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Now that the apple tree (I didn’t plant but grows better than those I do) is spreading it’s branches we have more squirrels coming to visit our feeders.
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We have a wide open backyard and they prefer tree cover for safety. Like this hefty momma hanging out on the garden bed border.
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What a chonk!
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This my friend, is the perfect bowl of chowder. Found at the Freeport Cafe, an unassuming little place on Route 1.
Thick, rich, creamy and loaded with clammy goodness. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Driving along Maine’s back roads you never have to wonder where the rednecks live.
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They tend to leave their calling card.
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Smaller than the pileated, but still pretty.
He’s called the Red Bellied Woodpecker. Though I never have figured out why.
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River's world..... 
I almost made clam chowder this week. Is it a problem to use canned clams?
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For a Mainer, yes.
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Here, that’s the calling card of Fast&Furious wannabes… becoming a big problem.
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Glad it wasn’t anywhere near our house….
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Awww. I hoped he was a baby of the pileated woodpecker (however you spell that). But I did wonder how he could be so big so soon.
As for the grey squirrel, my sister’s pet wild red squirrel was killed by a grsy squirrel, who took over the red’s nest. Maybe nature will take care of your “red” problem for you.
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We gave types of woodpeckers in Maine. The tiny Downy woodpecker, this Hairy and the large pileated. Yes you spelled it correctly.
While I’m sorry for your sister if it was a pet… that story does give me hope.
😉
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The tiny red squirrel lived in a tree outside her apartment for three years. She fed it and gave it water, and eventually he ate right out of her hand. They would sit together on her balcony for hours, inches apart, and he would chatter to her and she would sing to him. One morning she woke up to find his skin and blood all over her balcony. A big gray squirrel sat on the rail as if demanding she feed it. She cried for a week! After a while she started to feed the gray just because she needed to be feeding something. He disappeared a few months later, and now she has no one. Her apartment block no longer allows pets. She is very lonely. She cannot afford to move because she is protected by rent laws where she lives, and lives on a very small government income, just like I do. She worked under the table all her life, so never paid taxes. Her pension is as small as her apartment. She is 78 years old, and stuck where she is. I pay for her cell phone because she cannot afford one herself. Most of her friends have passed on already. I could not make up a story as sad as hers. But somehow she still loves life. She never had kids, and she booted her husband out 40 years ago for cheating on her.
I am sorry to lay all this on you, but I am in a melancholy mood this morning, and can’t stop thinking about her, all because of the picture of the gray squirrel.
We asked her to move in with us, even brought her here for a month trial six years ago. But she knows the town where she lives, and did not like our small town. We could not convince her to stay. And she doesn’t do computers.
On another topic, it is nice to see you miss a typo. Now I know you’re human, and not some AI Chatbot!
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Ack!
I did. I missed that one because I was rushing. No good ever comes from that.
And that is a sad story, I’m sorry. I know how much comfort visiting creatures can be.
❤️
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Great photos. That chowder looks delicious.
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It’s the best… evah!
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That wall looks really good. I only see one problem with the chowder: The bowl should hold at least a quart. I could eat that stuff as a meal all by itself.
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I do that sometimes. This day it was just an appetizer…
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They only drive like that because they never had sidewalks and chalk to draw on as children…
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Love how your trees are blossoming! That squirrel is definitely a chonck. Oh I do love me a good clam chowder, which is hard to find in my landlocked neck of the woods.
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Everyone makes it up here but we’re very picky.
😉
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Not that I do not believe your description of your bird as a Hairy Woodpecker, but because I cannot find another picture of one with that much red on its head, I put your photo on iNaturalist for confirmation. My birdwatching partner says she has never seen any woodpecker that looks exactly like him. Hope you don’t mind. I like exactitude.
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I’m sorry, I misidentified. This is a red bellied woodpecker. You’re catching me in all kinds of boo boos today!
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Lol. Not trying to catch you at anything. Like I said, I like to check things I’m told. Now I gotta go look for a Red Belly.
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I don’t blame you.
Now I shall leave and hang my head in shame…
🤣
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I guess whoever named the woodpecker can’t tell up from down.
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Just like the purple finch… who isn’t purple.
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