Of birds, and beasts and plants......

May 11, 2025

It has been a busy week, the clear sunny days ideal for outdoor work. Almost every night, there has been patchy frost, but the warmer night temperatures forecast for next week may mean the end of carting plants out and in each morning and evening. 

The frozen centre of my compost bins finally melted and I was able to get the winter accumulation shovelled and forked into one bin, layered with dry leaves and water. The compost thermometer jumped from 60F yesterday, to 80F this morning, so things are 'a-cookin'! It is a spring chore I always seem to dread, but once I get at it, it isn't half as bad as I expected...like a lot of things in life! A good sharp garden fork is indispensable. I'll be re-layering and mixing the pile back and forth each time the temperature peaks out and should have usable compost for planting the warm-weather crops once June arrives.

Yesterday I transplanted the brassicas out to bed #7,

bottomless ice cream tubs supporting the shade cloth, as the day was bright. They have been growing in a hot frame with the lid up for a couple of weeks, so are quite acclimated. Peas are poking up this morning, and they haven't been without a few glitches, as something dug up some of the seeds immediately after they were planted. Bad gardener had failed to install a shield of hardware cloth...

This morning, there are also footprints dimpled in the smooth soil in the end of the freshly disturbed brassica bed....

No doubt Mr. Fox's curiosity was aroused.

Yesterday morning, on returning from our bush walk, we were greeted with a zipping, buzzing Hummingbird, doing his thing over the lilac bush...so know at least one lady-bird has arrived. Let the Hummy entertainment commence!

The Rose-breasted grosbeaks have arrived, the first one announced his arrival by flying in and perching awkwardly on the pole holding the Hummingbird feeder, right in front of us one afternoon as we were reviving on the verandah from a day of yard work. He quickly fluttered off, his wings a mesmerizing psychedelic black and white blurr. Over the next few days, we have had up to 6 Rosies sitting in the tray feeder under the crab-apple tree, and now their melodious singing is heard all around the clearing, perhaps because the females have arrived as well. Quite a few White-throated sparrows are here, and have been for a while. They forage in the grass under the feeders. There seem to be a surfeit of the tan striped phase of the bird this year. I've only seen a couple of the white striped, who in my opinion, are much prettier, their colours so much more distinct. Oven birds, Chestnut-sided warblers and Hermit thrush are daily songsters heard from the edges of the clearing now, and back in the bush there are Black-throated blue and Black-throated green warblers adding their voices, as well as the soft buzzy sound of the Northern Parula warbler. Yesterday a Brown Thrasher made its presence known, it's thrilling repertoire coming out of the now leafing out crab-apple tree beside the house. A little later it hopped out of the lilac bush onto the drive and I was able to sneak out on the verandah, and get a good look. Thrashers were first heard on election day, as we stood waiting in line outside the voting booth at our rural polling place. Closer to the house, Chipping sparrows are trilling their 'come hither' songs, persistent Song Sparrows are calling from high perches, and the Whip-poor-wills are back to the 4;30 AM wake up call regime, sometimes right beneath the bedroom window. One morning I was re-awakened by a strange echoing 'brrrrrrsssst' that was coming from the roof over my head. We investigated and found a Northern Flicker up on the roof ladder, posturing and fanning his tail at his own reflection in the chimney, with a periodic burst of tapping on the roof ladder. Hubby climbed up and painted the shiny metal chimney with black spray paint to deter his persistence. I happened to be looking up when the bird returned and took this shot. He is turning away in puzzlement, and has since, thankfully, ceased and desisted.

The female Tree Swallow is diligently gathering nesting material and taking it into the nest box while the male guards the area from atop the adjacent clothesline pole.

(Not a good shot, but you get the gist.)
The Blue bird saga continues, with a small glitch. The female disappeared for a couple of days, and the male spent his time perching on all the stakes and posts around the clearing and calling. I was getting worried about what had happened, as I know that Bluebirds investigate any opening or hole for nesting possibilities, and worried that she was stuck somewhere. We once had one come down the shop chimney and a fluttering noise attracted Hubby to the glass-fronted stove door, where he released a soot covered bird out into the shop and then out the big doors. Hubby has since enclosed all the chimney tops with double chicken wire. Thankfully, this morning, both birds were sitting side by side on one of the T stakes we put around the yard, just for them and the Phoebes to use for bug-catching perches. A little later both birds were back investigating the bird house, raising my hopes again.

The woods are a-greening. Under every red maple tree is a red swathe of spent blooms, and on the branches are unfurling leaves and dangling baby maple keys. 

Expectations are high about finding morel and pheasant back mushrooms any day now, and I am on the hunt. Early in the week, stinging nettle shoots were harvested from the patch I am developing in a clearing back along a trail, and a pot of  delicious stinging nettle soup was made and enjoyed. That's a keeper! Asparagus are cut-able now, and this morning on a garden reconnoitre walk, found this guy in the patch.

Daffodils are making a cheery yellow statement, these guys,

and these.

It is a beautiful day, and I wish all the Mothers out there, a good one.

Happy Mother's Day.

The spring sequence of life marches on.....

 May 3, 2025

 So, if I could only understand 'bird'...perhaps then I'd know what the Blue-headed vireo was asking me this morning with it's spaced, questioning calls. Maybe the Ruby-crowned Kinglets understood, or the Black-throated green, and Yellow-rumped warblers or the Northern Waterthrush, who were also heard on our bush ramble this morning. It is such a delight to walk quietly around the trails, listening for all the new arrivals. Pretty sure I heard a Common Yellow-throat, a bird I learned as a child, and called it the 'Witchery bird', long before I knew it's name. It's call sounds like it is saying 'witchery, witchery', and it's appearance is far from common, with its black 'bandit' eye mask and yellow breast.

One night of very strong winds earlier in the week, I stood out on the verandah in the dark, the wind roaring, and could hear the periodic sound of branches breaking, but close by, the frogs still singing through the din ...so every walk around the trails of late, involves tossing off twigs and small branches. Hubby has been around with the chainsaw to clear off bigger obstructions. Mother Nature has been doing some very vigorous spring pruning. 

Today I picked up this stick, then paused to examine the soft jelly fungus and two varieties of lichen on the same branch, curiously beautiful.

In our clearing, a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird arrived Friday morning, blown in on warmer overnight breezes from the south. He was sipping nectar from the feeder we'd prepared in expectation of his arrival. We watched him make repeated visits as we ate our breakfast on the verandah, the only morning of the week that the temperature was reasonable enough to do so. The males are always first, and we'll definitely know when the females arrive, as the males begin their 'pendulum dancing', zipping back and forth in a pendulum arc, their wings a blur, and buzzing loudly, trying to impress the girls.

This morning, thrill of thrills, we spotted Mr. Bluebird sitting out on the hook that the Hummy feeder is hanging off of, and in the excitement, I forgot the water running into the sink for dishes and narrowly avoided disaster! He flew off to join his mate in inspecting the nest box situated about 80 yards to the west of the house. They both diligently checked it out, both of them inside at one time, at other times one would sit on the roof, peering over the edge while the other would go inside. They hung out and kept appearing sitting on the box, and on any stake or post around the clearing throughout the morning. It remains to be seen if the habitation met with their approval, and if they'll move in. If so, the telescope will be set up by the west window to keep an eye on proceedings.

The weather has varied pretty much all over the map this week. Days of warmth, days of wind, nights of strong wind, and nights of frost. We watch our wind vane....the cedar 'turtle log' floating in the pond, as it drifts with the wind, to the north or to the south end of the pond. It is the time of year one keeps a close eye on the thermometer, to see if plants can go out, or have to stay in, or stay out at night....Hardening off of the garden plants continues.

Recently I couldn't resist this...

and have harvested a delicious large oyster mushroom. I am hoping for another flush.

Yesterday, I was down gently patting the carpet of dead leaves over the lady slipper orchid patch in the bush behind the barn, feeling for shoots...and yes! The pale green shoots are up perhaps half an inch. I brushed the leaves back over them. Hazelnut shrubs have put out their tiny red blooms,

and Leatherwood shrubs are blooming.

The bush is still pretty barren looking, until you look up...at blooming Red maples,

and burgeoning pussy willows.

There is a green or red or yellow tinge in the tree tops as buds start to swell on different tree species. 

Rhubarb pie will soon be on the menu,

and I'm keeping a sharp eye on the asparagus patch, because....

They just poked through! Last year's stems have been left to deter the deer.

In the gardens, peas have been planted, as well as lettuce, spinach and radishes.

Look! first red trillium, looking a little tattered, and finally, this shot of a fat Robin in front of Bird Cam.

Bird songs, snow storm, and critter entertainment....

