NHBabs - Chip relaxed while standing in cayenne pepper this morning. One might think, "Oh, No! His poor little feet! You rotten person!". But not here. He got down, walked through soil, onto grass, chased his brother around the yard and came back in fine spirit. I probably got ripped off and bought old pepper, but chip is fine and he won. No more people tricks - nothing deters him. I quit. Probably time to put the camera away.

Jane

I know you don't want to hear it, Jane, but your answer is a cat. Ivy is probably rolling over in her grave thinking about your chipmunk infestation.

I don't even have a cat - just a neighborhood barn cat who spends part of his days here in my yard - but this cat insists on catching mice and chipmunks and leaving them here for me to admire. I've tried telling him not to do it but you can't argue with a cat.

When he's not hunting he rests on my deck:

I feed him, as do other people in the neighborhood, and he seems to enjoy his day job.

Claire

Now that's an ideal setup, Claire. I'd be delighted to have a regular feline visitor. All the remainder cat food went to Olivia O'Possum and those neighborhood cats that whip through here at 2AM caught on the trail cam - when the chipmunks are in bed.

I'm the problem. I can't stand seeing anything in pain or killed. Ivy didn't kill them; she brought them home to play with. I had to move the piano one day to get a chipmunk out from in back of it and out the front door while Ivy laid on the floor watching me ruin her day. When she brought them home, I saved them. So it's all on me. I miss her terribly. Hard to beat a Siamese personality.

She carried them home as if they were kittens.

Keep feeding your visitor - that's an enviable setup.

Jane

I used to have Siamese cats and loved their personality too.

This barn cat looks a little like the bobcats - just smaller. Right now he's napping in the chair next to me on the deck.

Claire

Oh, ...what a nice little buddy to have. Glad he's there.

Luckily the cat only wants to hunt rodents; he's not terribly interested in birds, although he does like to scare turkeys by charging at them. One of these days he's going to chase the wrong turkey and get attacked.

So the Baltimore orioles are safe. It always impresses me that a bird knows I'm watching it with a camera from inside the kitchen window.

Claire

I seldom see orioles - any of them. Beautiful birds and I think of them as being more passive and peaceful than many other species. That may or may not be true, but it's my impression of them. Good shots, Claire, nice expressions.

Got a gift this morning first thing: Papa RB grosbeak feeding his daughter.

He really got it into her!

Jane

Someone asked me if the chipmunks climb the feeder pole. For more than 12 years they did not. Thoughts are energy and energy creates form, so, if that questioning person reads this post, I am asking you to please change your thinking.

Before one sip of coffee, I was out there with a 6 lb. sledge hammer repositioning the shepherd's crook. Let's just say I ruined his day.

Jane - who does not believe in coincidence

Never underestimate the determination of a chipmunk (hee-hee-hee).

Claire

Claire, that is an AWESOME cat! So glad the owner lends him out to you. Jane, beautiful photos, as always. Your photos keep me searching for bird baths, but I'm still trying to figure out some details so it doesn't become putrid and gross, and so that it is high enough the cats can't ruin the fun.

I saw my monarch a few minutes ago, which is good timing because the milkweed is about to bloom. He was drinking clover nectar from the former lawn that is now mostly tall grass with some good weeds like clover starting to fill in spaces. Hoping the Indian Paintbrush spreads easily. Goldenrod is blooming, which is good for all the nectar lovers. The hummers are still hanging around, and my jewelweed is starting to bloom. Joe Pye Weed has buds, too, so it won't be long for that pollinator favorite.

I will say that it seems that even though summer comes late here, generally later than you all due to the ocean, and definitely far later than where I grew up, it does seem to cascade all of the sudden. Things start blooming in June, and then suddenly by July we're racing through the blooming seasons with new things blooming each week at breakneck speed. I don't know if that's what happens, or it just seems that way.

My chickadees have fledged (I hope). I've read they might start a second brood. Do you know if they would do that this far north? Hoping so.

Because we have pileated woodpeckers around us, this video was of interest. It is 19 minutes, but probably the best and clearest I’ve seen about these incredible birds.

The Miracle of Woodpeckers

deanna, no, I didn’t know, but Cornell says 1 brood for bc chickadees. Now we know!

How many chickadee broods?

I must have misunderstood the web page I was reading. Well, it's still early in summer. I'll miss seeing them ever morning. (And I'm just going to hope they avoided the cats.) Thanks for the info, Jane.

deanna: It would be lovely to have more than one brood of chickadees, but the site Jane linked says the clutch size is 1 to 13 eggs so that seems to be enough to keep the population high. I'm trying to picture a chickadee feeding 13 nestlings.

