Rob and the Animals: One More for 2022

Hey there. Lately I've been pondering doing a blog but with the holiday season quickly approaching, time just keeps getting away from me. It's a very windy morning here in Toronto with some kind of storm rolling in that I will be glad to get through only because I am sooooooooooooooooooo tired of all the talk about it coming, be it on the television, the radio, people in my travels. Funny how a potential of 10 centimetres snow can be such a conversation piece. But enough about the weather though it may get one last mention in my first photo here that I took about 30 minutes ago, around 8 AM on December 15th...

I was just putting the coffee on when I spotted this Virginia opossum looking out from under our shed. I've been seeing opossums fairly regularly this fall in our backyard. Mostly through our trail cam but every few weeks I do seem to cross paths with one out there.

Hopefully he stays under our shed today. It's rush hour as I key this and, *gasp*, there's a storm rolling in. It's just starting to rain now. His bare toes, tail and nose will surely feel the wrath of winter. Poor guy. The doghouse is packed with fresh straw if he chooses to use it. UPDATE - 8:42 AM and he is still down there. This blog may take me a little longer to do as I keep looking out the window, checking for him.

Little Al the eastern screech owl is also quite regular this fall. Last winter we would go a week or more at times without seeing him but so far this time around, it's a day or two without a sighting and then he is back. Since I don't see him weekdays because of my work hours, I find myself glued to the kitchen window on the weekends at dusk. Silly since he doesn't do anything for the most part, maybe watch the last birds of the day flutter around, or the cardinals chasing each other, and then as it is just about dark, he flies out of the box and heads to the nearby cedars. I guess it is still just so cool to have a little owl hanging out during the day in our backyard, and gives us a bit of bragging rights. LOL!

Thanks to Facebook memories, I learned the other week that Gulliver and I had just passed one year since she first came to my hand. It sure seems a lot longer than that but now I know. She's still a regular visitor although lately there's been some MIA spells most likely due to the hawk activity. I've seen a few cooper's hawks flying in and there's also a red-tailed hawk hanging out on a tower near us, which has also come through here on occasion looking for a meal. Here's Gulliver and I from a couple mornings ago, being all festive.

Ripper still comes around most days. I remember last year around this time I was missing him as he had been gone since the summer. What a gift it was when he suddenly reappeared over the Christmas break; or was it New Years? Doesn't matter, all I know is my jaw dropped when he ran up to me after being gone for 5 months. I spoil him every time I see him but we've not had many up close and personal moments. Not sure why really. I see him and set a big pile of food out for him. But he's always willing to come to hand if I put it out. The other week he scared the heck out of me as I was feeding Gulliver and he came up from behind, climbed part way up a nearby tree and then jumped from it onto my shoulder. Gawd, give this older guy a heart attack why don'cha? He's awesome. Here's us a month or so ago also being festive. I'm not sure what just happened with this paragraph after doing an edit here. Oops...

Our rescue budgie Frankie is doing well. He's adjusting to life with us and is slowly coming around to trusting me. I an put my hand in his cage now and tend to his seed and water dishes without him freaking out now. That's a big step forward. He tweets much of the day and smooches his friend in the mirror. He's seldom alone with me being home all morning and then Angie home later in the afternoon. He gets table time at the back window which he really enjoys. I've been leaving his cage door open at times but so far he has no desire to step out of it. Back in mid-November we had a really warm morning and I took him out on the deck with me. He got very quiet and seemed nervous about the whole thing. Maybe he thought I was going to let him go? Who knows how he ended up outside back in early October, what his former life with whoever was like? He is quite happy and really loves being put to bed at the end of the day. I still think he came from a breeder, like all those others that were flying around here this past summer. Maybe they all lived in someone's shed or garage? If only he could tell us all about it.

I'm starting to see snowy owls on my way home from work again. The first one was 3 weeks ago and I have seen two this week. They are a treat to spot even if I am just passing them doing 110 km/hr on the highway like many of my winter sightings but occasionally I will find a place to park where it is safe to do so and watch them, try for a picture. I'm going to try and track how many sightings I have this season since it would be too hard to track individuals.

Well, I better stop this blog now and get my day started. The opossum is still here an hour later. I put some cat kibble out for him as he has been going to this spot which is under the bird feeder. I keep that sheet of ply wood out so during the winter it is a spot that I can easily shovel for the ground feeding birds. There's no grass in this spot anyway so it's all good. I took this picture from the window as he is a very skittish animal and I don't want to spook him out of the backyard. Not everyone in the neighbourhood would appreciate seeing an opossum wandering around. Odd, despite all the promotion from so many wildlife organizations about all the good these animals are for us, some people are still really freaked out at the sight of one.