Wildlife Right on Our Porch

Minky eating our biredseed and here he is on the post
Well, Minky was back eating birdseed this morning very early (for him). The sun was just coming up and it was about -20 degrees! I think it was really Minkette because she was smaller and very shy. Maybe it was a new one. I tapped on the window and she was gone.

Speaking of wildlife around here, we have been enjoying the 3 squirrels who tend to come and eat all the best stuff before the Stellars Blue Jays are allowed to come. The squirrels have been very entertaining. There is Alvin, the medium sized one, Biggie, and then there is Blackie a small black squirrel with a much longer tail than the other two. He is definitely the odd man out of this trio! Biggie is the boss. When he gets in the frying pan to eat no one else is allowed. Alvin is the chatterer, although Blackie can last longer at it than even Alvin. Alvin sits on the porch swing or the porch or in the evergreen branches we have piled up from trimming the bottom of the Chrismas tree(see yesterday's post). He chatters and stomps his feet and shakes all over trying to get Biggie to move. Sometimes Biggie will go up in the box hanging from the porch roof and then Alvin can get in the frying pan to eat. I don't know why Alvin won't go up in the box when Biggie is there. He does when he is alone. Meanwhile, Blackie will show up and begin chattering too. This bothers the other two who will chase him down into the trees and sometimes they even fight out in the snow. I really need to figure out how to video them . Alvin is the one who sat up in the upstairs window when Minky was here one morning and chattered for over an hour. The window was right above Paul's bed and he was very irritated with Alvin!

We have a "squirrel proof" bird feeder, but whoever designed it did not have mountain squirrels in mind. One day I saw Biggie trying to figure out how to get in it. He tried from the rafters and from one of the support posts. I ran for the camera and got back just as he was making a leap from the rafters. He missed and did a flying dive to the ground. I wasn't fast enough to get him flying. He worked at it until he figured it out and I did get pictures of him in the cage. The guys down at Wildbirds Unlimited in Fort Collins said "no way" but here is the picture to prove it! There are some feeders that would work but they are very expensive ($60+) and we enjoy watching them too much to let them not be here! As I am writing this, Alvin is chipping away up in the window. I got up to look and sure enough Minky is back eating.


Biggie in the squirrel proof cage

The chickadees are not very shy. They will come and eat no matter who is out there. Even when I go out to feed them they just wait patiently on the porch swing or in the rafters for me to get the job done and then go back to eating.

The Blue Jays are very shy and very beautiful. I would love to get some close up pictures of them but they fly away as soon as we move toward the windows. There are at least 9 of them that sit down in our hummingbird tree or in the dead pines and wait for me to bring on the chow. They scold me from the trees if I don't get with it! There are some bossy ones who run every one off (the males?) kind of like the hummingbirds. Others will eat together up in the box. They are so blue with that jet black topknot--very pretty.

Yesterday I looked out the window about 7:30 AM and there was a young male moose on the pond dam. He had some small paddles but still looked quite majestic. We had been seeing his footprints crossing the pond and down by the creek. He was moving right along so I didn't have time to get his picture but I do have one of him or another moose from last spring.



The moose on the left is trying to get the best grass under the gas tank out in front of the cabin.
The moose's picture on the right was taken from our porch.

I will have more on our wildlife friends as the seasons change.