It wasn't me!

Right after I snapped this shot, my little downy friend looked right, looked left, and flew off to his tree. I am quite certain I heard him saying to the Mrs "that isn't suet you smell on my beak! It wasn't me!" Or maybe I am just imagining things...

I signed up for Cornell's University's Feederwatch program which I started this weekend. I am pretty sure this makes me a citizen scientist ... impressive, non?

Hubs and I put up about 2/3 of the deer netting today - this is necessary if we are to salvage any of our shrubs over the winter. The first year we were here, the deer consumed 3 rhododendrons, several hollies and a few other expensive shrubs. We learned our lesson. The deer netting project involved pounding large metal stakes in the ground and attaching the 5 foot netting. Sounds easy, but when you consider that our land is mostly rock covered by a thin layer of soil - yikes. Everything hurts. So, we called it a day around 2 and the mister is snoozing while I spent the last few hours stalking birds.

Today's birds included several downy woodpeckers, two red-breasted woodpeckers, a passel of house finches, a bunch of titmice, nuthatches and chickadees, assorted juncos and white throated sparrows, a one-eyed grackle, the usual band of blue jays and Mrs. Cardinal. Oh, and one small but noisy Carolina wren. Note re the grackle - I have only ever seen one here up to now. This one has a very swollen right eye, so much that you can't even see that bright yellow that is common to the grackle. It does not seem to affect his appetite or his ability to fly. I'll keep a watch to see if he shows up again.

We still have a mouse living in our grill so I will have to go out in the next few days and get a humane trap so that I can relocate the little thing. We discovered that the little guy had set up camp in our Weber when we went to grill fish on Friday night. I cleaned the grill completely yesterday hoping to dissuade the little guy, but evidence today suggested that he is still hiding somewhere in the bowels of the grill. And, since I don't want to forgo grilling all winter ... trap it we must. Hubs is not a fan of the mice, so I have volunteered to take care of the relocation.

And, OMG, is tomorrow really Monday? Really?