Miscellaneous March Photo Notes

The lovely squirrel that first began eating seeds in front of the barn in February and was featured in my "Spring Cleaning" blog as a Douglas Squirrel, isn't. It is, according to biologist Dan Gleason, an Eastern Fox Squirrel. They've been invading urban areas of the west. I've edited that blog to correct my mistake. We are nowhere close to an urban area and this squirrel seems to be all alone so unlikely to overrun our native squirrels. I still think it's a very handsome creature. Here are a couple more recent photos. I love that tail.











Another handsome creature is the Northern Shoveler, but not on our farm. These photos were taken at Baskett Slough Wildlife Refuge on our way home from last Friday's funeral. Nothing like birdwatching to lighten up a day. The female Shoveler is not nearly so colorful as her mate, but has just as big a bill.


Back on the farm, Polly, our Morgan mare turning 32 in April, was the highlight of the visit for the grandchildren of our friends and neighbors, the Werths. The littlest one, age 2 1/2, had to be pulled kicking and screaming off the horse. Polly just kept on grazing. She has had many, many children on her back in her lifetime... probably helping to create several more generations of horse-crazy adults. The oldest grandkid liked the llamas, too.





In the greenhouse, the yellow Clivia that Munazza gave me for Christmas opened. The normal orange ones with yellow throats are open, too, but a yellow was only developed a few years ago and is hard to come by. Thanks, Munazza!
March also saw a full moon at perigee, the closest the moon comes to earth in its elliptical orbit. So-called a "Super Moon", it just looked like a full moon to me, remarkable only for the fact that the March clouds cleared enough for us to see it.