Who's That Foxy Lady?

So I've already mentioned my wonderful neighbours - the mow-aholics next door and the feisty old lady across the street.

Now I've found I have a new neighbour.

Perhaps this neighbour has been here all along but has been so quiet I didn't know she was there.

Or perhaps she's been bullied by the larger and more aggressive neighbours and so had been biding her time before making her presence known.

Happily, since I've mowed my paths, the raccoon seems to be avoiding my place.  I say happily because, although I actually do enjoy watching the raccoon feed - sitting on its round bum and contentedly looking around while its front feet and jaws do all the work - its visits have been getting increasingly frustrating.  You see, instead of just arriving earlier and earlier each evening to beat my taking in the feeders, this one decided to start coming in the morning as soon as I had put the feeders out.  So instead of the birds being able to eat all day until I bring the feeders back in, I've been completely unable to put any feeders out except for the nectar feeders and the niger feeder.  Apparently, niger seed is not good enough.

I imagine it won't take Buster (now listen, buster....you leave those feeders alone!) long to adjust to the mowed areas and the battle will start again.  But for now, I've been able to put the feeders out in the morning and leave them out later in the day.

That said, I do still take them in at night.  The bear hasn't been around in nearly two weeks but I'm sure it's still hanging around somewhere close.

Yesterday evening, everything but a few small nectar feeders had been brought in.  I was standing near the small feeders, watching the female hummingbird try to get some only to be chased away by the male.  She would fan her tail trying to look bigger and tougher but he wasn't backing down.  She would duck and swoop and make a feint towards another feeder; he did not fall for any of it.  There was no way he was going to let her eat.

As I watched these struggles, I turned my head to check out the hummingbirds at another feeder.  And that is when my new neighbour appeared.

I'm not sure where she came from - was it from across the road?  Did she brave the endless Friday evening traffic?  Or had she been in the long grass that has not yet been cut?

Anyway, there she was trotting up my driveway towards me.  She had a large rodent in her jaws and seemed quite unconcerned about anything.  I remained still as she approached.  When she got to within two meters she stopped briefly.  While she never made eye contact with me or even looked in my direction she had obviously picked up my scent.  In the blink of an eye, she had turned and started running back the way she had come and I saw her no more.

She was beautiful, this foxy lady.

And I hope I get to see her again.

Ah, Neighbours

Neighbours.......you gotta love 'em!

Or do you?

I live in the middle of nowhere.  To the east, I have no neighbour for several kilometres.  To the north, some fields and then the Queen Elizabeth II Wildlands Provincial Park.  To the south, woodlot going down who knows how far.  Sadly, to the west, I have a neighbour.  Even worse, the neighbour's father visits on a daily basis, expounding his wisdom, doling out criticism and generally voicing his views on life to which everyone else must agree .

But no problemo.....the neighbour and I are friendly, the father I mostly ignore, finding things to do when he shows up.

Until this week.

On Monday, I received a visit from Municipal Enforcement.  "Someone" has filed a grass complaint against my property.  Gee, I wonder who that "someone" could be.  There's nobody else who would care.  There are fields to the east and west and south that look no better than my yard.  But "someone" has taken offense that my yard has been left natural.  It looks as natural as all those fields around me which are not offensive.

Again I say, I live in the middle of nowhere.

So why should it matter to anyone that I am leaving my yard as natural as all the natural space around me?  Natural, that is, except that I make an effort to control the invasive plant species that grow in my yard.

I admit, things did get away from me a little this year.  What with going to Pelee, doing the Carden Challenge and spending three full days working at the Carden Nature Festival, I've been pretty busy.  Add to that, I am now working, heading out at dawn to monitor birds all over the Carden area.  So yes, there are areas in my yard that are quite out of control.

But I didn't need to be told by Municipal Enforcement who would have left me alone had this complaint not been filed.  I was already on the verge of doing some trimming.  Now that I am being forced to, however......well, that is a whole different kettle of fish.  I am nothing if not contrary.

I have nothing against mowing except for the fact that it is a complete waste of resources.

