Homestead mailing list

["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

We still have a pair of hummers who don't seem to have sense enough to fly 
south.  We watch them out the bedroom window every morning.

We listen every evening to a pair of fox who live across the road.  You can 
hear them calling back and forth as they hunt.  The deer have become a bit 
scarce now that hunting season is here.  They seem to "disappear" about this 
time each year.  The roses have breathed a sigh of relief <g>

Personally, I wish the ground squirrels would relocate!  Sneaky little 
buggers crawl right through the wire I have around the herb bed and they eat 
cilantro faster than I can grow it.  Guess I'll have to invest in some 
hardware cloth for that bed!

We haven't seen Mr. Coyote for about a week now.  And the turkeys are making 
themselves scarce also.

The bald eagle nest is empty but we still see the golden eagles floating 
around.  We have a jay that lives up in the big oak tree and it does a hawk 
cry.  We never know if the hawks are out or if the crazy jay is screaming at 
something.  Last week we saw a couple of kites hovering over the Whiskeytown 
Lake.  The egrets are still here and haven't flown south yet either.  We 
haven't seen the Great Blue Heron in a couple of weeks either, so guess he's 
flown south.

The turtles are still out in the neighbor's pond, so I guess we've got a 
couple of more weeks before we get a good frost.

The lizards and raccoon looking frogs are still out and about in the 
gardens.  Haven't seen any snakes for a couple of weeks either.

The mountain lion seems to be staying at the south end of the road.  A good 
thing <g>  The bobcats have been quiet.  We did see a bear cub two weeks ago 
just strolling across the road and then munching on something he found on 
the side before he ambled up the bank.

We have some strange little bird that we haven't been able to identify that 
is in the woodpecker family. Either that or he is working real hard at 
getting a major migraine <g>  A funny looking little thing as he runs up and 
down the trees.

What is strange is that we've been seeing alot of butterflies.  Didn't see 
them earlier in the spring and summer, just the last week or so.

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "SISU!" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>


> It was a banner day for bugs here at EarthNSky.  I was working on the
> chicken coop and something moving caught my eye.  It was a walking
> stick, and a large one at that!  I saw a baby walker a couple of weeks
> ago-so cute, so this one must have been great granddad(or grandma).  A
> few minutes later, while looking at my asparagus berries, a praying
> mantis crawled off the fern and onto my hand.  They kind of creep me out
> because they look like what I would envision an alien to look like, but
> I know they are super beneficial so I would never harm one.
> No snakes seen today, but I did see a pileated woodpecker hammering on a
> dead pine.  A nearby squirrel wasn't happy about it either.  Tonight,
> while out on the deck, we saw several bats struggling in the wind,
> listened to the coyotes, and I saw a luna month on the window looking
> confused at to what happened to the lights!