Spring, it feels to me, has finally arrived here at the Cabin. Things seemed to go from grey to green in a matter of a week around the Central Texas areaa. Here, we are well over a month into Spring,and the green is only now beginning the dominate the color of the landscape. Some of the oaks are beginning to leaf out, while on others the buds look just ready to pop open. Lots of grasses popping up, and a variety of wildflowers add dots of color to the clumps of grass. I reckon things are smart to wake up slowly and not get too excited over the first long days of sunshine, as it can still get cold at night. Last week it was right at freezing a couple of nights, and was around -2C one night.

While sitting out writing this, two hummingbirds have flown by. They know exactly where the feeders are, or should be. Looks like the Cabin’s feeders are on their regular route. They look to come up the driveway from the road. They stop and check the bigger new feeder first, then swoop over to the smaller feeder from last year, then zoom off to the northwest in the direction of V&M’s.

The hummingbird feeders are currently empty. The new one the bottom pan either fell off or got knocked off. I didn’t like the way it was snapping together, it didn’t feel very secure. I will probably duct tape it closed after the next filling, but will first take a good look at how the bottom attaches to the top and make sure I’m not missing some locking tabs or something. And for right now all the feeders are empty. Their is a bird flu going around and it is advised that you avoid using communal feeders and bird ponds. I have been hand feeding them some, tossing seed out in the yard. They actually seem to prefer this and like foraging around amongst the scrub oaks and other underbrush. Haven’t noticed any sickness with the birds that visit, or a reduction in their numbers. Still, will keep things empty for another couple of weeks as they have suggested in the paper.

The deer are back to passing through fairly consistently. And have gone back to their smaller group sizes. Splitear and Buster were running around together. Both have new antlers already growing back. Buster has a gnarly growth directly in front of his right eye. I noticed it during the Winter where it looked about the size of the end of your finger. It has enlarged a lot since then and I would guess that it blocks his vision when looking straight ahead. It doesn’t seem to bother him. It is now about the size of a typical mushroom, like what goes on a pizza. It is not bleeding or anything, an is a dark color like his nose or other fleshy bits.

Some new visitors to the property look to have decided to take up residence, or somewhere nearby. Two ground squirrels, both named Sandy (put photo here), have spent most of their day for the past week around the cabin and shedroom. Not sure how I feel about this. My experience with Texas squirrels has not been the best. They tend to find opportunities to get into structures, and build nests in crawl spaces, chew on wires and in general are nuisances. I don’t know much about Colorado ground squirrels, so I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and see how they integrate with the rest of the critters. So far they have been on good behavior, and the other animals don’t seem to give them any more mind than to do one another already. The ground squirrels just seem so big compared to the little chipmunks. I’m afraid they are going to eat too much of what I put toss out for all the others. I have already seen them after I recently scattered some seed in the frontyard with their cheeks stuffed. Stuffed to the point where bulge of their cheeks is the size of one of the chipmunks. So I don’t know, will have to keep an eye on them. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt them, but I’m sure there are ways to encourage them to find elsewhere to live.

[Update: a few days later] As feared, at least one Sandy looked to be making a nest under the Shedroom. I had heard some noises toward the back of the room one day, and then spooked one coming out of the Cabin. I saw it head to the back of the Shedroom. Went I got around to the back I could just see some grey tail hairs just inside. When I next had some time, and after making sure nothing was under the Shedroom, I put some rocks around edges of the panel that closes the back end of the crawlspace. I checked the next day, and they had tried to dig around the rocks. Placed some more rocks. This seems to have kept them at bay, and I haven’t seen any more signs of trying to get under the Shedroom. I have seen the squirrels since then, so I reckon they have found them a new spot. We’ll see if they decide to stick around.