Hodge-Podge of Things

Yesterday I went to my parents house. They live 50 minutes from me. Both country and city streets.
Saw lots of road-kill. Isn't that interesting? The usual, racoons, squirrels and one duck.

I was watching their bird feeder and noticed they had mostly the same type birds I do.

Today was a rest day. It was very chilly 49 degrees compared to yesterday's 78 degrees. Big difference. The other day when I was raking the leaves I got 5 nasty blisters on my hand. Quite painful. I went outside today to see if I could use the leaf blower but it was too painful to use it. So I sat and looked around for a short time. I heard robins but could not see them. Blue Jays were calling back and forth all over the neighborhood. I didn't hear them much in the middle of the hot summer but they are noisy now. They will stay over the winter if there is a food supply.

a Blue Jay

While walking around my yard there was several places where a fungus or mushrooms were growing. Yuck...they seemed to be out in the open and under bushes.

I have no idea what these are. But we have them every fall. But never in the spring or summer.

The Red Breasted Woodpecker was back today. It is a pretty bird.

These woodpeckers are  9 to 10.5 inches long, and have a wingspan of 15 to 18 inches. Their heads are very eye catching.

After dinner tonight I sat at the computer looking out the window and saw the male and female Black Squirrels running up and down the Lilac Bushes. Playing chase it looked like.

There was a cat sitting down by the water edge just looking for the longest time. I think it was a neighbors cat 4 houses down. It comes by every now and then. Or it could have been a wild cat. We get a lot of wild cats around my neighborhood. Non cat lovers complain about them but we have always liked that they were around. They keep down the rodent population. And they don't bother anyone. Once there was a litter of kittens that were so cute. I saw them in my back yard under a bush. I bent down to pick the cutest one up but it hissed and got in full battle mode. I left it alone. Too bad, I would have kept it. It looked to be about 5 weeks old. I could have tamed it. But it wanted to claw me to pieces. I walked away.

Saw the Grebe's swimming today so they are still here. But our neighbors groundhog is nowhere to be seen so I am assuming it is hibernating already. Like all the frogs and turtles. Long gone now.
It lives under the neighbors pier and always comes over to our yard to eat something in our yard. It really hasn't done any damage so we just let it be. I don't know what it eats in our yard. Grubs or clover maybe. I don't know what they eat. I just looked them up... they are a rodent

belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as Marmots. Groundhogs primarily eat wild grasses and other vegetation, including berries and agricultural crops, when ^available.  Groundhogs also eat grubs, grasshoppers, insects, snails and other small animals. Very interesting! No wonder it lives down by the water's edge. A perfect smorgasbord for it.

Maybe tomorrow will be more interesting