I’ve taken a few photos I like this week of Red and other backyard creatures including quail, bunnies and javelina. I’m posting some of them here. It’s always entertaining to be surrounded by wildlife and to be able to capture the birds and animals with my Nikon or iPhone.
A papa quail perched in a planter above his family to keep watch.
Seven or eight javelina stopped by Monday night. They were mostly younger creatures including one wee one with a couple adults. The yellow flowers on the ground are from the Palo Verde trees. We had one night of rain and then a big wind and the flowers are down.
I watched a bunny dig a hole next to our tree. Maybe he’s going for roots? Or building a den?
Look at the feet on this guy!
Red with a mourning dove.
A squirrel and quail are sharing birdseed I placed on a boulder.
Happy Wednesday! Which photos do you like best and why?
I ordered a canvas print of Red to fill in the space to the right of our fireplace. A neighbor who is an artist and an expert at hanging paintings helped me with it. There used to be a Remington statue on this cabinet. But she moved it to the other side of the fireplace and placed this plant under Red. i’m excited with how it looks!
I was so excited with the canvas print I ordered of Red that I ordered one of the sea glass photo above. I’m not sure where it will go. Maybe in the casita. I’m having fun creating art with my photography. It’s a new way for me to enjoy it!
Finally, I ordered a third print of a pen and ink drawing of mine. This is the house I lived in from second grade until I went off to college. While I was in college my mom had to sell our home after divorcing dad. She couldn’t afford the upkeep, electric and gas. It was sad to lose our beautiful home, but she ended up leaving Snohomish and moving to Olympia. She married someone she knew from her high school days who lived there.
Finally, I’ll leave you with a Bird Buddy video of the star of my show, Red. There’s a smudge on the lens that you may notice. I’m thinking that mean old thrasher did that! But it was easily cleaned.
This is an iphone photo I took of our front yard yesterday when we returned from our morning walk. With everything in bloom you can barely see our house. I love this time of year with palo verde wearing yellow flowers.
I’ve reached the last two pages of my DIL’s syllabus for her AP English Class. I will confess that as the literature moved back decades in time, my reading fell off. I did a bit, but not all. I wonder if her students had a difficult time with these last few months of readings, too? I posted the syllabus at the beginning of each month if you want to take a look.
April Reading List
I’ve been more focused on photography than reading and writing. Here are a few photos from the past week:
A beavertail cactus in bloom with two flowers. There are more buds so more flowers to come!
Red hanging out under the birdbath.
I ordered a large canvas print of Red for our living room. For the five years we’ve been in this house, there is a blank spot to the right of our fireplace. I’ve been looking for art for that space, but never found anything I was crazy about. Red will go nicely there! A neighbor is coming over Friday to help me hang the print. She’s an artist who paints large canvases and an expert at hanging art.
Happy Friday! I was excited to see a few plants in bloom. Because it’s so hot — it will top 100 degrees today — I had to snap photos before the blooms wilt. I was especially excited with this red bottlebrush that was attracting multiple bees.
This will be something else when all those buds bloom.
More busy bees on the bottlebrush!
On another note, I was scheduled for a colonoscopy Monday. I had a referral from my primary to a specialist. When I made the appointment, I asked the scheduler about prep. I’ve done this before and there’s more to it than just showing up for the appointment. She said she’d text me the instructions. Well, I was texted the name of the doctor, address and phone number.
I tried unsuccessfully to send a message through their patient portal. It asked for an office location from a drop down menu that said “no location found.” Without that field, I couldn’t send the message.
Since it’s fast approaching my appointment, I called and left a detailed message explaining I never received any instructions for colonoscopy prep. I got a call back. I learned that I was scheduled for a consultation PRIOR to the colonoscopy. I asked why did I need a separate appointment since I my referral spells out the procedure requested by my primary. Consultation cancelled. Waiting for my colonoscopy date in April. Medicine these days!
Here’s the bottlebrush bush from a few steps back. I can’t wait to see this in full bloom!
And a photo of Red to go with the red bottlebrush photos.
All my backyard birds flew away when Mr. Cooper’s Hawk landed in our tree and then moved to the fence. There was a noise like “wooosh” when the quail took off. They sound like jets. I haven’t had many hawk sightings, which is fine with me. I think they are beautiful and the huge Harris Hawks I used to get look so regal. But they prey on doves and quail which I don’t like.
While my husband was out of town on business, this lone javelina stuck his snout through the fence under our bird feeder. I got pretty close to him, since I felt safe on the other side of the fence from him.
Next thing I knew, more javelina came out of the woodwork! In the end I counted seven. It was surprising that so many were hiding out in the brush behind our house.
Eventually they all walked away. You can watch this video and see how javelina seem to use their sense of smell more than their eyesight. That snout is busy moving and smelling me!
I was outside the other evening talking on the phone with a friend who lives close by. I spotted the biggest coyote I’d ever seen. I was sure it was a wolf, but my husband said we don’t have wolves here. I tried to get a photo of him, but he heard me and hid behind a shrub. I was looking for him through the fence and then decided I really should go inside the house and shut the door! What would I do if I found him? What if he could jump over our fence. I’ve seen coyote jump over the wall behind our house onto the golf course next door like it’s nothing. That wall is six feet tall.
Happy Wednesday everyone. I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into my wildlife. Hopefully in a few weeks I’ll have baby quail photos to share!
UPDATE: I googled it. There are wolves out here. Hubby is wrong. That was definitely a wolf I saw. It was twice the size of any coyote and a different shape. Didn’t look anything like a coyote. UGH.
How’s your week going? Do you have anything exciting going on?
For Lent this year I am doing Pray40, which is on the Hallow app. On Sundays, Father Mike Schmitz gives a Bible reading and homily. Yesterday, the theme was “Looking for Joy.” Father Mike mentioned the following quote:
“Suspicion often creates what it suspects.” C.S. Lewis from the “Screwtape Letters.”
My major takeaway was that if we often find what we’re looking for. If we’re looking to be disappointed, most likely we will be. Distrust can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. I realized that life truly is what we make of it. It’s was a reminder that our attitudes can be our destiny. If we look for joy, we can find it.
I’m sharing some bits of joy I had this week, birdwatching at home:
The joyful couple together at the Bird Buddy AI feeder.
I watched as Red fed Mrs. and then gave her a turn at the feeder, but I wasn’t fast enough with the camera to capture it. It was heartwarming though!
Quail Egg Update:
I’ve only peeked a couple times on our quail nest. Last week I said we had four eggs. We’re now up to a dozen! I wrote about our quail nest HERE.
