squirrels

Yet another new visitor to the backyard

/ Roadtirement / 16 Comments

Sher and I were enjoying sitting on the swing enjoying the multitude of birds feeding at our feeders. We were seeing Cardinals, robins, sparrows, wrens, Grackles, Blue Jays, starlings,  doves. and nuthatches. Turkey vultures were soaring on thermals overhead, and we even saw a couple of chimney swifts, the cigar with wings insect catchers. Squirrels were chasing each other up and down and around trees.

There he is, in the center of the shot.

Look closely, you can see chipmunk looking out of the wishing well at us/you

Then out of the corner of her eye, Sher spotted movement. She poked me and pointed. There running across the yard and not 6 feet away was a cute little chipmunk. We have never seen one in our yard since we moved here. The cute little guy romped around for awhile checking out the tree, wishing well and the whole area. He acted like this was his first time in our yard.

Could have been embarrassing

/ Roadtirement / 28 Comments

Sher and I see it everyday: squirrels hopping from tree to overhead lines and back again. This morning we saw a juvenile squirrel almost miss.

This fellow was going from the tree branch to the immediate left over to the wire. Usually a small stretch is all that’s required. He missed getting his back legs on the wire, and he ended up in the position you see.  A little struggle and he was successfully on his way down the wire.

 

Suet yourself

/ Roadtirement / 17 Comments

Hanging on an empty corn cob on a large nail is our new backyard suet cage. Soon after the debut of this wildlife feeding device a resident squirrel showed up. He really wasn’t thrilled with this “not corn” thing.


He finally moved on, leaving the suet to the birds.

Remembering summer

/ Roadtirement / 18 Comments

Well, we’ve got another 3 inches of snow on the ground when we woke up today. Snow pictures are sometimes boring, so here’s a picture from last summer.

The squirrel is enjoying a little snack of some kind. The young tree in the tomato cage is a Black Cherry seedling that we got free from the local Extension Service. We also got Tulip tree seedlings as well.

We hope we can get our vaccines soon so we can get away from the Indiana winter and head south somewhere where it’s warm.

 

Snowy Sunday

/ Roadtirement / 25 Comments

Enjoying a treat

The TV weather forecast on Saturday called for some freezing rain Sunday morning followed by rain. Imagine the surprise when we woke up Sunday to a fairly heavy snowfall with about an inch already on the ground!

Our herb and flower garden was a summer project that we worked on while staying “in isolation” avoiding the COVID-19 pandemic. With today’s snowfall it sure looks rather, ah, wintery. One thing about snow: your yard looks just as good as the always  perfect yard down the street.

Snow covered garden

We’re still waiting for our chance to get the coronavirus vaccine. Here in Indiana you have to be 70 or above to sign up for the vaccine. Neither of us are 70 yet, but we will be in the next group, be it 60+ or 65+, assuming they won’t change which group is next to be allowed to get the vaccine. We are anxiously awaiting our chance to receive the vaccine. We, like everyone, are anxious to get back to being able to safely travel and to visit family.