Phoebe Phood

Busy times around the pond these days. Two does drop by every evening to munch on pond side veggies.

The phoebes do an aerial dance around them as they enjoy their dinner. Through a little symbiotic magic, the phoebes enjoy theirs, too. Being major bug eaters, they take their feast where they can find it. Including among the midges, fleas, deer flies and other entomological critters that hang out around the deer. Basic, but hey, it’s provender. A phoebe will brutally snatch a poor midge in mid-air as it goes innocently about its daily routine. Sorry kids. Daddy won’t be home tonight. Ponder (which I often do) the brief, tragic life of a midge. Must be grim.

More on the avian front. No sooner had we become friends with our house wren neighbors, than they moved out of town. Word is that they often do that after raising a brood. I guess that’s one way to avoid a house cleaning bill. Or rent. They also sometimes move to raise another brood. Whatever floats your eggs.

Smokey Bear–or Barney, as my lovely bride prefers–strolled through the yard today. Too late and too far away for photos. That’s the ninth bear sighting this year, though some of them are surely of the same bear. Still a long way to go to match last year’s count of 18. Maybe I can teach them how to do selfies. Well, maybe not.

Don’t know how the local critters feel about having no power of attorney in their choice of names. But, then, neither did I. Now that I think about it, it they could have been a little more creative. But I wasn‘t in a position (mostly supine) to complain.