That said, I mow when and where I have to.  For example, I have a path around my property where I patrol during my morning rounds.  Lately, because things are out of control, I've been getting wet up to my hips as I push through the grass and clover and goldenrod.  Thanks to the morning dew or overnight rain, my pants are soaked by the time I am heading back inside.

So I mow the path.  I've mowed the grass growing under the clothesline.  I've cut around the numerous hollyhocks and peonies.  I've left some goldenrod but chopped down others because they are threatening to take over everything.

I have left the burdock alone as they are choking out the invasive goutweed.  And before you get all up in arms about the burdock being invasive as well, I allow the plants to flower - the bumblebees love them - and then I carefully cut off every stalk that exhibits burs.  Since burdock reproduces only by seed, the burdock without burs cannot spread.  In fact, because they are biennials, they often die after flowering.

And in the meantime, the ghastly goutweed and the Campanula.are being smothered out by these buxom burdock beauties.  What!, you say - you are trying to get rid of the Campanula?  Sigh.  The plethora of invasive species that the previous owner of this house either planted or didn't control is incredible.  I have garlic mustard, goutweed, yellow loosestrife (not as bad as its purple cousin but can be a problem as well) and, yes, Campanula.  Did you know that there are almost 500 species of Campanula?  Out of this number, one is considered to be highly invasive.........yup, that's the one I've got.  It spreads everywhere easily.

But I digress.

So now a complaint has been filed.  The fellows from Municipal Enforcement were quite nice and informed me that, as I was planning to mow this week anyway, they would not make the complaint official.  That was nice.  But now I am wondering if this "someone" is planning to start a regular campaign of complaints.  Now I have decided that I do want the complaint to become formal so that if and when this "someone" (feel free to insert another word here) continues to complain, I have the basis to take this to a higher level.

In the meantime, relations with the neighbour himself have become somewhat frosty.  Not a problem for me as I can get along quite well without but I sense that he is feeling uncomfortable.

Ah, neighbours.....you really do have to love them.

How do you do it?

Sorry I haven't been on much lately.  I've been working - actual paid work.  For the first time since I moved here in 2008, I've got a job.

I'm doing some bird monitoring work - I'm getting paid to watch birds.  In other words, I'm getting paid to do something I like..

Carden is an environmentally sensitive area which needs as much help as possible to save it from nefarious characters who would willingly plow it under or dig huge pits, characters who have no appreciation of the natural wonder of this place, who see only the bottom line, the almighty dollar.

And then there are the other characters who work hard to save this area.

Can you guess which group of characters I'm working for?

It is a tricky thing to deal with these two sides.  Both views need to be balanced and I like to think that the work I'm doing is contributing to that balance.

Carden is also a politically sensitive area.  There are inflamed opinions, exaggerated passions and there are folks with very short tempers.  When I first began the third of my three projects earlier this week, I was filled with trepidation at facing these short tempered locals.  I would pull up to a monitoring site carefully, trying to stay out of view as much as possible.  By Friday, I had encountered, and managed to hold my own, with enough of them that trying to be unseen while I work was unnecessary.  And this is fortunate because in many cases, invisibility was impossible.

Before I started, I realized that I was having some difficulty locating the birds I was looking for.  I thought I would never be able to do the job properly.  On the first day, I did eight sites though I returned to the first four the next day because I lacked the confidence to believe that the numbers I'd found were correct - they were!

By Wednesday, I had developed an incredible knack of finding the birds that were already skulking in the grass.  And a good thing too since I probably should have started looking for the birds last week when they were still singing and posturing.  This week the majority of posturing for girls was already complete and the boys were resting up from it.

I'm not going to get into the details of any of the projects because, while this is the first job I've ever had that I like, it's still a job!  I have to get up in the morning and leave home.  I have to be away from home for extended periods.  The laundry is piling up, the dishes stay unwashed.

I miss hanging out on the computer.  I miss doing the morning counts of the birds showing up at my feeders.  I miss sitting on the couch and reading.  Heck, I miss my life of retirement.

It's been a while since I've had a nine to five job and frankly, I don't know how you do it.  How do you do it?