 April 27, 2025

Spring is here...but whoops!...quick rewind. Last night we were in a full blown snowstorm. Big, fat, soggy flakes were flying by sideways in front of a vicious north wind, that ranted and raved for most of the night. The snow started falling around 4 PM. Tree limbs started to whiten, then the ground began to whiten, and then it got too dark to see. Later the snow turned to rain and could be heard pounding on the metal roof. The reward for enduring that, is that today is a clear sunny day and temperatures are rising into the low double digits, 12C (54ish F) by noon, although the wind is still quite strong. Puddles have formed again where snow-melt puddles had just soaked away.

In the bird department, Ruby-crowned kinglets are here, Northern Flickers are foraging all over the clearing, probing the ground. They are doing the lawn aerating for us!! One took a break in front of 'Bird Cam', and posed.

This morning, we heard the Northern Water Thrush back in the bush. That is the first thrush to arrive. Earlier in the week, we heard the soft 'zee-zee-zee' of the first warbler to arrive, the Yellow-rumped. Whip-poor-wills are here, the first ones heard on Thursday evening at dusk, and the unmistakable 'pweenting' sound of American Woodcocks can be heard at dusk and dawn.

A couple of other shots off of 'Bird Cam',

Dark-eyed junco,

White-breasted nuthatch,

and one of my friendly little Chickadees. I think he/she is asking me where the ball of nesting material is. I'll get right on that!

Frogs are at full voice now, and there were quite a few sounding off around the pond last night, even though it was snowing and blowing. 

Deer have been wandering by trail cameras, some of them looking very lean and scruffy. This past winter was not as easy on the deer herd as the previous winter was.

This one seems to have suddenly noticed the camera.

Foxy is being less secretive about his/her visibility. Perhaps there are hungry mouths to feed now, and food gathering is a priority. We've seen a fox in daylight several times.

One evening last week, we were entertained by something going on in the back yard. As dusk falls, one or the other of us takes a meander out to the back porch to have a look out and see how many deer are grazing in the back yard. On this particular evening,  there were two deer just this side of the larger solar array, near the edge of the gravel pad in front of the garage/shop. The deer were not grazing heads down as normal, but making little darts forward, ears alert and front facing, tails swishing, flashes of white in the dim dusk. There was a small shadow near the ground...foxy was tormenting the duo. He made little running feints toward the deer, hunkered down and even rolled over at times, playing like a cat. The deer made quick little dashes toward him, and he'd dart away, only to come back and repeat his maneuvers. He was definitely playing, but we aren't sure if the deer were appreciating his efforts!

 

New songs, new shoots, new life....

 April 21, 2025

Spring is really burgeoning now. Almost every day a new bird migrant arrives, and today we started the 'goose wars'... Pairs of Canada Geese are insistent that they want to take over our greening grass and full pond. We have chased them off, protesting loudly, several times today. 

Deer migrating back to their summer stomping grounds are having a stop-over, and grazing every evening on the greening grass in the yard. One evening at dusk we counted nine deer grazing around the barn like cattle... and sitting up above them all, on the top of the Tree Swallow's nest box pole, was our resident Barred Owl. There are two deer who show up even at mid day, and we think they may be the same pests who kept sampling my gardens last summer. Plans are in the works for an electric fencing project around the gardens.

As far as birds migrants go, Golden-crowned Kinglets are here, as are Field Sparrows, and Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers are tapping insistently in every direction. In the bush, the Winter Wren is serenading, it's song so long, one thinks it might have to gasp for breath at the end! Northern Flickers showed up yesterday, and just a few days ago the Tree Swallows swooped in suddenly, mid-morning. Their happy chittering was so effervescent that they made me laugh as I watched them fly loops around the clearing before checking out the nest box. Yesterday afternoon, a sunny and warm day, I heard the clacking of Wood Frogs in the vernal pools for the first time, and later in the evening, the first lone Spring Peeper was making the odd, questioning call. 

Today is much cooler, the temperature struggling to reach 7C (45F), then dropping back to 4C (39F) with a chilly wind and a few showers of cold rain, so don't expect to hear frogs again until it gets warmer.

This weekend I dug a few of my over-wintered parsnips, a bit gnarly to clean, but they cooked up so sweet and delicious.

Garden plans are on-going, my warm weather seedlings are green and healthy under lights, and cell packs of brassicas are sunk into the  earth out in the cold frame, hardening up as they grow, the lid lowered at night. The in-ground hot frame with the lid just slightly shimmed open, is growing seedling lettuce, spinach, two different seed onions and leeks. The leeks will be a new adventure for me this year, as I've never grown them before. The leeks and onions are in starter packs, and will be transplanted to the garden beds once they are big enough. Out in one raised bed, overwintered spinach has resurrected and is putting out leaves that are almost big enough to harvest. The garlic has suddenly shot up an inch or more, pushing through the leaf mulch.

