Tag Archives: nature

More baby chuckers!

June 21, 2019 Rivergirl 33 Comments

Remember how I warned you there would be ~~more pictures of baby woodchucks than you ever thought possible~~ future photographs of our backyard wildlife?

It starts now.

Calm down, they’re babies and they’re cute.

How bad can it be?

In the evening, it usually goes like this…

Mother woodchuck comes out to see if the coast is clear.

And must give some kind of silent signal…

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Because before long….

The little ones are scampering around everywhere.

They love our deck and run back and forth so quickly it’s hard to snap a shot.

Two of them chase each other around and love hiding under the grill cover…

While the other two are busy eating deer grain.

With their mother…

Who is in serious need of an 18 hour bra.

Sorry girlfriend, but it needed to be said.

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I know you can’t un-see that.

Apologies.

Maybe this bit of cuteness will make up for it.

He doesn’t quite have the hang of it yet…

But he’s trying.

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Because I promised I would….

June 15, 2019 Rivergirl 29 Comments

Squirrels.

Love ’em or hate ’em, you have to admit they’re marvelously clever and acrobatic creatures. Entire industries are built on deterring them from raiding our bird feeders, but squirrels?

They train for it.

Personally, I enjoy their antics and figure anyone who works that hard deserves a few seeds and nuts.

So as promised, here are a few of my favorite shots over the years.

When we moved to our house in 2002 it was a wasteland of gardenless grass, so I stuck a quick pole in the ground with a feeder.

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It didn’t take long for a squirrel to find it.

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Reaching it was a little harder.

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But eventually he got there.

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Although he had a hard time accessing the seed…

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It didn’t beat him.

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And he happily ate hanging upside down.

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Mind you, we have a large open backyard and the winds blow like downtown Chicago so a lot of the feeders actively swing.

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Which is what this one was doing. Back and forth, back and forth, with a squirrel happily perched inside and enjoying the ride.

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This one didn’t mind sharing the feeder with an orange.

He just used it as a cushion.

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Here’s another upside down eater.

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Maybe he was raiding seed…maybe he was doing handstands.

Tough call.

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Either way, I’m in awe of the leg muscle it takes to hang like that.

This feeder posed a challenge at first.

And for a while all he could do was hug it.

But after a day or two?

Upside down munching.

Squirrels….

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Is there anything they can’t do?

Apparently not.

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If there’s any better smell….

June 13, 2019 Rivergirl 27 Comments

I don’t know what it is.

Freshly cut lilacs.

Okay, I totally want a pair of crab scissors now.

These two huge lilac bushes live on the side of our house.

(That’s my vase on the ground to the right of them for scale.)

When we moved here 17 years ago there wasn’t much in the way of landscaping , but thankfully there were lilacs.

One white…

One dark purple.

Naturally, my favorite was always the paler shade…. but beggars can’t be choosers.

My girlfriend gave me a pale one 3 years ago, but it’s got a long way to go to catch up to it’s siblings.

Come on little fella, you can do it.

Of course, from the pace of growth…

I’ll probably be dead before it blooms.

Good thing the white one is prolific.

Ah….

Lilacs!

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Babies!

June 11, 2019 Rivergirl 37 Comments

Remember the dandelion eating woodchuck I posted about a while back?

We’ve discovered she lives under our barn.

And yes, she’s a she because…

She has babies!

Baby chuckers… can I get an awwwww?

They’re just too cute.

Four in total …but I rarely see them together long enough to get a photograph.

Three is the most I’ve captured so far.

Sweetness!

Here’s one trying to hide under my iron garden bird.

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Well, not quite.

More like…

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This little one seems to like our back deck.

You can hear him scurrying for cover under the grill… then catch him checking to see if the coast is clear.

This looked like trouble…

But after a few nibbles, he decided he didn’t like geraniums…which was good news for me.

I hate to tell you, but this probably won’t be the last of the baby chucker pics.

You’ve been warned.

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Nursery chuckles and organic weed control.

June 9, 2019 Rivergirl 33 Comments

I’ve never met a flower I didn’t like, so I never pass a nursery without stopping in to check out the new arrivals.

The other day?

This made me laugh.

Best name for manured soil…

Evah!

And then there was this little succulent…

Who clearly wanted a hug.

When I got home that afternoon and saw all the dandelions popping up on our lawn, I lamented the fact that we don’t use chemicals for weed control.

But then I saw this out our bedroom window.

