Thursday, June 14, 2007

ALI BABA, WHITE EARS AND JUMPER

What a blessing it is to have the time and to be in a place where one can be entertained by the other critters that share our little space with us. The squirrels, White Ears and her friends, have been most entertaining on a daily basis running up and down the redbud, jumping from branch to branch. Wednesday morning, there were two rabbits in the yard across the street that seemed to be having tons of fun. One kept running toward the other… lets just call them Jumper and Runner… Runner would run straight for Jumper who would go straight up in the air as Runner passed under him. Runner then would turn around and have another go at Jumper who would, of course, jump straight up as Runner passed under him again. What is so amazing is they kept doing this for over 10 minutes. Well, they would run-jump about 6 or 7 times, eat a bit of clover for a minute, two at most, and then do the run-jump thing again. It was hilarious! A rabbit’s version of Leap Frog?
A baby grackle had a bad experience on his fledging day, he landed on the ground and had no idea what to do. Spook saw it and went out to encourage him. Right? Well, actually, it was interesting. Spook never laid one paw on the little bird, and he had plenty of opportunity, he was less than 2 feet away. I heard all the commotion out in the back part of the yard and I could see Spook… and I could see the little black bird. Spook was lying down on the ground just watching. I think every grackle for miles was in the back yard screaming at the 2 of them. What a racket! I went out back, picked up the bird and put him in a tree. Spook followed and sat on the ground, just in case. So, I decided to “hide” the little thing from Spook and maybe give him a chance to rest… I put him in an empty hanging flower pot, put it in a better tree… the grackle family and friends got quieter, Spook lost interest and started chasing a toad… After a while, the parents (?) came down and sat with the baby in the tree giving him instructions, no doubt. Eventually he hopped up to the rim of the pot, flapped his little wings and made it to the next tree, then the next tree, then the next. The family reunion was over, the squawking was limited to the parents and Spook stretched out under the chair for a nap.
I told Spook he needed to be up on the car port defending his crunchies. The Blue Jays had been there stealing his food. What is worse, the grackles have been watching the Jays and now a cup of dry food can disappear in a little less than 2 hours. I have named the ring-leader Ali Baba as the rest are his trained thieves.
Ali BAba checking out the carport before making a mad dash for the cat food. Can you see his little behind with tail sticking up in the air on the heart shaped crunchie dish?
The pictures are really bad, I know, but they were taken thru the Plexiglas storm door.


A better picture of Ali Baba......

1 comment:

Janice said...

You have got quite the critters, Possum! :o) Love their names and the photos are great. You need a sign in your yard that says 'ANIMALS AT PLAY'! :o) I do love watching critters and think that's why I don't get anything done half the time. We don't see squirrels too often here. I know they are around, but I think our dogs keep them at a distance. Thanks for the great and entertaining posts!