The critters at Council Point Park are mighty miffed as I’ve been writing about waterfowl, 5Ks and flowers, but not about them. I suspect this indignation was spurred on by Parker. As I walked around Council Point Park early Sunday morning, the heat was already oppressive, with no breeze to speak of. As a dribble of sweat slowly trickled down the side of my face, I watched my furry friends either walking in slow motion to retrieve their treats, or simply glancing down at me while splooting on a tree branch. You may, remember that word “splooting” from last year, when I showed images of the squirrels stretched out on branches, paws dangling down, tail flared out behind them, or listlessly spread out like frogs in the cool grass to cool off.
But wait … that was back in August, not the first week of June!
During the Fall, Winter and Spring, my two locations for feeding my furry and feathered friends, (the Safe Haven Tree and small alcove with the fallen log and stump), were perfect to spread out peanuts and sunflower seeds, but, between the rainy and uncharacteristically hot weather, the grass and weeds have grown out of control. The City’s mowing service is not weed whacking and with near knee-high weeds and mud, plus our tick infestation this year, I have resumed feeding my Park pals along the perimeter path again.
I have collected a series of photos of what WAS a picturesque spot. I was hoping for Rex the Red-Bellied Woodpecker to put in an appearance, but he only showed up once when I left the camera at home as rain threatened.
So here are some Park pals enjoying breakfast at the woodsy area. I’ve thus appeased Fluff, Puff, Parker and my avian pals.
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
The last shot, a chickadee, looked like a penguin at a quick glance! We have the same hot weather. It was so cold and then like a switch turned the oven on, it climbed 30 degrees.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have to admit it wasn’t the best picture of that cute chickadee and I almost didn’t include it. I wanted to use captions and for some reason the caption field didn’t appear in any photo – sigh. I like the Summer, but this heat is oppressive. Same with our weather … 30 degree difference in a matter of days is just crazy! I’ll be splooting soon too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
A wonderful group of photos Linda, the wild life has been pretty scarce around here, they are keeping cool in the trees I think.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Sandra – the squirrels were a little listless yesterday when I saw them. I wish I could have carried some water and put it into a dish for them and the birds. The Creek water is so murky. The geese and ducks drink from it, but what do the birds and squirrels do?
LikeLike
As always your photos make me smile and so happy all these critters have you in their lives. We are having some pretty hot temperatures right now. Keep cool my friend and watch for the dreaded ticks. Ugh! Xo, Kim
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Kim – I had to include the shot showing the smile on Fluff’s face when he saw those sunflower seeds. It made me smile. I was enjoying seeing the birds go there for peanuts and seeds, but we’ll have to wait until late Fall now. I long for the Summertime temps and sun all Winter, but not enduring it n late Spring when it is this hot. You stay cool too Kim.
LikeLike
Miss Linda……………………………..i like the title: “Log Jam”…………………………………….I enjoyed your story of the critters eating the peanuts and other treats that you give to them……………………..on or near a log!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad you liked this Ann Marie – I hated they cut that tree down and left it horizontal and the ugly stump but it proved to be a perfect place to put out breakfast goodies. Wait until Wednesday and you’ll see turtles on a log sunning themselves. ‘Tis the season for them doing that.
LikeLike
How lovely to see your friends, one after the other. Gorgeous photos!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks Anne – I had held onto those photos hoping to get a few more visitors but I realized no more trips to the alcove for a little while. Did you ever see weeds called burdock? They look like rhubarb leaves, they are so large and are everywhere as well as the tall weeds as well. I don’t think I showed the squirrels since my Easter photos. Shame on me!
LikeLike
I know the word burdock, but I’ve never had it pointed out to me. Guess I’m lucky.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Like rhubarb, the green leaves are as big as a person’s face. You are lucky to have never seen them. I have had a weed in an area of my backyard that I seldom go. It that has a sturdy stalk and emits this milky substance. I don’t know what it is and I’ve Googled around, but it looks like a rubber plant and grows about six feet high. I don’t weed on a daily basis and in a week’s time it grows at least a foot. It is hidden behind a bush and I just leave it there in the corner.
