Such Agreeable Friends

Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions - they pass no criticisms.

~ George Eliot

This is my son Jeffrey's cat, Hunter, sitting with Benny. The photo was taken from outside looking in through the sliding doors at them looking out at the various birds, chipmunks and squirrels which were busy snapping up seed on our deck. Benny wanted to be outside chasing squirrels and Hunter wanted to be outside catching whatever he could. In order to give the outdoor critters some peace, that door remained closed. Hunter is now staying with Jeffrey's dad in order to restore some peace in my older cats' lives.






At just about any given time, you can look outside and see at least one bird flying through your line of vision, so it's not much of a surprise when one flies into a camera shot. It might be a surprise to see all of these autumn colours since we're well into snow season. But these photos were taken quite a few weeks ago so that explains that.






This one was a little more expected. I watched it soaring for a while before snapping an image.





This one was very unexpected. It flew a little too close to the house and probably thought that the lake and sky in the glass reflection was just more open space. Sadly, or thankfully, it died instantly. We're thinking it was a juvenile Pine Warbler.






Here's an adult perched on our hanging basket a few days later. Hopefully it wasn't the mama missing her baby.

A couple of days later, we had another collision incident. Frank's son Francis was visiting and he was all the way down into the bowels of the basement watching television. I was at my desk a few rooms away from the living room. And Frank was napping a little bit closer to the source but his door was closed and his fan was running for white noise.

BAM!


I got to the deck first and saw a large feathered body lying quietly but clearly breathing. Francis, who had heard it from his distant location came up to have a look at what happened, as did Frank.






The bird was the generally very shy and elusive Belted Kingfisher, and he was recovering from the blow by resting on the deck with his mouth agape. Not five minutes later he tested his wings and found them to be reliable. He flew off toward the lake. I hope that all is well in his kingdom.






Flight is amazing. Although their means of getting around doesn't qualify as true flight, these adorable visitors to our feeders every night are Northern and/or Southern Flying Squirrels. I've learned that the latter have made their way up north and might well be breeding with our Northerns. They don't fly but actually jump and glide, and they do it so incredibly quickly, that you'd think they were every bit as capable of flying as the birds.






They're also incredibly friendly (although the smaller ones are skittish) and will take peanuts from our hands. I had the camera lens (without flash) about six or eight inches from this little face. At last count Frank has seen up to seven of them at one time. They're a joy to watch and be watched by.






And back to a couple of our domestic creatures. I couldn't help but notice that Hunter was showing his love for us by eating and removing his food from the bowl in the shape of a heart. We love you too, Hunter. And miss you (Except maybe for Skitty and Zephyr).






And Skitty, like any self-respecting cat enjoys being in a box. I can't remember if I was scratching on the cardboard or if I had the laser pointer but he was going full speed ahead with those sweet little front paws.

And that's it for this creature feature. I'll have more images for you coming up soon.