One great thing about having cable back is using Skype. If you haven't downloaded and used it... well, I like keeping my money, and I love talking to family and friends who are scattered all over the world.
I took the camera out on the walk today, and got a couple of shots of the orchard on the street behind us. They are starting to pick these huge red beauties, so this is a sight which won't last much longer. Across the highway, on a hill several blocks away is a lavender farm. The lavender is blooming, and the hill is one big rolling blanket of colour. Gorgeous! But too far away to get a good picture. I might try to drive over there and see about getting a picture (and smelling the lavender!).
While we were out we saw a large group of Canada geese migrating south. Must have been over 100 of them. They were a long way up, but you could hear them honking. Like, no one is in the way. Who are they honking at?
Yesterday I sat and watched what appeared to be a bald eagle riding a thermal over the valley. Sure wish I had a good telescope for bird watching. Sadly we found the broken little body of a white throated sparrow in the dog run today. It looked like maybe it had been hit by a predatory bird but had managed to get away only to die later. We picked it from the path and gave it a proper burial. I hate to see little things suffer.
We saw a sick sparrow picked off by the magpies at the feeder last winter. It was during a spell of intense cold, -30 for several days. One evening this little bird huddled on the feeder at dusk rather than taking shelter. I felt so badly, but there is nothing you can do for them. By mid-morning it had become too weak to hold onto the feeder and had fallen to the ground. One of the big magpies swooped in, grabbed it and broke its neck in an instant. 
People say pies are bad, and eat songbirds, but I've never seen them attack (or even harass) a healthy bird. They evidently do raid nests in the spring, but squirrels clean out magpie nests and eat their babies too. (And some of us eat lamb and veal and suckling pigs.) Read the story of the magpie we raised and released into the wild. He was so smart, and such a character. In this picture he was sucking my finger, just like a puppy. It was how he comforted himself when he was upset or scared.
Now how did I get going on that? Never mind.... just think cable internet.... oh boy....
2 comments:
hooray for the arrival of proper cable/internet.
I had heard you reference your experience raising the magpie but I had not heard the whole story and I enjoyed the link to said story.
Sweetie is down with a headache...perhaps from the rich food we had last night.
Oh poor sweetie. Put him on bread and water. No more decadent food for him!
Post a Comment