LikeLike
I had a plant that looked something like that, but there were no redeeming flowers. I killed it. You have been kinder to your weed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think I was amazed it was that resilient to have grown behind another bush, with little sunshine or water, not to mention a lack of fertilizer or TLC.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love squirrels — anywhere but in my property.😁 Your friends are awfully cute!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Eilene – there are many squirrels at this Park, but these are three which have kind of set themselves apart from the crowd. I have one or two at the house but I warned them “no more chewing the telephone wires!” Two years in a row I had to have AT&T come out and repair the wires where the squirrels gnaw on the outer covering of the phone wires. The AT&T repair guy said the squirrels keep him employed. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
They really can be quite destructive. I suppose the ones that chew on power lines get culled from the gene pool, though.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha ha – yes. They are really destructive. My boss had a fax machine at home for years and the squirrels in his neighborhood chewed the fax line multiple times – he was always having AT&T out to repair it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was good seeing Fluff, Puff and Parker again, the adorable trio. I bet the heat does get to them. I guess you never know what to expect when you get to the park, between the changes in the weather and the unpredictable mowing service. It’s been too hot and humid here, too, although it’s a lot worse inland. We finally gave up and turned on the air conditioner yesterday. But Friday, when we would like to go to the arboretum and enjoy some live music outside, it’s supposed to be cold and rainy. Sigh…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I feel so badly for them Barbara – will they all make it to August and the Dog Days of Summer? They are really cute. We have live music with a small band at Heritage Park at the Botanical Gardens. I follow them on Facebook to see what is going on at the Park and it looks fun. It starts at 5:30 on Wednesday nights, so I will have to wait until retirement and can go then. Last Wednesday they had rain and moved to an open-air pavilion. Mother Nature continues to be a spoil-sport as to the weather. We had a thunderstorm earlier tonight and I shut down my computer for a while, but had to finish something for work so was later getting here. I shut the A/C off as it’s been rumbling around and it’s warm in her now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sadly, if heat waves kill people I imagine they kill some animals, too. We could use an open-air pavilion around here — I don’t know of any in our area. Looks like we can turn off the air conditioning tomorrow! Yay!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, it is bad especially when there is not a clean water source around. We had a lot of Mallards die near Lake Erie a few years ago from algae bloom and a few months ago a dozen Mute Swans died from eating snails that had ingested a parasite. People found the swans along the shoreline and some had walked to the homeowners’ lawns and died there. They thought someone had put out antifreeze but necropsies proved it was the parasite. It is bad at Council Point Park as there is no clean water source at all. The concert in the Gardens was tonight and there was another event in the pavilion so they had to keep their fingers crossed as we had rain all afternoon. Lucky you – we have heat through at least Sunday and this morning at 5:00 a.m. the dew point and temperature were the same and we had fog!
LikeLiked by 1 person
When I saw the first picture of the peanuts on the log and then the title, I was thinking peanut butter which isn’t really jam but similar….this heat must be affecting my brain! Glad to see the furry gang are happy again.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s hard to tell here in this header photo due to the green leaves, but there was an indentation in that stump, so I used to dump peanuts there and it was almost like a shallow bowl. So the birds and squirrels would go over there to get them. Sometimes a Jay would do a fly by and never even alight. All the heat and rain has made it look raggedy in that corner of the Park and I’m sure there are a lot of mosquitoes lurking about too. I am no fan of this heat. I shut off the A/C when we had that storm at 4:00 p.m. and never turned it back on as we had a second storm on the way.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It does look like a shallow bowl! All the storms have missed us – not a drop of rain, so if we don’t get any tomorrow it means 2 hours of watering again. The skies look dark and then it blows away to the north….
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, it was handy and the birds would just swoop down and grab a peanut … now you can’t see it as leaves and twiggy branches have grown around it. It was too bad as it was a perfect place to get some pictures. The birds would wait in the bushes and trees and the squirrels would come down from their nests. We got some rain this afternoon but no storms thankfully. I appreciate that as it meant not getting outside to water. Something strange has happened … I never did the SPAM as it was a daunting task … 54 pages of SPAM to remove and I was/am behind here and busy with Robb. So yesterday when I got here there were about 300 SPAMS where there had been 1.1K. I thought that was odd and I figure a Happiness Engineer might have followed up and peeked into my comments and deleted the bulk of them … now I just went on here and there were only two pages of SPAM. I think about 15 SPAMS altogether, so I just deleted them. Someone had to have helped at WP’s end. I have to see if I can do a caption yet or maybe just wait until I need to do it for Father’s Day.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I seem to remember a H.E. telling me that if you didn’t delete the spam it would eventually get deleted from their end….so I’ve forgotten all about spam and seldom check. I think they batch delete it when/as they detect spammers…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m happy then that I didn’t delete it page by page. I just checked and there was one more SPAM and I just tried to create a caption and cannot.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It seems pretty early in the summer for squirrel splooting! 🙂 My birding friends always tuck their long pants into their socks to avoid getting ticks. It looks weird, but I think it is effective. Your Council Point Park buddies seem to be happy to be in the spotlight again. They are very photogenic!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree – splooting should be reserved for the Dog Days of August. I do a tick check after every excursion. The weather has affected the ticks in that it wasn’t cold enough and enough snow so they multiplied – I think that was the issue. There are so many climate change issues, I’ve lost track of them and I heard this morning that Legionnaire’s Disease is now a problem in buildings that have been closed up or minimally used during the pandemic, as filtration systems must be flushed properly to avoid this dreaded disease. I thought this was interesting. Glad I’m working remotely.
