Just tales of me and the furry, the feathered, the slimey and the scaly... whatever! Fun stories. Sad stories. Stories that directly involve me or stories that have touched me.
October 31, 2018
Happy Halloween 2018
On vacation and hoping for something to blog about after it's done. Until then though, wishing everyone a happy and safe Halloween. I thought I would share a little bit of the fun I have around here with the cats. Some of the photos I may have shared in the past, but there's a few from this week too. Pets are like our kids, forever being that. The bonds can be quite strong between a person and their animal, and the memories with them can last a lifetime.
Meadow was a blast to share any festive times with. She loved our quality time and put up with my silliness.
Purr and play. I really embraced these times as she got older.
Merry when she was a kitten. This photo won her first place in our vet's Halloween photo contest.
Another Halloween as she got a little older. Funny thing is this year she's quite intimidated by that mask. I've been "working" with her on getting to know that it's not real. Calico cats sure have, um, explosive personalities.
When Merry and Molly were kittens, we said that Merry was going to be the little devil.
How wrong we were. But that's another story, isn't it Molly? Don't let that "Iza pumpkin!" cuteness fool you.
The look of humiliation. Or "are we done yet?"
I can get away with a lot more of this with Merry than I can Molly. She seems to enjoy the time with her daddy.
Oh, it's Franken-Merry!
Merry says "enough with this foolishness!"
I hope you all have a great Halloween with your pets too!
October 18, 2018
The last Month or so...
Just a quick bit of this, that, whatever as there's nothing really stand out to blog about.
As the weather cools, we're seeing some different birds around our favorite areas.
Like this Northern Harrier. All I can say is "Look out below!" as that's his poop falling from the sky below him.
There was 2, but possibly 3 of them flying around this particular afternoon. It was fun to watch them frolic in the sky above us.
Purple Finches have shown up in Toronto. Angie and I saw a couple dozen last Sunday. Ron Pittaway shared his annual Finch forecast and it looks like his predictions are correct once again. I wonder what other Finches we will see at home, or nearby, in the coming months?
Still lots of Sparrow species passing through. We saw so many White-crowned Sparrows just last Sunday.
White-throated Sparrows in no small numbers as well.
Tons of Golden-crowned Kinglets. I love their call in the fall.
Not quite as many Ruby-crowns but they were around too.
On Thanksgiving weekend, 11 Owls were released to various parts of Southern Ontario thanks to The Owl Foundation. Angie and I were fortunate enough to be able to release 2 Eastern Screech Owls in Toronto. Thankfully another volunteer driver was able to get the birds up to us because otherwise we would have had to pass on this opportunity because of so many other plans with family and friends. Even with this help, it was still just over a two hour drive around the city taking these Owls back to their territories.
One of the Owls after release. Both were wished a happy wild life as they flew off into the darkness.
Prior to this, we released one Screech Owl about 4 years ago. So it was great to be able to do so again.
My birthday was a month ago and we did a private raptor encounter at Mountsberg. A nice visit with friends of both the human kind and a few feathered.
Hanging with Shadow the Barn Owl. He says click here if you would like to learn how to have your own private raptor encounter.
Yard mammal activity has dwindled lately. So weird to not see 8 or more Raccoons (two families) wandering around at the same time.
I've not seen Bear in about a month. We had a nice evening together the last time I saw him, which was on a Whisky Wednesday.
I hope everyone is okay. Not all our neighbours like our wildlife friends. We just hope no one will go out of their way to hurt them.
Topper still comes around.
We have another Skunk wandering around who looks very much like him, but is a first year. We call him "Baby Topper". He's not nearly as tolerant as Topper though. Angie sees him most evenings just before it gets dark. I have to wait until the weekend for those last light encounters but he's still wandering around some nights after I get home.
Well, I guess that's it for this blog. No real story telling but some tell me they prefer these mostly photographic sightings kinda blogs. To each their own. I'm sure a story will present itself soon enough, just watch what I wish for, because not every story to be told is a nice one.
If you have time and feel like a couple more reads, here you go...
I did a nest blog last week which if you did not check it out, please do, as I think it's worth a read. See here.
And if you still have time for more, our latest blog for Bird Canada came out last week too. See here.
As the weather cools, we're seeing some different birds around our favorite areas.
Like this Northern Harrier. All I can say is "Look out below!" as that's his poop falling from the sky below him.
There was 2, but possibly 3 of them flying around this particular afternoon. It was fun to watch them frolic in the sky above us.
Purple Finches have shown up in Toronto. Angie and I saw a couple dozen last Sunday. Ron Pittaway shared his annual Finch forecast and it looks like his predictions are correct once again. I wonder what other Finches we will see at home, or nearby, in the coming months?
Still lots of Sparrow species passing through. We saw so many White-crowned Sparrows just last Sunday.
White-throated Sparrows in no small numbers as well.
Tons of Golden-crowned Kinglets. I love their call in the fall.
Not quite as many Ruby-crowns but they were around too.
On Thanksgiving weekend, 11 Owls were released to various parts of Southern Ontario thanks to The Owl Foundation. Angie and I were fortunate enough to be able to release 2 Eastern Screech Owls in Toronto. Thankfully another volunteer driver was able to get the birds up to us because otherwise we would have had to pass on this opportunity because of so many other plans with family and friends. Even with this help, it was still just over a two hour drive around the city taking these Owls back to their territories.
One of the Owls after release. Both were wished a happy wild life as they flew off into the darkness.
Prior to this, we released one Screech Owl about 4 years ago. So it was great to be able to do so again.
My birthday was a month ago and we did a private raptor encounter at Mountsberg. A nice visit with friends of both the human kind and a few feathered.
Hanging with Shadow the Barn Owl. He says click here if you would like to learn how to have your own private raptor encounter.
Yard mammal activity has dwindled lately. So weird to not see 8 or more Raccoons (two families) wandering around at the same time.
I've not seen Bear in about a month. We had a nice evening together the last time I saw him, which was on a Whisky Wednesday.
I hope everyone is okay. Not all our neighbours like our wildlife friends. We just hope no one will go out of their way to hurt them.
Topper still comes around.
We have another Skunk wandering around who looks very much like him, but is a first year. We call him "Baby Topper". He's not nearly as tolerant as Topper though. Angie sees him most evenings just before it gets dark. I have to wait until the weekend for those last light encounters but he's still wandering around some nights after I get home.
Well, I guess that's it for this blog. No real story telling but some tell me they prefer these mostly photographic sightings kinda blogs. To each their own. I'm sure a story will present itself soon enough, just watch what I wish for, because not every story to be told is a nice one.
If you have time and feel like a couple more reads, here you go...
I did a nest blog last week which if you did not check it out, please do, as I think it's worth a read. See here.
And if you still have time for more, our latest blog for Bird Canada came out last week too. See here.