You have a good supply of food for the monarchs. I don't see them here, and I worry about the black swallow-wort which is everywhere and is reported to be toxic to monarch caterpillars.

Monarchs and swallow-wort

The cat was here this morning for breakfast and is gone now, probably checking to see what the neighbors are offering. He'll be back later to say hello and to finish what I gave him (he eats the wet food first and then snacks on the dry food).

Claire

"The cat"? Can we at least call him Fred? Remember Freddy the freeloader? We had a cat that had the same type of coat as your visitor and he was named Fred. For a decade in my old neighborhood, most kittens looked like Fred. Great personality and 'friendly', lol.

The neighbors call him Wooly Bear which is a good name for him given his resemblance to a wooly bear caterpillar. He's a very strong-willed cat that wants to take over my house, inside and out, and I'm keeping him at arm's length (sort of) to remind him that he already has a home and can't live here too as well as at his barn.

Not naming him is part of my social distancing effort (not Covid-related).

Claire

😂 He sleeps on the chair next to you, you buy him wet and dry cat food, feed him breakfast - at least... 😂social distancing...right, uh-huh. You'll get a good mark from St. Francis someday, lol. 🐱 Can't argue with cats or chipmunks, but Kindness works.

Meanwhile, no matter how many times the baby RB woodpecker pulled the lever, no seed came out.

Jane

I just watched The Miracle of Woodpeckers video. Beautiful images of the pileated male feeding the kids.

I've never seen a pileated woodpecker - the southeast coast of MA is not in their range although they're very occasionally reported locally on eBird.

Claire

I enjoy all the pictures that are posted on these threads.

This past spring/early summer we had a Pileated Woodpecker nest in a hole in a tree that I could see from our deck. Once I realized that the woodpecker was cleaning it out I broke out the binoculars to watch. 2 babies hatched. It was sweet watching them poke their heads out of the hole and fuss for food. 1 woodpecker, maybe the mom, always stayed close by talking to them. then the Dad would come and feed them.

I really hope they come back next year to nest.

I am located in zone 5b, southern Maine, on the coast.

rdy2retire: How lucky you are! Not only do you have pileated woodpeckers but they conveniently nest where you can watch them from the comfort of your deck.

Welcome to the forum!

Claire

I think I'm seeing soft beak tissue on this little winter wren. Anybody else think so? The winter wrens live in the new wren house I put up outside my window and the family skitters quickly through the chokeberry, cherry, and birch trees looking for sawfly and any other creepy thing they can find. All the more power to them! Very glad they live here. 😊

For those who try to capture quick moving birds through branches, you'll understand why I had to crop these photos. Cute little guy who appeared to be looking for his mom, but that could be my human thing.

They started a family early, so I'm thinking this is a fledgling. This was May 5th below, so they've had enough time. The winter wren does not have an over eye white stripe vs. the Carolina wren.

Carolina wren below.

Jane

P.S.

Wrens are such great little birds - great photos, Jane!

That baffle looks like a tight fit for a squirrel to turn around in, particularly with a big fluffy tail, but I doubt if it backed in up the pole.

Claire

No, there doesn't seem to be a strong reverse gear in that rodent, Claire. However, he can fold himself in half like a new dollar bill and get change back. He does it all the time.

Little bit ago I was concerned about a female hummer's bizarre gyrating behavior at the feeder. I was concerned that her tongue may have been swollen or something else wrong with her that I couldn't fix, but I kept my eyes open for her. Not only is she okay, but both females and the male that come, are doing well. If a score was to be kept, the females win every time. Too quick a shot, not the right camera settings, but the male's gorget shines as she casts that warning eye toward him. When both females are at the feeder he does a mach 1 flyby - doesn't bother trying to land. The girls are tough!

The eyes have it. So proud.

Jane

Found the perfect tool for cleaning the ports on the hummer feeder: pipe cleaners.

Pipe cleaners are a great tool for a lot of uses. DH used to use them to clean bug frass out of bug holes in his wooden bowls.

NHBabs - wish I thought of them years ago, alas...they're here now. All 350 of them hahahaha. Already gave 20 away.

Hey, you can make flowers out of them and I bet the chipmunk would leave them alone!

How to Make Pipe Cleaner Flowers

and maybe you can make a pipe cleaner chipmunk....

Claire

Cute. Not a bad idea about the flowers, but you can do the chipmunks. Sending the brown and black ones to you.🐿 😊

Jane

Just when I thought the cardinal, grosbeaks and house finches were a peaceful lot in their love of safflower. . .somebody said something.

That discord happened in under 15 seconds. Cardinal was the last one left and he never stopped eating.

