Ordinary days are made up of snippets of ordinary time. And when you measure ordinary time individually, you find a subtle mosaic of chaos and order that reflects the balance of life – and of a day.

The yard at the farm offers wonderful opportunities to eyeball the community of residential fauna and avifauna. This past winter a quail honoured us with a snowy stay for a while…

And the resident skunk, with den hole beneath the pile of branches at the perimeter of the yard, appreciates the bounty under the bird feeders…

watch the tail…

the chickadee – caught in a stalled moment of usually cheeky effervescence…

chickadee splitting a seed in a heavy wind 

the deconstruction of the barn even spurred the Hawk to help…

the ritual emptying of the Sherman traps holding misplaced raptor delicacies…

but Spring is upon all and the “blue heads” are trotting…

and the red-wings are flocking…

 

the finches are golding…their gatherings look like swarms of lemon drops with wings…

and the bird bath becomes the “water cooler” of the yard with random robin gatherings…and apparently with one Angry Bird…

nuthatches are daily attendees – flying in near the top of the tree – and spiraling their way down the tree head first toward the feeder…I love the black and grey…

woodpecker watching – this Downy woodpecker flew to the pillar and then just sat there – not moving at all for about ten minutes – I think he was napping – he then jumped up to the water for a quick sip and then away…

and these Downy ‘peckers are pairing – the Downy on the right kept dogging the other – following up and down branches and tree to tree – and he kept chattering at her…

wonderful pattern of the American Tree Sparrows…

and blending camouflage of the Flicker…

daily bark investigations…these by red bellied woodpecker and downy ‘pecker…notice balancing with feathers…

and a few days past brings a recent arrival of the wood thrush…

for some reason he cocked his head to pick up seeds – look like the junco in the corner finds this curious behaviour also…

a couple “here’s looking at you” birds…red-bellied and female robin…

Ordinary – defined as “with no special or distinctive features” – I take deliberate issue with that definition!  Take full measure…of the ordinary!

AN EXPERIMENT OF PICKY EATERS:

I found a pomegranate in the bottom of my back pack.  Having been there an unknown amount of time, the tough outer skin was now exceptional tough. So I decided to “plant” it in the hill garden of the farm yard. The next day something/one had dug it up and left it next to the hole, apparently not being able to bite through the tough skin or just not wanting to. So I “replanted” it in the same hole only this time piercing the skin with the edge of my spade. The next day again something/one had dug it up…this time though having relished the gelatinous fleshy seeds.

 
I then decided to venture into other fruits and “planted” a very ripe avocado…this was devoured by licking out the flesh around the seed without removing it from the planting hole…

I then “planted” a ripe mango…this was the limit…it was dug up and “thrown” into the yard without being eaten.  A few bite marks showed a tasting but not an eating. So mango must be the limit.

The “night of the avocado” we set up the wildlife camera and watched a raccoon and skunk come back and forth to the appetizer hole over the course of several hours.  The next day when I pulled in to the farm a group of turkey vultures were feasting on something in the south pasture.  My approach forced them to the air and nearby tree.

  Going over to investigate…

I found a skunk! Now one has to ask the question…was the combination of pomegranate one night followed by avocado the next too much for the skunk…causing him to stagger into the pasture and keel over? Or is this just the food chain of how turkey vultures get to pomegranates and avocados?

HOW ABOUT A NUMBERS GAME:
1-pick a number between 1 and 10
2-double it
3-add 10
4-divide in half
5-subtract the original number
6-the answer is 5

PONDER THIS:
It takes approximately 10,000 hours to perfect a skill.

LASTLY
Gnomes Rule and they will ALWAYS Rule