Climate

CDP Theme Day Post

The first of the month is Theme Day for members of City Daily Photo, and today’s theme is Climate. Much of North America is dealing with climate problems right now. We are getting smoky haze from fires in Canada, and places in the south are dealing with record high temperatures.

This afternoon I stopped along Forestville Road to capture some haze and saw a storm coming in. It was obscuring my view of the mountains, even more than the haze was.

Later, I was driving home on the interstate and the rain got so heavy I decided to get off and take the Valley Pike, which has a slower speed limit and plenty of places to pull off. In the town of Edinburg, I parked the car and waited for the rain to let up.

The big splashes of water were distorting my view. I took advantage of the special effects to take some pictures with my cell phone.

I was reminded of a Bob Dylan song.

I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways
I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.

We’ve been hearing about climate change for years. Many people refused to believe in it. I always thought it was something that would happen in the future, hopefully not in my lifetime . Now I see that it is happening in my lifetime.

If you don’t believe in it, that’s your privilege. But still, keep your emergency supplies handy. 

Adults keep saying: “We owe it to the young people to give them hope.” But I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house is on fire. Because it is.
~ Greta Thunberg

(Fiery Image generated by Craiyon AI)

Catbird and Squirrel

Wild Bird Wednesday

Comfort Food

The City Daily Photo theme for March 1st is Comfort Food. One of my comfort foods is meatloaf from Cracker Barrel Restaurant. There aren't many restaurant meals that I can have due to food allergies, so I'm happy to be able to get this. 

One of Charlie's favorite foods is a plain cheeseburger from Wendy's. I usually break one into pieces and feed them by hand as bribes, either for taking medicine or for riding in the car. 

Many birds enjoy the seeds and suet that I put in feeders during winter months. Here we see a female cardinal and a downy woodpecker (also female). 

Squirrels like bird seed too, especially sunflower seed.

 

Who's Competing for Bird Seed

The house finch isn't too sure he wants to share.

When the competition is as big as a squirrel or mourning dove, there isn't much a finch can do about it! 

Saturday Squirrels and More

For Squirrel Appreciation Day, I made a collage of pictures I've showed before. We haven’t had real snow this winter.

Critters / Mosaic

Years ago, I had a neighbor who called all squirrels Charlie and I picked up the habit. Now that I have adopted a dog named Charlie, I'm trying to stop doing that because it sounds confusing.

Here we see Charlie the beagle in the car on his brand new hammock-style blanket. He chewed through the straps and buckles on two previous ones, plus a dog car seat. Perhaps the guilty look is because he just wiggled out of another harness. It was a new one with a third strap that fastened under his belly, designed to be escape-proof. I don't know how he squeezed out of it! Well, beagles were bred to hunt rabbits so they had to be able to get out of brush piles and rabbit holes.

The picture that looks like a drawing is a photo that I processed in two different apps to get what I wanted.

The horses are in Middletown and the reflected gnome is in Basye.

Squirrel and Sparrows

Squirrel Appreciation Day is January 21 so let's prepare by viewing a squirrel.

For Wild Bird Wednesday: a Song Sparrow and a  White-throated Sparrow.                                                                                         

 

Common Visitors

Most of my bird seed is going to house finches and squirrels.

Although some folks regard house finches as nuisances, I rather like them. 

The Eastern Gray Squirrel tends to be greedy for sunflower see, but I forgive him because he has a cute little face.

Other birds come to my feeders too, like this Northern Cardinal. He is a favorite because his color is bright and cheerful. 

I photograph them through a window, typically using my trusty old Nikon camera. My cell phone does not have the zoom that my camera has. 

 

Athletic Critters

This is the time of year that I start feeding birds. I avoid it during warm months because it can attract bears, even in town.

The sunflower seeds attracted squirrels. Charlie liked watching them. Unfortunately, one of them knocked down this feeder today and broke it.

The picture of a really big cat is computer-generated. I made it using FreeImageGenerator for the Caturday blog hop. 

 

Charlie is a really fast runner. He amuses people at the dog park.

Purple Cow and Other Critters

The purple cow is far from being a cat, but I am submitting it to the Caturday Art blog hop. For Saturday’s Critters, we’ve also got a squirrel and a really cute dog.

Birds, A Dog, and a Squirrel

Sometimes in the evening a flock of birds settles in a tall tree in my back yard but after a few minutes they fly off, only to return a few minutes later and repeat the process. I think they are starlings but I only see them in silhouette. 

The rest of today's pictures are from a year ago. The two cardinals are so bright you might miss seeing the sparrow sitting between them. 

The dog walking with a woman looks like a boxer to me. He appeared to enjoy his walk.

The final image shows a squirrel backlit by late afternoon sunlight. 

Gold Finch, House Finch, Squirrel

Wordless / Wild Bird Wednesday

Interesting Creatures

A squirrel studied the suet feeder, climbed up and ate his fill. 

I saw a strange creature in a thrift store. What do you think it is?  

Lynn loves thrift stores, which is why we stopped at one after going to Winchester today to get an item she wanted for her dog Rufus. While in Winchester, I couldn't resist showing her the silo on the grounds of the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley. It has undergone extensive remodeling since being acquired by the museum.

Now for a couple of real birds. Did you see the hawk I posted the other day? Here he is flying away.

And for this post's final picture, a male house finch posed so that he was framed by the railing on my deck. 

The Bird D'Pot / Saturday's Critters