INVITED & UNINVITED GUESTS

Woodpeckers like the hummingbird feeders

When one lives in the middle of nowhere like us in the End of the Rainbow Valley there are different kinds of guests, the invited and the uninvited... July has been busy.

Stunning Baltimore Orioles

We're not just referring to those invited guests such as birds who are invited to stop by at our numerous birdhouses/feeders. Sometimes the window glare confuses them and they fly into the glass extending their visit...

 This gold finch smacked himself good but I removed him to a place of safety, put out a little dish of water and within the hour, he recovered and flew off.

Eau Claire lunch guests
(middle-R) Cousin Veeva and long time buddy Shelley 

Don't go getting paranoid if you've shown up after finding yourself on a jaunt and realized you were in our 'hood and taken the drive back to the end of the valley/you've had an outstanding invitation to come visit like Cousin Veeva and long time friend Shelley who after a decade finally took us up on the invite and drove in from Eau Claire last Friday. 

Notice the tail still continuing in the upper left hand corner

It's more like the uninvited guest that awaited Natureman in the chicken coop and struck out at him when he tried to remove him. This large garter snake was seeking a cooler place for dinner.


Or the evidence of visitors on a plastic garbage can top with teeth marks who thought they needed a night time snack of chicken feed. 

After being awakened by outside racket, look who I found after flicking on the outside house spot lights. Rummaging through fallen seed under one of the bird feed feeders with this 'who me face?' Natureman set a live trap as if there's one, there's more. 

Turns out our pet sitters for our overnight away this past weekend captured 4. The biggest culprit probably Momma escaped. Soon to return I'm sure.

These are just some of the guests who frequented the grounds recently. One just never knows who will show up invited or not...