Winter’s silence was shattered by returning geese. A cacophony of honking coming from the river can be heard a mile away. Hundreds of Canadian Geese lend their voices to the clamor and it only gets more raucous when disturbed. Most took flight after I arrived but a couple stood their ‘ground’ on the far side of the river.

How to whitewash a rock using Canadian Geese

I spotted a pair of wood ducks perched in a tree but they took flight before I could get a photo. On the way home I managed to get a photo of a male in the swamp. Two pairs managed to swim into heavy brush before I could get more than one quick shot off. Do ducks swim or float?

The weight of a Witch equals that of a Wood Duck

Water Foul
Stewy claims the bird bath. It seems to make a nice cozy cat sunning stone.

Screwy Stewy

The boulder is a work in progress. Another session with a rotary hammer drill should finish the basin. This rock is almost more than I can chew. It is much harder than I expected.

Nothing beats a small waterfalls and a shallow rock littered pool to attract dirty birds.

This waterfalls is part of the project I helped with to obtain my latest Rock Ranger. When I went back to take some photos I caught a pair of Grackles taking a bath. First the male flew in.

Grackle – Quiscalus quiscula

Then a female joined him.

The male ‘showered’ and left quickly while the female stayed behind to freshen up a bit more.

Let me zoom in for a closer look at the bathing beauty

She dove in and with one last flurry put on the finishing touchs.

grACKle

Now you know where the title of this post came from.

This waterfalls was part of the job I helped with to obtain my latest Rock Ranger. All I really needed to do was to set the sandstone slabs for the patio. The contracted landscaper (EarthWorks) had laid out the general outline, excavated the area and provided a strong back to lug the slabs to me. The strong back proved to be more than capable and I let him finish the work once I had setting done. He did a good job of filling in the holes.

The BFR in the foreground is one of the little finishing touchs I added.

Stepping back from the waterfalls the stream comes into view. Just to mention – the waaterfalls and stream are fed by a solar pond pump. It doesn’t flow at night or on cloudy days (about 4 hours on battery pack) but it sure beats paying the eletric company.

Stepping back even farther the pond comes into view.

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I was feeling a bit grACKlish myself lately. I had a bout with Diverticulitis and nearly lost. I’m feeling much better now but no where near normal. After 8 days of a clear liquid diet I admit I’m still a bit fuzzy headed and weak as a dead kitten. Just writting this post has exhausted me. Time to sign off and take a nap

I know it’s been a while since the last post. It may be a while longer before the next. A matter of life and death is keeping me occupied. Now that things are settling down somewhat I’ll be making an effort to post but I’m not promising anything.

There were more deer on the side of the road than the 11 in the photo. By the time I stopped the truck about half as many had disappeared into the brush.

The rest quickly followed.
Only the bravest of the group paused to glance back at me before they too vanished.

It’s been about a week since I took those photos. It seems so long ago. A lifetime in a way.

This morning I was standing on the back steps when I saw a pair of birds land in the trees. If I hadn’t noticed the movement I might easily have overlooked them sitting there.

I couldn’t tell what they were until I doctored the photos. A little gamma correction brought out enough color and details to identify them as wood ducks. I was a bit surprised. I never before thought ducks perched in trees, somthing about webbed feet kept me from getting a firm grip on the idea.

I should mention – I’m fine.
It’s a close friend that’s approaching his end of days. Until then my home is his.