Big Thaw and the Cranes and Wildlife Encounters

The snow melted so fast.  What a week. The valley sprang to life with all sorts of birds gathering here, each type of bird gathering in its own field.  Common sights to southern Ontario: seagulls, ducks and Canadian Geese; a new experience for me is the Sandhill Crane.  I have some great sound recordings of them but can't figure out how to transfer those off of my phone to post here. The snowy owl has been hanging around my property as well and I've been told it comes back every year, which is a treat.

Teaka takes her job very seriously. She caught one chipmunk, but cut her nose on the downspout, tried to catch another in the lilac bush by repeatedly jumping up where the chipmunk was sitting, but Teaka kept getting her legs caught and hanging from the branches. She can jump up five feet high! The only way I could stop her from her mission was to shake the chipmunk out of the bush. Next a skunk wandered onto the property.  Teaka was following it for a while and it didn't pay any heed to her until she barked at it. The skunk didn't look very healthy and being afraid of it potentially having rabies, I put Teaka in the shop and wouldn't you know it, the skunk followed us and stood in front of the door.  Making noise by banging the door would not scare it away so eventually I hit it with a piece of 2x4. It wandered away and I wasn't sure if I had injured it but we saw it across the road the next day.  This time it ran away from us when I called Teaka to keep her away from it. Thankfully Teaka did not get sprayed by the skunk.  And then yesterday Teaka told me something was in the engine of the car, which was parked beside the house. Expecting a chipmunk, I opened the hood to find a groundhog!  Before I could react, Teaka jumped onto the engine, grabbed the groundhog and quickly took care of it.

Seasonal stream through my backyard:
 



Here's are videos of the water draining from the field:

  

Here's a video of a pair of cranes flying by:
The snowy owl flying over the field:









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