scolding and chattering~

You should hear the ruckus I listen to in the morning as the sun comes up and the squirrels make their way to the deck in the morning to check out the bird feeders.  Constant scolding and chattering over who gets to be there first.

It's usually this gal who wins out ... she seems to be the dominate one.  It's the fat little momma red squirrel.

Remember her from one of my prior post ~ the big fat pregnant one ~ looking like she was ready to burst.

She must have a nest of little ones that she's attending to now.  She gets to the feeder... chases off the bigger gray squirrels... eats and she's on her way.

I have quite the mixtures of squirrels this year.  Red squirrels, gray squirrels, black squirrels and a cross between the grays and black.

The black squirrel though is camera shy.  I tried and tried this morning to get a shot of it; but it just refused to come close enough.  So I turned on the zoom on my camera and got these shots:

Then I noticed another squirrel that seems to be a mix of the black and gray squirrel:

After they settled down a bit and realized that I wasn't a threat to them they came in closer.  I guess hungry for some sun flower seeds over rode their fear.

Even the black squirrel overcame his fear of me and came sneaking up the steps to check things out:

Also... bonus shot ~ Mr or Mrs mud turtle was out on the rocks.  How do you tell the sex of a turtle??  Sara calls it Norman ... so I guess it's a Mr.  I picked him up to take a look; but couldn't see anything... lol... and then it peed on me.  So now I'm in agreement with Sara.... it's a Mister.

I felt kinda sorry for Norman ... having to live in the mud and the sludge of the black lagoon with no fresh water... sooooooooooooooooo~

When Sara and Don came over last evening I had them help me get it cleaned.

My waterfall is now up and functioning again and the black lagoon has fresh water.

I love how the sun reflects off the water in this pic:

At the top of my waterfall feature is an old cistern hand pump that used to be on the old farmstead we once lived at:

It's a piece of Slim's heritage ~ his great grandparents I'm sure pumped many a buckets of water with it.

This old blue heron is one of my little treasures.  He's heavy ... I'm not sure what he's made of ~ I believe cast iron.

Look at my poppies!  I'm sure by the end of the day they'll be opening up.  Just in time for Memorial Day weekend!!

Until next time...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel