FIVE SECOND STORIES

Flora and Fauna report 6/13: 

Buddy continues his jihad on the rabbit population. Last night, as I was getting ready to turn in, I heard him coming through the portal accompanied with his hunter's call-a specific, high pitched mew repeated 3-4 times. Sho' nuff, he had a baby bunny in his mouth although the poor thing was very much alive. Bud dropped it and it took off. I saw first hand why he has been so successful-he is a lot quicker. I managed to get the rab away from him using a bowl and a dustpan for a cover and set it free outside in the lilies. I went to bed. Luckily, he did not disturb me as he does C, often at 4 am. I was up at 7.30 am and he was peacefully snoozing on the couch.

I researched the reproductive cycle for our rabs: oh, gawd, they have litters March-September with most moms averaging 3-4 litters a season. This year seems unusually productive-I was talking to my neighbors who all were mentioning bunny problems.

Someone, I suspect bunnies, attempted to go bust under or through a seam on the fences around my Rose of Sharon. Oy.

No sign of the chucks for 2 days save one of the younguns. The rest of the family are nowhere to be seen. Is this the missing 6th pup I wondered about in the last post? At least no new attacks on the maters and maris since I fenced them in and sprayed a deer/rabbit deterrent. While not advertised to work on chucks, I thought that it couldn't hurt.

I saw Lil' Woody for the first time since March/April when he and his fellow peckers visited the Diner daily. Perhaps they had fueled up, mated, brought the kids up and now have returned. 

6/15: I spotted a rare Pileated woody flitting around next door. I have seen one maybe twice since we have lived here and they have always been on the utility pole by the shed. They are roughly twice the size of a blue jay.

Stock photo

Butterfly weed beginning to bloom.

 A Chipper hole that reappears year to year

Mamachuck + one has returned this early evening. No sight of the other 5.

Buddy has a new gambit for attention from C-wherever his OPs are, he is picking up some sort of seed that gets caught in his coat. Now, he is ok with C using the comb to get them out but he really prefers is her fingernails. Ahh, a mum's touch.

6/14-delightful evening, warm enough to eat on the deck. Good sleeping weather.

Glowing lily in West Garden through garage-side door

 

More lilies opening up on Moll's gravesite-she loved hanging out hidden amongst the lilies and liked to prank C by tapping her ankle with her paw as she walked by on the path

Snow-on-the-mountainland: a denuded forest of stalks thanks to the chuck overgrazing:

At the Diner-Liza, Napoleon Nutkin and Mamachuck:

After supper, we chilled watching a film. Buddy received some premium belly rubs by C, who was wearing an ancient 30+ year old Tiger sweatshirt of mine:

Blissful Bud showing his nibblers (Futurama ref):

How do you handle a hungry Bud? With a Bud Pleaser meal!

 

His Lordship has established his mealtime regime: lunch is wet food with kibble on the side; for supper, he prefers a starter of treats served on his baby Einstein while his wet food is already in a bowl gently warming. Treats are later served for dessert.

This, btw, is what we call a baby Einstein. It's advertised as a "cat activity 5 in 1 fun board".

As I made my rounds before retiring, I was treated to a Michigan June treat-fireflies.

Stock Photo

Last year I did not see them until 6/27, which I attributed to an extended dry spell. It's heading that way this year-not much rain lately and I notice the grass is beginning to brown in spots.

꩜ 

Death noted: 6/11-French singer Françoise Hardy aged 80. Famous in the '60s, revived due to one of her songs featured in the 2012 Wes Anderson film "Moonrise Kingdom". From 1962 "Les temps de l'amour".

Fun vids:

Long-wattled Umbrella bird with rockabilly pompadour-hey ladies!

Hooded grebe courtship dance: 

Abandoned copper mine in Wales revealing blue azurite ore:

Siphonophore: world's largest animal reaching lengths of 150 feet surpassing that of blue whales who can be 100 feet.

Crown Flash:

Crown Flash is a rarely observed meteorological phenomenon when ice particles get aligned in the same direction from the electrostatic field created during a thunderstorm. It's usually invisible to the naked eye but the way the sun hits, it becomes visible to the naked eye kind of like a rainbow. In this vid, the flash is to the viewer's left of the sun.

The Field of Jars, Laos:

The Plain of Jars is a megalithic archaeological landscape in Laos. It consists of thousands of stone jars scattered around the upland valleys and the lower foothills of the central plain of the Xiangkhoang Plateau.

I was YT surfing when I dipped into this: "12 Most Ancient Archaeological Discoveries Scientists Still Can't Explain"  that begins with this statement:

"We should know more about our past than we do about the future but in many ways, we don't". Oy.