For the Turtle Lovers

Once again this year, I have quite a few regular turtle visitors.  This is one that I recognize from last year.  She came around daily and you saw her featured with watermelon several times during the long, dry summer.  This year, she is enjoying peaches.  The peach crop has been pretty good and I've been able to get hail damaged 'seconds' for a really reasonable price.  (The turtles and I don't care if the peach has a blemish here or there...)

I saw her foraging in the back yard for something tasty (and wet), so I went out and offered her part of a peach I was slicing up to have with my breakfast.  She immediately turned toward me and started marching my way with purposeful little strides.  

She thought the peach looked and smelled pretty good.  

So, she nabbed it! 

Then, she marched away to enjoy her prize.   

Yes, she did get more than one little piece of peach!!  :) 

No Egrets...

Baloo and I have been getting up early for our main walk of the day, since it has been so hot and humid.  He wilts in the sun later in the day and it's not good for him to get too hot and bothered.  So, I've been bundling him into the car and going off to the wetlands area not very far from the house to take him adventuring.  

Baloo loves to explore the new territory and I love watching the migrating shorebirds that have stopped off for rest and refueling.  The wetlands aren't as wet as usual (although they're much better than last year, when there wasn't anything but a little mud left by the end of the summer), but there still seems to be plenty of good fishing available.    

There are herons, ducks, geese, terns and other shorebirds (and songbirds) taking advantage of this little rest area - but there really are no egrets.  I thought I would share my favorite pictures over the next few days. 

There are dozens of great blue herons and little green herons wading in the shallows.  I was trying to get some good pictures showing off their mirrored reflections as they  patiently stood awaiting breakfast delivery.

Today, it's all herons, all the time.  I'll post pictures of some of the other birds (and other creatures, as well), but don't be surprised to see more of these excellent fishers.  They're so much fun to watch and try and capture in their various poses that I expect to have a lot of tries before they fly on to their next stopover!!  :) 

He Flunked!

After all the treatments, care and convalescence, Baloo flunked his heartworm test.  Can you sense the frustration and discouragement???  

The good news is that there are no longer any baby heartworms floating around in his blood.  The bad news is that there is still a fairly large load of adult heartworms.  On the slim chance that we are seeing a false positive result due to decomposing worms in his system throwing off the antigen the blood test looks for, we're going to wait a while and retest again before subjecting him to a double-whammy treatment of extreme horribleness.  

We'll just have to study  and "bone up" a lot harder to be ready for the next one!!  

Critter Reports

I don't have a new photo of the Lucky Chicken, since my brother hasn't had a chance to send one to me, but she has made a pretty thorough recovery and has lived to moult her remaining feathers all over the floor and grow a whole new set of them.  Go Chicken!!  

As for Baloo, keep your fingers crossed for him.  He's having blood tests this morning to see if he has to have two more heartworm treatments (Nnnoooooooooo!), or if he's in the clear.  I'm really, really ready for him to be given the clean bill of health so that I can let him have more fun - and I'm sure he is more than ready, too!  

I just love this picture of Baloo - I don't know if I'll be able to get it right or not, but I am going to have to try carving that big old foot of his (the nose, too, of course).  Look for it on an upcoming Stampeaz invoice, if I'm successful!  :)   

Two Generations - Birds and Beasts

Sweetpea, as I have dubbed the matriarch of the little herd in my back woods, had triplets this year!  Either that, or she adopted someone's abandoned or orphaned youngster.  The fawns have started to lose their spots and the fawn color is showing through the bright white that they started with. The smallest of the three was particularly alert to my movements and was starting to raise her tail in alarm.  You can see that she was also raising her front leg to stomp at me and let me know I had been busted.  Cuties!!

I usually see the does wandering around with their fawns from time to time, and more frequently as the season progresses, but it was a particular treat when Jenny Hen came by to show off the young poult she managed to rear, in spite of coyote packs and fox families - not to mention raccoons, opossums, hawks and other predators (okay, so I mentioned them).  Well done, mom!!  

 It was amazingly hard to get a picture of these two that wasn't a complete blur.  The little one was lightning fast, picking up every stray sunflower seed it could find before somebody else could nab it!  Bugs beware!