Bless his little Chucker heart.

He wandered around and ate every bloom he saw.

Suck on that Monsanto!

I knew it!

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When I die….

June 6, 2019 Rivergirl 30 Comments

My epitaph shall read:

Here lies River

She was swallowed by a quince bush.

This is the bush from Hell that lives and multiplies like a rabbit on our property.

Every fall we wack it down to a manageable level, and every spring it comes back with a vengeance.

Yes, the blooms are lovely.

And yes, the bumblebees enjoy it.

Pardon the bee butt shots. Apparently they’re camera shy.

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But damn.

It’s only June and the pink spawn of Satan is already reaching the roof line.

So if I should disappear this summer?

Grab a machete and come get me….

It’s already got three window exits blocked.

I fear the doors are next.

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Did you know…

June 5, 2019 Rivergirl 37 Comments

In 1700’s London, you could purchase insurance against going to Hell?

Proof positive there’s a policy for everything.

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And yes, it’s that time again.

Game of Thrones

President Andrew Jackson’s parrot Poll cursed so loudly during his master’s funeral he had to be removed.

Parrots…

You never know what the little bastards will do.

The LEGO company was founded in Denmark in the 1930’s.

It’s name is an abbreviation for the words leg godt which mean “play well”.

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A crocodile’s tongue is attached to the roof of it’s mouth so it doesn’t accidentally bite it when snapping down on prey.

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There is a canine condition known as Frito Feet.

It’s a bacterial foot infection that smells like corn chips.

Sorry Fido.

In ancient Greece women counted their age from the day they were married.

This works for me.

I’m 35.

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The Hawaiian alphabet only contains 12 letters. Five vowels and seven consonants.

You’d think that would make spelling their names easier, but it doesn’t.

The most common name for a goldfish in America is Jaws.

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They’re a wee bit confused.

May 31, 2019 Rivergirl 39 Comments

I put birdseed out for the birds….

Which the deer eat.

I put apples out for the deer….

Which the woodchucks eat.

Granted, they’re cute as all get out when they do…

But do they have to eat the deer grain as well?

Sometimes they climb right in the bowl and polish it off.

Which leads the deer to eat…

It’s a vicious circle.

And proves that our backyard creatures are a little confused.

Like this Baltimore Oriole….

Who tries to drink from the hummingbird feeder.

Yes, you.

The owner of this house spends a small fortune keeping you in fresh oranges and grape jelly…. don’t get greedy.

Of course….

This guy?

Eats whatever…

And whoever he wants.

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Have you ever gotten so sidetracked you forgot where you started?

May 26, 2019 Rivergirl 46 Comments

I was at Wal Mart the other day and decided to cruise down the clearance aisle. I don’t often shop there, but clearance racks are like thrift stores. You never know what you’ll find.

I found this:

I chuckled. I photographed it. I came home, started to write a blog and thought….. come on.

How often does corn need to wear a coat?

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Fair enough… if not slightly disturbing.

Proof positive there’s a Google Image for everything.

And then I saw –

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Which is definitely disturbing.

Corn porn?

WTH!

And of course that got me thinking of that damned corn on the cob dildo I found on Amazon a while back, which lead me to –

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Make of that what you will.

Google Images has a mind of it’s own.

But thinking about disturbing corn also made my mind go here –

Oh, yeah.

Stephen King’s Children of the Corn.

A camp classic.

But not the only strange corn…

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And that made me remember Corn Stonehenge.

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Yes, it really exists.

Dublin, Ohio

Maybe it’s supposed to be ironic, this former corn field, sprouting 109 people-sized ears of concrete corn in a large oddball art display. But it’s also a salute to Sam Frantz, an inventor of hybrid corns, and a very weird sight along the highway.

Frantz farmed this site from 1935 to 1963, using it as as a study field for tasty mutant strains. Frantz was “well known for his development of hybrid corn seeds,” and worked with Ohio State University on hybridization projects. He donated this land, now named Sam and Eulalia Frantz Park, after its farming days were over.

Field of Corn.

The artist brought in by the Dublin Arts Council to create the environment of corn, Malcolm Cochran, completed the field in 1994.

Intended by the Arts Council to remind residents of the area’s long-gone agricultural heritage, the Field of Corn instantly became a joke — giant inedible food — paid for with tax dollars, and surrounded by a sprawl of corporate offices, bland businesses and suburban neighborhoods.

And now, I totally want to go and take a corn selfie.

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