Friday, March 18, 2022

Birdies and Crazy Weather

 Hello everyone! This is The Daily Bone and I'm your doggie reporter Chester L. W. Spaniel. 

We've had a few nice warm days here lately, with sunshine and 60ยบ. But we don't quite trust that winter is over yet. We could still have more snow and ice. 

But the birdies seem to think Spring is here! For the last two weeks, the dissonant screeches of grackles have been filling the air! Long time readers will remember our opinion of grackles: they're nasty to the other birdies, and poop all over everything! Here's the old grackle boss Effluvium Scatterstool glaring at us from the window birdie feeder. 

Hey? Where are the seeds?

Well fooey on you, mean old grackle! We're not filling the birdie feeders up again until you go away!  

Many people believe that robins all fly south for the winter. But some of them don't. We've had one robin who hung around all winter, eating berries from our hawthorn tree. 

About a week ago, the entire Stodgy Robin Society showed up and ate all the berries that were left on the tree and on the ground. Then they all started fighting over territory. I guess they sorted it all out because now there's a robin in just about every yard in the neighborhood, hopping around hunting for worms, and singing in every tree. 

Meanwhile, Canada geese have been flying over by the hundreds! Most of them fly so high that it's hard to get a good picture. But they sure make a lot of noise anyway!

One evening, while we were outside listening to the birdies singing, and the geese honking, a great big birdie flew over, followed by several more. They landed in a tree just two blocks away from our house! Can you guess what they are?


Here's another picture to give you a hint:

These are turkey vultures! We often see them fly over this time of year as they migrate north. But we've never seen a whole flock of them land in a tree right in the middle of the neighborhood like this! I guess they just wanted to enjoy the sunset.


A few days later, it snowed!

Haha! Crummy grackles! They had to scrounge seeds from the snow with the squirrels!


Then it turned warm again and the snow all melted. 


There was a beautiful sunset last night (sans turkey vultures.)


Tomorrow, we're supposed to get rain and maybe even a thunder storm! 

And that's all for now! Good night! 


Tuesday, March 8, 2022

The News

 Greetings friends and fans! This is The Daily Bone and I'm your diligent doggie reporter Chester L. W. Spaniel. 


Sorry we haven't been around much lately, so I'll begin right away. My first story is about my health. The vet finally diagnosed me with something called Cushing's Syndrome. I'm OK and getting medication for it now. But it took a long time and lots of vet visits to finally figure it out, including blood tests, an ultrasound, then more blood tests, and in the meantime, my annual check-up with shots. My ghostwriter says I'm getting to be quite an expensive doggie! 

Well, I'm worth it, right?

My next story is about ghostwriter's job. She was so glad that they finally hired some new staff at the nursing home where she works. She was actually able to take a week off  in February! Wow! But then due to certain circumstances, some of them quit. So they're back to short staffing again! Meanwhile, one of GW's coworkers has family in Ukraine. If you've been following the world news, you'd know some terrible things are going on there. The nursing home is starting a collection of items that are badly needed over there. We urge you to go to your own local charities and find out if you can donate items for the Ukrainian people too. 


Weather wise, it's been a roller coaster ride here in WNY! One day it's warm and sunny, and the next it's snowing! Here are some pictures of our changing weather:

Snowy day with mourning dove


Lots of birdies


Morning sun with halo


Mud season


Flock of cedar waxwings on a gray day


Snow plow*


Sunny again!

Surprise snow!


Midnight bunny


Chinook chopper in blue skies


Sunset


Good night!








* The snow plow always reminds me of my esteemed late associate, Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel and our