My Back Yard

The rusty red fox squirrel, Abert’s squirrel, and pine squirrel all thrive in Colorado, according to “Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.”

A mighty fetching photo of an Abert’s squirrel perches at the top of this article from The Pueblo Chieftain.

Fresh produce in winter means fewer bobolinks singing, according to “Did Your Shopping List Kill a Songbird?”

Why? Because imported fruits and vegetables are often grown using pesticides that are illegal in the U.S., according to this New York Times op-ed by Bridget Stutchbury.

Atop patio,
lobe of daffodil bulb.
Squirrels play again.

Squirrels don’t like the taste of daffodil bulbs. But that doesn’t stop them from digging them up and dropping them in front of my back stairs. They don’t like my intruding into their space with my flowers.

Maybe he died of old age.

That’s how Iggy responded to finding a dead sparrow in our bird house. By coincident, another dead sparrow turned up on our patio the same day. That one must have been dropped off by a cat.

Sparrows have been scarce around here for the past few months. I wonder why.

But there’s an upside to the sparrows’ absence. Other birds have showed up. Especially a couple of tufted titmice, which are birds, not rodents. Yesterday I watched one fly away with a peanut in its beak. The peanut was almost as big as its head. A tufted titmouse is about the same size as a chickadee.

The fat boy clambered up the fence to sit upon a picket. He perfectly positioned to look down on me working out with my personal trainer.

He shifted his position to get a better view, moving a bit closer to the window over my head.

“Is that one of the guys from your neighborhood” asked my trainer.

I smiled because my observer had a bushy tail. He was a squirrel.

Spinner the Squirrel is the mascot of the Wichita Wingnuts, a new baseball team.

I’m not aware of other sports teams with squirrel mascots. Are you?

Somebody I know fell in love with a tropical fish in Seattle. A fish that looked like a floating potato.

Look at its photo. Do you see the resemblance to a potato?

It’s probably a Guinea Fowl Puffer.

Squirrels love to eat flower bulbs. My main defense against them is planting bulbs they don’t like. I’m big on daffodils and little spring flowers like the muscari.

Philly.com real estate columnist Al Heavens offers some other strategies in “Outfoxing bulb-thief squirrels.”
* Apply animal urine–your dog’s or the commercially available product from foxes.
* Stake hardware cloth over the sensitive area, but remember to remove it in time to let the bulbs grow up.

Can you imagine a building big enough to hold more than 100 football fields? Or California’s Disneyland plus 12 acres of parking? Or 971 basketball courts?

That’s the size of the Boeing airplane factory we toured in Everett, Wash., north of Seattle. It’s the world’s largest building by volume.

Most of the hangar doors are 87′ x 300′–almost the size of a football field.

Yesterday saw the usual smattering of squirrels in my back yard.

But also a couple sparrows, a blue jay, a grackle, and a late night bunny.