Jane

"Birds and other mobile features in the garden" -- what about OVER the garden? Do clouds count? I like clouds and last night there were what I call, 'feather clouds' over our house. See the link for Some CLOUD Names

Jane

The feeder scene reminds me of Thanksgiving dinner with the relatives...

And of course clouds count! There is unlimited air space over your garden, and if Mars happens to be directly overhead, Mars counts too (other planets too, but I happen to have a fondness for Mars).

Claire

hahahahaha, T’day 🍗

I do like having bunnies outside my window. Years ago we had an all gray cat named after the conductress, Sarah Caldwell. While cooking supper, Sarah walked into the kitchen carrying a baby bunny as she would have carried a kitten. I can tell you baby bunnies are very flexible and can crawl in back of drawers. After much to-do and to Sarah's disgust, I caught the baby and fed him, kept him warm over night and brought him early the next morning to where I had seen bunnies in the yard before. No sooner had I put him on the ground with my mittened hands when his mother came after him. I had never heard a bunny voice before. I can say that yelling at kids is the same in any language.

This morning outside my window...

And the only thing better than having a bunny to photograph is...2 bunnies. 😊

I'm glad they had enough alone space for one to take an after breakfast rest.

Jane

106° isn't good for any life form, IMO.

That's horrible, Jane! Those squirrels look like they're melting.

The humidity is supposed to go down a little tomorrow - good because I need to go out and buy some birdseed then.

I think I'll go out now and refill the birdbaths for whoever wants/needs to splash in them.

Claire

I can’t like that temperature photo, Jane. It was something like 97 here yesterday, but today has more clouds and so it’s hovering right around 90. I have family visiting and we spent more than an hour and a half in the river this morning, just paddling and splashing. Usually I am cold after a bit over an hour, but it felt wonderful.

Do the squirrels and other mammals use birdbaths for water recreation?

We saw three eagles while we were in the river, one adult and two juveniles since there was still a lot of brown along with some white in tail and head. The two juveniles were squabbling some and I think it may have been them that I have been hearing in the evenings when I am out working in the garden as it is cooler. There was also a sandpiper, too distant to ID, but I didn’t hear any kingfishers as I usually do, so perhaps the young have fledged.

Oh

my

gosh.

I’m not going to complain about our 90 today!

Not much action from the trail cam lately. Of 770 shots, I got me and squirrels. 2020 is a real beaut. Even the wildlife are hiding, lol.

NHBabs: I don't know if squirrels and other common mammals use birdbaths for recreation, but they certainly drink out of them and somebody, probably a raccoon, periodically knocks over my standing birdbath.

Some photos posted by the National Wildlife Federation:

Not a Bird! Unexpected Bird Bath Visitors

And then there's a bear in a tub.

Claire

That's one happy bear in the tub. I have chipmunk-ignored beach balls he can have.

~~

My view of retirement was one of 360° freedom! In mind, body and spirit – desired peace, and learning created my dreams of aging. Well, that’s not even close to how it went, but, I’ve learned a lot since my release from the corporate world. One thing I have not learned: how to identify a hole in the ground. Got the ‘butt’ thing down, (for those who remember the old saying about butts and holes in the ground), but I do not know about a 4” wide, god-only-knows how deep hole dug with precision under the roots of our Emperor One Japanese maple. I put smallish rocks in front of it last week, but naturally, they have been tossed aside by the construction crew. Therefore, I have created my version of 221B Baker Street: I moved the trail cam to capture the resident. To him or her or them, it is home building, so again, perception matters greatly for who and what the observer is versus the observed.

This morning I was re-reading parts of Carl Sagan’s book, “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” (highly recommend) and in the chapter titled “What Thin Partitions…”, he talked about some of the invisible to human methods of living and defenses that many creatures have – that we humans may never understand in our present stage of development. I really like this one – “…some African freshwater fish generate a static electric field around themselves and sense intruders by slight perturbations induced in the field… . (pg. 172, First Ballantine Books Edition 1993) Wow. Some people do that to me. Here’s another from the same page – “a nubile female silkworm moth releases ten billionths of a gram of sex attractant per second (who measures these things?) and draws to her every male for miles around:” (she really needs therapy, IMO). So, rather than setting my heart all aflutter with this continuing mystery of who lives under the Japanese maple with a 4'' doorway - of which I can do nothing to resolve because I won’t kill anybody – night pictures are my option du jour. Trail cam wired to green pole holding up a wren house.

To be continued. . .

Jane

I would like the birds and mobile features to not be in my garden, please. The turkeys need to be chased on a regular basis. Yesterday I caught a bluejay going in for a meal on my blueberry bush, and today a mama deer and her twins munched a pile of the flowering perennials, including all the remaining Don Stevens daylily flowers, and she was guiding them to the hosta like explaining a buffet.

