For all the misery I recorded when we lived in State College, I feel like I need to record all the happiness we feel living here I Michigan now. After all, I don't want the future generations to think I was a "glass half-empty" kind of girl. Next week will mark our one-year anniversary of buying our house and officially changing our voter registration, so I thought I would share some more things that make me happy about our new residence. This isn't an all-inclusive list--just one that involves cats and birds.
I'm currently sitting outside on our deck, overlooking our backyard. On a cooler morning (I'm talking any morning when it's not already 80 degrees with 90% humidity), I love to sit out here, under the fan, eating my breakfast and taking care of computer business (which just so happens to be writing this blog post this morning). I don't know if there's some kind of protective force field here, but I never see a mosquito (although the wasps do hang around occasionally).
We happen to call the deck "the Catio" because it's the one place where the cats can go outside. We don't let them in the yard anymore for fear of something bad happening to them (and because I was so tired of treating them for worms, ticks, and shoveling dead mouse and rabbit parts off our front porch), so it's a treat for them to sit out here with me. Of course, if it isn't exactly 75.5 degrees, Jake won't come out...with the exception of the other day. It was beastly hot outside--probably 95 degrees--and he passed out for a couple of hours. Hmmm, maybe he actually did pass out....
The birds here are amazing. I know a lot of it is the fact that we live next to our very large pond which is surrounded by all kinds of trees, and there isn't a road or really any kind of civilization nearby, and I love it. I joke that it sounds like the forest scenes from "The Hunger Games" out here, and sometimes I think I actually hear a mocking jay. It's not goose or sandhill crane migration season, so it's mostly song birds (which is just fine by me because those cranes and geese are super loud!)
Here's my view on the situation:
Here's Jake's:
And here's how the cats enjoy most mornings. And afternoons. And evenings. As does Glo as long as there aren't any bugs....
I love sitting out here. Glo convinced me to buy a hummingbird feeder when it was "Ladies' Night" at Hackney Ace Hardware (also a local gem), and it has been the coolest investment. It didn't take more than a day for the hummingbirds to appear, and when I sit out here, they come every 2-10 minutes. Sometimes, because they are territorial, I'll even see two of them, *cheetering* at each other in the air, trying to duke out the order of eating. I've noticed that the pitch of their beating wings changes depending on their size (smaller birds have a higher pitch whereas the big boys have a lower pitch). Sometimes they'll hover for over a minute, eating, and it becomes quite loud! I've only seen one ruby throated one so far, but the little brown ones are frequent partakers. I won't lie--it's tricky to get a good picture of them!
Too, I see flocks of goldfinches darting back out into the trees after they have downed Glo's finch seed. See, she also convinced me to buy a regular bird feeder, although when she brought it up to me (while I was holding our place in a very long line at Hackney), I didn't have the heart to tell her that she'd gotten a finch feeder (yes, they eat different seed from normal song birds). After we finished painting her new room, she put the feeder directly outside of her bedroom window which just so happens to have absolutely no coverage. Knowing that finches are shy little birds and don't exactly like to be caught out in the open, I doubted she would get any takers. However, it only took that one finch to show the others the way, and they are at her feeder 24/7. In fact, I showed Hootie the finches the other day, and he started doing the cat "chatter". I joked that I was setting up a stool for him to watch the finches, and Glo admits that she never thought he would use it, and then she snapped this picture:
I know there are lots of other birds around as well. We hear blue jays non-stop, and the cardinals are around. And the cats like to watch the sparrows and chickadees hop around in the bushes outside my bedroom window, cleaning the branches of little red berries.
I'm currently sitting outside on our deck, overlooking our backyard. On a cooler morning (I'm talking any morning when it's not already 80 degrees with 90% humidity), I love to sit out here, under the fan, eating my breakfast and taking care of computer business (which just so happens to be writing this blog post this morning). I don't know if there's some kind of protective force field here, but I never see a mosquito (although the wasps do hang around occasionally).
We happen to call the deck "the Catio" because it's the one place where the cats can go outside. We don't let them in the yard anymore for fear of something bad happening to them (and because I was so tired of treating them for worms, ticks, and shoveling dead mouse and rabbit parts off our front porch), so it's a treat for them to sit out here with me. Of course, if it isn't exactly 75.5 degrees, Jake won't come out...with the exception of the other day. It was beastly hot outside--probably 95 degrees--and he passed out for a couple of hours. Hmmm, maybe he actually did pass out....
 |
| It was so hot outside that even WE couldn't stand the heat. |
The birds here are amazing. I know a lot of it is the fact that we live next to our very large pond which is surrounded by all kinds of trees, and there isn't a road or really any kind of civilization nearby, and I love it. I joke that it sounds like the forest scenes from "The Hunger Games" out here, and sometimes I think I actually hear a mocking jay. It's not goose or sandhill crane migration season, so it's mostly song birds (which is just fine by me because those cranes and geese are super loud!)
Here's my view on the situation:
Here's Jake's:
And here's how the cats enjoy most mornings. And afternoons. And evenings. As does Glo as long as there aren't any bugs....
I love sitting out here. Glo convinced me to buy a hummingbird feeder when it was "Ladies' Night" at Hackney Ace Hardware (also a local gem), and it has been the coolest investment. It didn't take more than a day for the hummingbirds to appear, and when I sit out here, they come every 2-10 minutes. Sometimes, because they are territorial, I'll even see two of them, *cheetering* at each other in the air, trying to duke out the order of eating. I've noticed that the pitch of their beating wings changes depending on their size (smaller birds have a higher pitch whereas the big boys have a lower pitch). Sometimes they'll hover for over a minute, eating, and it becomes quite loud! I've only seen one ruby throated one so far, but the little brown ones are frequent partakers. I won't lie--it's tricky to get a good picture of them!
Too, I see flocks of goldfinches darting back out into the trees after they have downed Glo's finch seed. See, she also convinced me to buy a regular bird feeder, although when she brought it up to me (while I was holding our place in a very long line at Hackney), I didn't have the heart to tell her that she'd gotten a finch feeder (yes, they eat different seed from normal song birds). After we finished painting her new room, she put the feeder directly outside of her bedroom window which just so happens to have absolutely no coverage. Knowing that finches are shy little birds and don't exactly like to be caught out in the open, I doubted she would get any takers. However, it only took that one finch to show the others the way, and they are at her feeder 24/7. In fact, I showed Hootie the finches the other day, and he started doing the cat "chatter". I joked that I was setting up a stool for him to watch the finches, and Glo admits that she never thought he would use it, and then she snapped this picture:
 |
| Obviously, Glo's feeder is a hot spot now! And if anyone ever needs a sacrament talk object lesson about example, it only took one goldfinch to lead the others to a feast ;-) |
But another bird friend that we don't see around our house specifically, but who lives down our street, is Baby Colt (baby cranes are called colts so we just went with it). We first spotted him (or her) a month and a half ago, crossing the street with his (or her) parents. It was the absolute sweetest thing. We still see him, although he's now much closer in size to his parents. We have so many sandhill cranes around here now that there is talk of culling them, but there is still something so cute about a little itty-bitty baby crane.
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