot of a family of what we think are swan geese that was hanging out with us.
We all eventually ended up in Ramon’s cabin, which is air conditioned, has satellite TV and a big flat screen to watch the US women’s soccer team lose the world championship to Japan 😦
We saw Sue, who had been out on B-Dock for several hours when we pulled back into our slip.
We only spent about 24 hours on the lake, but it seemed like 72 or so after schlepping all our stuff back up the ever-steepening walk from the dock to the parking lot. We’ll do it again at the drop of a hat, though 🙂
The heat is taking a toll on the animals. I mean, they’re acting crazy. The other day I woke up and walked to the patio door to take a look out as I was drinking my coffee, and a squirrel was about a foot from the door. He looked directly at me, froze, and then flattened himself out on the pavement with all fours (and tail) spread out. He kept staring at me and kind of making a hissing noise. I opened the door to shoo him away and he just laid there. Finally he ran up into the trees. What was that about? Note to self: make sure rabies shot is current.
Well, the next day that same deranged squirrel (i assume) was standing on one of the catboats on my beautiful wind vane and was tearing up the sail! I had to get a stick to push him off it. Damn varmits. Those sails were a pain to make. For now I’ll have to store it in the garage til I have time to fix it – which might be around the end of 2015….
We also have had some more armadillo excitement. I mentioned a couple days ago that we’re down one armadillo. Well, last night monte saw another one digging in the front yard in the daylight. They are supposed to be nocturnal. I guess they are driven out during the day to look for water or food.
I’m seeing lots of facebook statuses that complain about the rain people are getting in their part of the country. All I can say is: You’ll miss it when it’s gone!
I’ve mentioned before that we have many bluejays in the trees in our yard. Every year we see babies. This one isn’t a tiny baby, but he is a new, young jay.
I have seen 3 or 4 babies around. And I definitely hear them chattering right outside my office window. We had the sprinkler on yesterday and they were playing in the spray.
Today this one hung out in this shrub for most of the afternoon. I caught several shots of him napping on the branch, but I decided to use this one because it is the only one where he stepped out into sunlight.
One of the bloggers that I follow posted several miscellaneous factoids the other day, one of which was that a tiny owl and spider could be found in the detail on a one dollar bill. I wanted to see for myself, but I didn’t have a magnifying glass. So…. I took a macro shot instead.
Can you see the owl?
I wasn’t able to see the spider, but I was able to find the owl. Can you see it? If not, this should help:
I’m surprised this guy held still long enough for me to take the shot.
Today was a bit longer day than usual of endless conference calls. I just recalled how one summer between college semesters I was looking for any kind of job I could get. I ended up following up on an ad in the paper for telemarketer openings. I showed up. Sat down with a phone and some papers and started dialing. After a few hours I was out of there – swearing I would never do that again. You know. I could never spend all day on the phone. Talking to people.
So after finishing many more years of college and 20 years working, what am I doing? Spending all day on the phone. Talking to people. Ironic, eh? 🙂
Early this afternoon I was standing in the kitchen and saw a deer about 10 feet from the house. I soon realized that she had a baby with her. I was able to get several shots from between the slats of the wooden blinds. The baby can’t be very old.
After the mom and baby walked into the neighbor’s yard the fawn fell down while crossing the street. I think it was scared of a car that was approaching very slowly. The car hung around so long that the mom ran away!
We called 311 to see if they could tell us what the city might do if the baby is abandoned, and they said not much. So, we are keeping a watch to see if the mom comes back. 😦
Update: We kept an eye on the little guy all afternoon and evening. When I woke up at 4 AM the next morning, i looked out the window to see this (momma deer laying down on the lawn next to where the fawn was). Yay momma deer!
momma deer
I’m glad I saw this or I would have always wondered what happened to the baby deer.
Back in Austin. And it’s nice to be home. We went to the lake today and everyone jumped in. The baby ducklings are growing up fast. This one seemed very comfortable hanging out with the humans by himself.
I’m officially ready to get a DSLR, or big-girl camera, as I like to think of it. I went for a drive around Seabeck this morning and saw lots of birds on the tide flats foraging.
This is my very first picture ever of a bald eagle. I don’t think I’ve even seen many this close.
Along the roadway there were lots of photographers gathered with tripods and lenses as long as my arm. I sidled right up beside them with my little point and shoot.
This shot is maxed out on my D10’s 12x digital zoom, so it’s grainy. I can only imagine how nice some of these shots could have been with a different camera.
Sheila365 