No pictures of them ... we were too busy running at the critters screaming and waving our arms. I guess the pinwheels and sprays are only so effective. Sigh ... at least the chipmunks haven't started stealing tomatoes, yet ... but they're just starting to ripen, so I'm sure the thieves will start their harvest season, too, soon.

They'd be pretty and cute and all ... if they weren't in my garden.

Ah, BlueberryBundtcake, I hear your anguish - the cries echo throughout history ever since humans developed agriculture, and maybe before.

At least we don't have to deal with saber-toothed tigers invading the yard, or hordes of locusts demolishing the crops (although locusts are still a problem in other countries).

In modern-day society we don't have to rely on our gardens to feed us (we have grocery stores and Amazon) and landscaping is a pleasure that defines our territory.

I think what I'm saying is that some of us have the luxury of being able to enjoy the wildlife we coexist with and to marvel at all of the species that surround us and refuse to respect our boundaries.

Complaining about it is quite human and a way to vent, but it helps a little to step back and remind yourself that each of those annoying critters or birds has a point of view too, and has a reason for demolishing your carefully tended garden.

Claire (teetering on a soap box)

Yeah, I know ... I just wish mama deer would teach her little ones to eat something in the woods instead of leading them to the flower garden. I suppose those would be the tasty tidbits, though ... even if we do spray them with hot sauce spritz.

I did manage to get the ripe and almost ripe berries off the bushes after chasing the jay away, but I'm sure he was back, or will be, later. I don't mind sharing some berries, especially on the bushes that are adjacent to the woods, but right in front of me? Yeah, you're getting chased.

On a cheerier note, there was a gorgeous black butterfly swooping around the herbs and garden shortly after the deer incident. It was probably four or five inches across. It visited the flowering cilantro/coriander, Queen Anne's lace, and some other flowers. I'm not sure which it was, but I'd guess black swallowtail, white admiral/red-spotted purple, or spice bush swallowtail. So pretty ...

Must be the mood, forgive me, but I can't resist. We've all been there, done that.

Below are some of my hostas this morning - with new leafless stalks.

Not nice, but funny. While walking around the neighborhood last summer with a great neighbor-friend, we usually check growing landscapes, you know, who did what, what's new, etc. Well, at the end of the cul-de-sac where the family had planted a row of arborvitae a few years back, I noticed that suddenly things had changed. I said "Wait! Stop. Look at that?" Nancy, who is used to me, said "What? - I don't see anything". Look at those arborvitae, said I, the deer path has changed. "Oh, yeah, said she. Boy they sure nibbled those away quickly didn't they?" To which I said, "Yes, but these deer are talented sculptors - look from this angle". She moved into where I had been standing and she burst into laughter. There, in perfectly nibbled trees, were 6 evergreen penises. Must have been a Mom and her babies - not too tall. I don' know if there is a moral to the story, BBBundtcake, but finding some humor goes a long way. My age won't allow me to write the joke lines that were made that night, but if laughter was a fertilizer, those arborvitae will never need a little blue pill. 😂

Blueberry, you might have Mexican deer perhaps. They just do love the hot peppers, oh my.

;-)

I love the comment about the buffet. Hysterical!

Why is it that the tiny pollinators don't like our fancy plants (sterile, or too many petals, reduced pollen, nectar, the list goes on) but the larger critters prefer them? Murphy's Law, and, like Claire said, a remnant that connects us to times past when, indeed, living from day to day was not so easy (or lazy, depending on how you look at it).

OK, now I'm going to go back to enjoying my gin and tonic on this beautiful evening. Still water, gorgeous colors, wind shifting here and there on the water, cool temperatures (finally), and me, just being lazy.

Jane, I let my webpage sit too long and missed your comment in the post earlier. That is hysterical. It reminds me of the famous gardenweb thread of yonder old lore about the hairy balls plant. With the photos it was HYSTERICAL. Gardeners. Always up for a good laugh.

Well, 41 pictures later, I still don't know who made and perhaps still lives in the hole under the Jap maple. I'll keep trying to find the little spirit in the digger's body, but it wasn't this little girl:

Jane

deanna: I hadn't seen that thread about the hairy ball plant, but the dog in elk thread mentioned there is an old favorite.

Jane: I'm betting chipmunk but without any good evidence.

Claire

This thread is getting long and slow to load for some, so I'll set up a new thread soon. As always, feel free to continue the discussion here, but please post new material on the new thread.

Claire

Birds and other mobile features in the garden 2020 #4