Birds, Bees, Fungi, and the Surprise!

Beautiful rains.

The only way to make it rain? I set out a Lego Aztec Minifigure to do a Raindance when the clouds moved in.

After the rain quit the first time, I put on boots and headed out to the creek bottom. It was just a joy to see wet leaves and water in the creek.

As I moved along through the tangled brush and briers I noticed some pinkish peachy colors on a log. On close inspection I was so excited!

Its common name is Wrinkled Peach Fungi, its scientific name is Rhodotus Palmtus. Yikes, I prefer the Wrinkled Peach name. It is so delicate and beautiful. And... ---> not edible.

This is the bottom side.

From the top.

I found some Oyster Mushrooms too.  The Slugs were really into them. 

On the same log in the creek bottom that had the beautiful peachy fungi, I found Bear Scat.

 Ewwww. The slugs were all over that too!

I went back home to get out of my hot clothes and report the bear scat findings. It wasn't exactly fresh. There has been a bear in the area for the past few summers [don't know if it is the same one or not]. However the bear uses the creek as a pathway to get from the berry patches on one neighbor's land to the wild apple trees on the west side of our land. 

Back home the humming birds were going nuts on the Bee Balm.

These two photos are a combo of shots. It is the same bird taken in rapid fire and composited so a person can admire how quick these guys are!

They spent a lot of time going to the Bee Balm and then back to the feeders. They really argue quite a bit!

My favorite bird is this guy, the Ruby Throated Hummer.

See his tongue???

8 seconds of him watching for intruders!

The bees were insane on the Bee Balm, but I didn't want to sit or stand in the hot sun and watch them so I opted for some shots of the Humming Birds instead.

HAH!

After I finished chores, an older Cadillac came creeping down our driveway. I was all set to give them a 'What For' thinking some old fart was lost or it was a pile of Jehovah's Witnesses.

It wasn't!

It was our friends from Missouri who had traveled north to see the Northern Lights and then were quite disappointed by their accommodations and the weather.

More on that after our weekend is done....

Bear Poop, Tide Detergent, Moth Balls

Well there it was... Friday the 13th!

We had 19 degrees in the morning and it felt a bit cold. I took a walk to the creek just after sunrise to see if there was any ice formations or tiny ice crystals on the rocks and grass.

I found one spot where the splashing water caught on a plant and formed a beautiful little ice formation!

The morning light in the creek was really quite beautiful and I took my time exploring. I'm glad I did. 

I found this:

Do Bears Poop in the woods?

Of course they do!

And they do it in the middle of a creek too!

I'm pretty sure this could be the same bear I saw while picking berries this summer. Generally the bears move on from our area to look for a mate. 

Black Bears are seen around here once in a while but generally it is a rare sighting, unless the population up north forces more bears south.

Anyway. The bear has stopped here more than once. There were a few piles on these rocks...well unless another bear decided to use this spot a toilet too? The under layer which is older is corn, the top layer is apples. There was another pile, but I didn't think you needed to see that.

Interesting! I thought it was a pretty cool find. 

I woke up early with a start in the middle of the night and for some odd reason I thought of Moth Balls. 

I'd used Moth Balls to deter the Ground Hogs from infesting my shed last year. They were making nests under a pile of old lumber. I had tossed Moth Balls under the lumber and dumped ammonia on top of the lumber and around their holes. They abandoned my shed within a few days. 

It smelled awful too, so I opened the doors and turned the exhaust fan on to keep it from being overwhelming.

So what about Moth Balls? 

It is a perfect critter deterrent. I use a few moth balls around the engine of the riding lawnmower's engine to keep the mice from chewing on the wires. 

How would Moth Balls work on deer? 

Rich said scented detergent would repel deer too. 

So being sly, and not wanting to deal with the guy who wants to shoot deer as they come up the trail out of my woods and towards where he parked his stand..........

I took some Tide Soap powder and spread it on the logs in the 'shoot' zone. Since we had a skiff of snow, it looks exactly like snow!

I added Moth Balls to the area, placing them here and there. I didn't need many and the smell was nasty. 

I had some old Tide detergent I'd purchased by mistake. Someone told me to use the powder in my machine. One, it doesn't work well, and two, I bought scented Tide. We don't use any scented soaps or softners at all. 

I can smell someone who uses scented laundry soap 20 to 30 feet away now. 

Being the Good Neighbor, I will call my 3 neighbors and let them know that the Bear is still hanging around.

I doubt he/she is a big concern. But I can't wait for some snow to hit the ground so I can do some tracking. I think I enjoy working out the stories that tracks of animals leave in the snow.

I would love to 'hunt' with my camera and get this fella in a nice shot I could frame.