https://go.audacy.com/hCpeU6byVgb
LikeLike
I hope your nature pets realize how lucky they are to have you! Lovely pictures!
LikeLiked by 2 people
I think they do Diane. I am glad you liked the pictures – those squirrels are cute, especially Fluff, the gray squirrel. I feel badly that the small woodsy area has gotten so weedy and overgrown and I don’t want to step in there anymore due to ticks (and snakes too). So, I likely will lose a few squirrels and birds that came over to eat as they’ll return to foraging until I put food out again in the Winter.
LikeLike
Oh YeSSSSS!!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your fauna friends in the park sure are blessed to have YOU bringing treats to them on a regular basis! How interesting red, black, and grey squirrels all live in one park. Maybe that’s a frequent occurrence, but I’ve only seen grey squirrels here. I see a cool-down in the weather forecast for next week–hope it reaches us!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Nancy – I did enjoy feeding them all Winter and through the early Spring here at this spot and now they are doing pretty good on their own now because I often come home with extra peanuts as they don’t come to greet me on the pathway. Part of this is because who doesn’t like a tasty pine cone instead of a peanut? Hard to believe isn’t it, but this time of year the pine cones are green and pliable and they like chewing on them and ignore peanuts. I hope for a cool-down too as this heat and humidity are not nice enjoyable at all!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Linda, I’d been wondering right along with the squirrels where you’ve been! 😉 I love the black squirrel!!Great pictures of all your friends.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Sabine – I’m glad you liked the photos.
I am having a tough time catching up in Reader and tonight I did responses to comments and I think I’ll just go to current Reader this weekend as I am just way too behind. I’ve been nodding off from the heat this morning on my walk – it was 71 degrees and 81% humidity and high dew point as well.
LikeLiked by 1 person
When I first started out blogging I made a promise to myself that I would never get stressed out by it or overwhelmed. So far I’ve been good at keeping it! I know some people get upset if others don’t read or comment on every post, but I’m not one of them. We all have real lives, obligations and just sometimes a need to take it easy. I hope that you can find a balance that works for you!! Take it easy and happy Friday, Linda! 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
This is the first time I’ve gotten this far behind and it has taken the joy out of blogging as I have this tardiness issue hanging over my head. I have decided tomorrow and Sunday to just read the last post of each of the bloggers I interact with the most, and, if possible, the post before that one. We have storms again tomorrow afternoon. This weather is not helping matters either unfortunately. You are very correct Sabine. My first 4 1/2 years of blogging, I had only two followers and they were e-mail subscribers. I didn’t follow anyone … just posted and responded to Ann Marie and Marge … it was pretty simple then.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good luck Linda! 🙋♀️
LikeLike
your only going to become more popular Linda…….which will only make you go faster!
So maybe you need to know when to apply the brakes a bit. If your not having fun,there’s really no point is there?
LikeLike
It was caused by my work schedule – it jammed me up big time as work encroached on my personal time and I’m not happy about it. It caused me to be behind here. Today/tonight I went backwards in chronological order and I have one more day to do – May 31st and you had several posts that day. I can’t do it now – I’ve been reading since 1:00 p.m. and I shut the A/C off as we’re having a storm later and it is very warm in here now. Tomorrow I finish and hope to never have that happen again. I did not want to skip anyone – I felt it was wrong. Now I have a ton of comments from people who responded to my comments.
LikeLike
It’s good to see your park pals again. No doubt they have been well fed despite being absent on the blog. 🙂
LikeLike
love the photos and the cardinals were my fav today – along with the bushy bushy tails of those squirrels
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love the cardinal pair too Yvette. That pair, some blue jays and chickadees were perpetual visitors at that woodsy spot. That area is so overgrown now, I can’t get near it. Such a shame as I enjoyed feeding the critters there and they’d see me coming and fly or run over. That gray squirrel especially has a bushy and colorful tail.
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: Monday Morning Sunflower Blooms & Sunset for #SundayStills(June 21, 2021) – priorhouse blog