A Roundrock Mystery: Whenever we go out to our woods, we always take two things for the critters: a bag of peanuts (unsalted, of course) and two cakes of suet. We spread the peanuts on the big log by our shelter, and we put the suet cakes in the cage hanging from the double trunked tree also near the shelter. The peanuts are often all gone in the same day, and the suet is always gone when we return in two weeks.

Except that it hasn't been in recent visits. About six weeks ago I put my two cakes in the cage and we headed home. Two weeks later, on our next trip to Roundrock, I had two fresh cakes to put in, but the two from before were still there, hardly disturbed at all. Two weeks after that, the cakes were still there (though they had grown black and moldy). This is certainly a change from the way it's been in the past. After two weeks the cage is always picked clean. I'm not sure what to make of this. I don't remember this phenomenon last fall, though different birds in the forest at different times might explain it.

The latest edition of the Festival of the Trees should now be up at Blog do Avores Vivas. This is Juliana's second time hosting, so double congratulations to her.

We're always looking for new hosts for the Festival. Go to the coordinating blog to learn more about it, and if you're interested, give me (paul (at) roundrockjournal (dot) com) or Dave (bontasaurus (at) yahoo (dot) com) and email. We'll help you all the way.

Obligatory Flike Report: Flike has learned to climb the steps to the second floor in the house, so he now pretty much has full range for roaming. He tends to stay wherever we are, but he is getting more bold as the days pass. The mild weather has also allowed us to leave the back door open a lot, meaning he can go out when he wants and come if he cares. He's learned what fun can be had by running through piles of raked leaves, the little sweet heart! He and Queequeg wrassle all the time, which I understand is good puppy socializing behavior. Max, the dog who doesn't know he's a dog, doesn't approve of any of it, of course.

Pirates in Missouri?

I've mentioned here before a publication known as the Corvi Chronicle, put out be lovers of the greatest bird on the planet: the crow. I've been receiving their (periodic) publication for years, and you can visit their online site for plenty of corvid goodness!

This month is NaBloPoMo, or National Blog Posting Month. It's an effort by bloggers to make a post each day for the month of November. It's supposed to get you in the habit of posting more frequently with the idea that you'll continue to do so once the month is ended. Seems forced and false to me. I'd much rather read a blog that has periodic interesting posts than one that vomits something up daily. Plus, a post a day? That's a big challenge. I'm not going to commit to such a thing.

Missouri calendar:

• All Saints' Day
• Put up bird-feeding stations.
• Pecans begin to ripen.
• Daylight-saving time ends.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 1st, 2009 at 1:01 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.