This parade went by one of the trail cameras over the past week,

and this old tree stump, left from thinning in a nearby pine plantation, caught my eye as I was wandering through.

Hope everyone is well and enjoying your Easter weekend.

From snow to blooms....

 April 14, 2025

 This was the morning of April 8....

And this, a previously bare road, on my afternoon walk.

Trail camera pictures of the deer moving through, before the snow...

During,

and a picture off of the same camera...after.

It was quite a dumping, combined with strong winds. It took a few days to melt away, as temperatures stayed in single digits, but now they are on the upswing. This past weekend, the mercury reached 15C (59F) and higher, with lovely sunshine. That fresh snow then melted rapidly, and now the residual snow from the winter on north facing places, and in the bush, is shrinking visibly from one day to the next. 

The Eastern Phoebe arrived just before the snow, and obviously weathered it well, as he has claimed his perch on the barn roof and is serenading regularly. Song Sparrows have just arrived, and yesterday morning we had a small flight of Evening Grosbeaks show up at the feeders. On Thursday evening at dusk, we heard the first American Woodcock at the edge of the clearing, setting up his display stage.

As for the deer, the migration back to their summer grounds is on with a vengeance. The road up the hill is absolutely riddled with tracks, and they are appearing morning and evening, out grazing on the grass of the clearing, which has started to actually look just a tad green. We took a walk through a neighbour's oak bush yesterday, and the deer have been scuffling the leaves up all around the bases of the trees, hungrily hunting for acorns from last fall.

This is a picture of the emerging tulip shoots....the deer found them before they were barely an inch out of the soil. We've since installed a fence around that flower bed and are seriously contemplating setting up an electric fence to encircle the food gardens this year.

Despite their propensity for wreaking havoc on my gardens, they are such graceful creatures.

A moose came through by a camera late last week. The amount of snow in the bush has diminished greatly, even since this recent picture.

Our ravens cruise over the 'treat rock' daily, checking to see if we have left out something for them. Here one of them has snagged a piece of chicken skin, probably there is a nest somewhere with hungry fledglings.

Garlic is up.

Pussy willows are fat and furry.

Now with rain in the forecast, things should really take off.

 

It's time for....

April 6, 2025

 ...a cease and desist order against Old Man Winter. 

We have been riding this weather roller-coaster of snow, melt, snow, melt...and are preparing for more snow this coming week. Out in the open, a sunny warm day melts the fresh snow down rapidly, and the winter snow pack recedes a little bit more. There is still a foot of snow in the bush in most places, and walking is treacherous, on trail or off. One never knows when a foot will plunge into hidden melt water, or step into snow over the boot tops, so rubber boots are a necessity. 

Thankfully, we were north of the ice storm that came through Ontario last weekend, the worst of it landing south and west of here.

There was a layer of ice on everything, and sun light was reflecting off of the shining, ice-crusted snow.
 

Central Ontario is still out of power in places, as the ice weighed down lines and broke poles. On Thursday afternoon, the wind grew suddenly strong here, and walking anywhere on the road or in the bush would have been suicide, as branches and whole trees were coming down. A later drive down the hill showed it littered with large and small branches, and in several places, the township had had to chainsaw big trees off of the road. 

So, more winter is coming... we re-filled the porch wood box this morning, got another pail of kindling up from the barn, and refilled the bird feeders.

But, there are signs of spring advancing. Maple sap is running well, our maple syrup collection is growing, (pancakes and fresh maple syrup for breakfast yesterday), and we heard a warbling/cooing Sand Hill Crane fly over this morning as we were moving wood in. 

In the sprigs and sprouts department...

Crocus colour, daff shoots, and tulip nubs.... Yes, I know...you have to look hard!

Of course, under lights, my peppers are doing well and tomatoes have just emerged.

 Over the past week, the deer have been dispersing from their winter yard, and the migration trails are well tramped out. Last night we saw the first deer in the yard at dusk, and there will be many more showing up to graze, as the grass greens up. This doe wandered by a trail camera.

This wild canine has shown up again, checking out one of the deer trails that cross our trail, but in daylight this time.

This is the back yard and pond this morning.

Who knows what it will look like after tomorrow night's forecast snow?