Chickanutch

I'm confused ~ and I can't blame it all on the heat which has broken all records! (Just in! For a third straight day, BC has experienced 30+ temperatures breaking the previous record of 2 days.) The reason I'm confused is that I think I may have called a chickadee a nuthatch on my last posting! These little tiny baby birds about 2" long max, have black or white stripes on their faces...the black capped chickadee has a black head with white cheeks, but now I find out there is a chestnut-backed chickadee with similar colouring to the red-breasted nuthatch. I think the tail however, of the bird in this series of photos looks like that of a Chestnut-backed chickadee. To 'unconfuse' myself, I have opted to call all small birds with any sign of stripes on their heads, Chickanutches.










It looked like a hot little thing sitting in the tree, and I hoped it would notice the birdbath and have a drink or bath ~ however, it didn't! I had refilled the water earlier in the day so that it wouldn't be boiling hot in this weather of 35 C. At least this particular bird feeder is in a shady tree fairly close to the birdbath in the front garden.



I had another look at Oakley today when giving him a drink, and he seems to be quite enjoying himself, even in the heat. Isn't it amazing how many big and small leaves it has on such a tiny trunk? (we have to call it a trunk rather than a spindly stick to encourage his self-confidence).

Here's Oakley:




I did wander into the back garden for a short time to check on the roses ~ two fragrant cloud photos, one hot cocoa bloom, and one big purple which was wisely sheltering under a leaf! Photos can be clicked on to enlarge.

Here is a photo of a section of a door I make-shifted when the old door on my shed was in bad repair. I bought a used screen for next to nothing, spray painted the frame brown ~ took apart an old picnic table for the slats of wood and used them to make the bottom section, screwed it all together, and added a small windowbox ~ so that the eye would be drawn to that rather than the rest of it! I found an inexpensive bamboo type rollup blind in a store 23" wide, which fit perfectly inside the door frame. I fastened that in with screws, and then found a piece of tracking of some sort in the garage that I cut to size and fastened to the inside of the door for the bottom of the blind to fit into. Voila! I did that before this heat wave, luckily. While the door may not win any prizes, it is functional as it opens and closes!



While I was looking around the back garden, I noticed more signs of deer. The fresh green leaves of the grape vine were nibbled off at a certain height. This is fine with me as the grape vines are wildly growing over all the trees with clumps of grapes ripening in between and amongst the fruit trees! The roses are protected by a fenced in area, but the bird feeders are being emptied on the ground and a few apples are being knocked off the trees. I tried to see if I could see any sign of the deer when I watered the plants on the back deck tonight, (22 C) but it was very still, with a clear bright-star night. I like it when the big dipper is over the house ~ I fancy that it is pouring magical stardust :)

OK ~ obviously I can't sleep, as I'm blethering on, so let's see what else I can come up with. Oh yes, I found a cute little t-shirt for Daffy's dad's new dog Scruff! Although I'm not fussy to see dogs dressed like people, under the circumstances, (Daffy's dad likes t-shirts) here's Scruff:



I hope Daffy sees it before the family heads off on vacation on Saturday :)