August 14th Gray

Good morning everyone! It rained on us this morning for the first time in. . . a month? Of course we’ve had rain during the day during the last month, but never rain drops on our heads during our morning walks. Everything was wet, of course, and the woods were abnormally dark – so dark that we stayed out of it this morning. We could feel that the woods still belonged to the night creatures and it wasn’t time for us, day-dwellers, to explore.

There is very little color this morning. The air did turn purple briefly around 6 a.m., about the time that the starling flock was startled, but then it turned into a subdued gray. Everything looks gray this morning, from the dark leaves on the trees, the uniform blanket of clouds, and the wet grass underneath our paws. The only spot of color came from our house!

For these reasons, today’s suggested reading is “The Raven”, by Edgar Allan Poe.

Winston did find a single flower to rejoice about – of course he would, even though we are in a 19th century desolate mood – a little garlic flower of a neglected garlic plant. He is the only one that still looks white, pure and bouncy in this climate of gloom.

A look at the fronts map tells us that a stationary front is still to our West and helping to maintain this wet but calm weather. It is moving South, along with the low-pressure system, so a high-pressure system from Canada should come down during the day and clear the skies tonight.

At 59°F this morning we can’t complain – even though our 85°F weather is “nevermore” and we can only expect upper 70’s for the rest of the week.

Enjoy your Wednesday everyone!

Love,

Mack

August 7th Coyotes

Good morning everyone!

The rain and thunder we received yesterday was surely the outcome of the warm front passing by, but the rain we shall get today will be the result of a cold front bearing down from Canada! No more 85°F for us – perhaps not until 2020.

The temperature was solidly at 60°F as we walked outside this morning before 6 a.m., just in time to catch a beautiful pink and orange sunrise. But if you looked at your paws and then back up to the sky, you would have missed the blushing colors – that’s how fast they acted up this morning. The ground is still very wet from all the rain we got yesterday, and the weeds were full of dew. Winston and I looked as if we had been submerged in water when we emerged from the nature trail.

Our human stopped to eat some late raspberries and early blackberries, as we raced around the property chasing smells. We’ve always suspected that there are coyotes to the East of us – we’ve found what looks like coyote scat at the edge of our woods, and we’ve heard (or imagined) howlings in the night. Well, it is no longer in our imagination! Non-blogging human successfully recorded the coyotes howling in the night he was woken up because we were chasing meteors. Their howl is a convoluted, high-pitched series of yips and cries, and it is hard to tell if it was a single coyote or a dozen. Long story short, Winston and I are no longer allowed to race each other in the dark.

Our flock of starlings seems to obey some sort of mysterious nature clock, timed with the rising and setting of the Sun. For days we’ve noticed that the flock seems to un-nestle itself shortly after the Sun pokes out over the Eastern horizon, and after the Sun sets in the West. Not only are they timed with the Sun, but they change their habits daily to accommodate for the Sun rising slightly later every day and setting slightly earlier every evening. Today, they seemed to be in a fuss at precisely 6:12 a.m., whereas we noticed the colors of sunrise showed at about 5:50 a.m. Starlings aren’t so much fun as blackbirds. Winston spends a fraction of a time chasing them before giving up, but if he finds a red-winged blackbird, he can be entertained by simply barking up a tree for full minutes (I’ve been told that humans don’t think it is very impressive to have an attention span that can last for minutes, but it certainly is a novelty in our world!).

Non-blogging human has been tracking the progress of our baby birds as well. He reports very excitedly that they opened their eyes yesterday. All three chicks and both parents seem to be in good health and out of reach of our numerous Gardner snakes.

It may be a sunlit morning, but we are expecting clouds and rain for the rest of the day! Isn’t it odd how mornings are often very colorful, even if the rest of the day is dreary? To think of all the people who miss this colorful start to their day. It’s almost like someone is spelling ‘hope’ all over the countryside before drenching us in rain.

Take care everyone!

Love,

Mack

July 21st The Starlings are here

Hello friends! Today is another day we woke up bright and early, just as our resident cardinal was singing the arrival of dawn. And boy, are we glad! The starlings are here, and they travel in huge flocks, like our red-winged blackbirds, and they like to hide in the tall cattails around our pond. You know European starlings – they are the birds that form huge angry mobs that do a bit of synchronized flying before settling down at their resting spot. Winston and I had so much fun chasing them around and watching their flock fly from corner to corner!

European starlings are a non-native species to the USA and seem to be our July and August visitors. That said, the red-winged blackbirds are gone. There is at least one left, but his trill is being drowned by all the starlings’ cackles.

It is glorious to start out the day at 68°F! Yesterday I believe we reached a high temperature of 92°F, the hottest in 2019 so far. A cold front is upon us from Canada, so don’t get too attached to this hot weather!

Everyone has jobs to do over here: humans are stacking wood, ripping carpet, and painting rooms. Me, my job is to pick up sticks in the lawn. The only free-rider here is Winston, whose only job is being Winston, as far as I can tell.

But our hard work has sone beautiful fruit. Our garden is producing new snowball flowers (thank you, Grandma!) and our forest hike today produced a single blueberry. I’ve heard from other howls that it is blueberry season, but ours are still quite green!

The early bird catches the worm, I guess!

Time to get back to sleep, er, work. . .

Love,

Mack