Beauty and Mishaps

Yesterday I shared pictures from the gardens of Glen Burnie with sculptures of insects. Here's one more sculpture from there but this one is a hummingbird.

Some things went well this week but there were also some mishaps. The other night I heard a "clunk" outside but did not see anything wrong when I peered out the window. In the morning I found a birdhouse had fallen down. Feathers from the nesting material were all over but I'm not too worried because little house finches had already fledged from there a few weeks ago.

Then there's this empty finch feeder that I found on the ground about 30 feet from where it had been hanging. I held it up to take a picture of the big holes in the plastic. Perhaps a raccoon had taken it. I don't think a squirrel would have made such large holes.

It's also possible that a raccoon pulled down that bird house.

I'm not going to put up another finch feeder right away. I don't want to encourage any predator to come around. If you feed them, they will come!

Here's a picture of the feeder before it was destroyed. Goldfinches really liked the nyjer (black thistle) seed.

Next we see a cat that came around here for years. He walked through my yard almost every day. Sadly, I found him curled up on my deck a few days ago, dead. He had on a red collar so I knew he was not a stray, although he had been some years ago.

I knew that a woman across the street had tried to tame one of the stray cats. I found her number and called her. She had been looking for him for five days! He had not been on my deck that long because I had lunch out there the day before and he was not there then. She came over and tearfully claimed him. She put him in a blanket and Frank carried him over to her yard so her spouse could bury him when he came home. There were no signs of trauma so I think he got ill and came on our deck to get a drink of water and then lay down. Rest in peace, kitty!

A less tragic mishap was our well pump going out. The water pressure fell and Frank tried changing our filters but that did not help. He called the plumber and he showed up early the next day. He and his helper installed a new pump. That wasn't cheap but it solved the problem.

Let's switch to some pretty scenes, starting with Canada geese leading their goslings on a swim. That fountain helps aerate the water and discourage overgrowth of algae.

Weekend Reflections.

Sometimes birds perch on our bench, like the catbird and blue jay.

Saturday Critters, I'd Rather Be Birdin'

This small deer visited our yard. Frank saw him and called me to the window. This is a cell phone picture taken through two panes of glass so it isn't the sharpest image.

I got this meme from the internet to remind everyone that many pets are scared by fireworks.