I have a balcony. I feed the birds and squirrels regularly. It’s a messy little undertaking and I do have to sweep frequently to keep mice down at night, but the enjoyment I get watching the birds and the squirrels is priceless. Some will tolerate me sitting quietly by and go about their business around me. I just love it.
(Yes, I am aware the squirrels are flea and tick ridden disease carriers. I’m not trying to tame them. I do keep a safe distance.)
This morning was the third or fourth time I have experienced going out to my balcony and finding a singular pool of bloodied water. The first time I noticed it was about a two months ago. I took my coffee outside and spotted a little more than a tablespoon of “water” pooling on the seat of my wooden rocking chair. I thought it was just stain coming up from the furniture finishing. I noticed it again near a tea cup I keep water in on the deck floor another morning. Today, fresh bloody water there again.
Initially, I thought it must be an injured hummingbird as I have several feeders placed near the rocking chair. The next time it happened, I realized there is no way something would be bleeding that long. Why would it happen again? Still thinking the blood and the hummingbird feeders are related somehow, I’m considering bats now. What else would use the hummingbird feeders at night? Or it is just a coincidence that I once saw a spot under a feeder? Do bats have bloody mouths and are they are leaving slobber on my deck after drinking nectar? Are there just that many animal deaths at night and I’m experiencing a few who are taking a last gasp near my water?
Any one have any ideas as to what it is I am finding exactly and where it is coming from?
Because I can, let me just sneak in this little awesome video I came across yesterday showing the inside of a squirrel’s nest.
It’s mating season now. The tree dogs in my yard are appreciating the choice selection of nuts they have been getting. TG for Costco large bags. In case you wondered, they prefer walnuts first, then pecans, sunflower seeds, and peanuts. Cashews and pistachios not so much.
The regular high fat feeding has made all the squirrels big and healthy with beautifully shiny coats. You can laugh, but they appreciate me. One old guy will come up to the glass door and look for me.
Thank you for reading today's post. Have an InterStellar Day! ~PrP
You may be over feeding the squirrels. Mother Nature can be cruel at times, but She usually has Her reasons. Too many well fed squirrels can bring coyotes, snakes, owls, ravens, and hawks to your neighborhood. They are some of the natural predators of squirrels. Not to mention, dogs, and cats. One or more could be responsible for the blood you have discovered.
Maybe. But the “bloody water” is always by itself. Its not like an injured animal left a blood trail of spots. There is just a singular spot. And, the squirrels put themselves to bed before the sun goes down and whatever is occurring, is happening in the middle of the night.
Are you sure it’s blood?
No, but pretty sure
China is beginning to honor its agreement with Putin to put pressure on the U.S. . China is ready to take over control of the Pacific Rim. China plans to use that control to take Taiwan back. The US will have to backdown and allow China to take back Taiwan and put to death more than 100,000 Taiwanese.
War is coming if Biden backs down to Putin. Unfortunately for him Trump has given the keys to the US military to Putin. The republicans are conspiring to destroy the US Constitution to preserve their white privilege, and they couldn’t care less about the US helping the rest of the world staying free from Russian or Chinese dominance.
PrP check out this Squirrel attacks snake video.
https://youtu.be/Nr9sF0TqIU0
Must not be a poisonous snake since the squirrel doesn’t seem to mind being bitten.
Did You Know?
Despite their dog-like appearance, hyenas are more similar, phylogenetically speaking, to felines and viverrids than to canines.
Did You Know?
There are several collective nouns used to refer to a group of butterflies including—arranged in the order we think is the most fitting—swarm, flutter, flight, and rabble.
Putin wants Ukraine period. All the talk about NATO and EU membership is a red herring. He wants Ukraine back in the Russian Empire and he doesn’t care about the impact western sanctions will have on the Russian People or his Oligarchs. He’ll simply crush any opposition he gets, or so he believes. The Russian Army has around 500K troops. The 150+K troops he has there now are his best trained and most reliable. You can note that a lot of the Armored vehicles are for airborne units. Something you use for deep strategic missions and not deploy as front-line ground troops. Also, Russian military theory believes that an attack must have a minimum of a three to one advantage of all assets to have any chance of sucess. The Ukrainians have now got over 200K troops and trained reserves mobilized. They’ve been heavily supported with up-to-date western weapons. And I’ll lay odds that we’re also sharing intel with them. And, they’re ready and waiting for a fight, not like previous invasion made by the Russians. The odds here are strong for Ukrainians to prevent a total blitzkrieg of their country. The Russians must either believe that the Ukrainian numbers are meaningless, or they don’t care, or these troops are the best Russia can realistically field. And Putin is just hoping for best. Either way, he’s going to get at least a bloody nose out of this. Or a best, a total humiliation.
China stepping in and just taking sides would change everything. But they don’t want war. If anything from this they stand to make quite a bit of money. And that is what China is after right now to try taking over half of the worlds trade.
Putin holds out until the meeting to invade. Biden abides as any legit American president should if they agree to this. Putin then does it – whole world in Chaos. It really isn’t that far fetched from reality. And this isn’t even including China yet.
No matter what the Biden administration thinks or says, Joe Biden is walking into a political trap. There’s no way Biden comes out of this a hero—at best he ends up completely played and humiliated on the world stage.
Biden is most likely a one term President anyway so in reality there are no political traps for him. Lets be honest though, no President, Joe or otherwise comes out of this a hero. If they bend over backwards and give Putin all he wants to keep him from invading they will be seen as weak by one side whether Putin invades or not. If they commit troops and get Americans killed the other side will decry their actions, and if they do nothing, both sides will attack them. It’s best he just not worry about what others will think about it and focus on the job at hand, he’s going to be second and third guessed no matter what he does.
Trump made Putin behave. Biden doesn’t.
Putin used tRump’s 4 years to drain tRump of all our intel, that’s why he feels powerful today. Why would he tamper with the buffoon, that lays golden eggs???
Dead on. Putin did not need to try anything during trump because trump was doing Putin work for him. Putin was the trump puppet master.
Charles, “trump made Putin behave.”
It was the other way around. Putin got trump to behave, to do his bidding. He was subservient to Putin. If he was reelected, he would have pulled us out of NATO and would have continued to alienate our allies. If you watch footage of Putin and trump together, you see the fear in trump’s face and Putin laughing at him. He was quite amused by trump’s absurdity. And trump’s extreme narcissism made him very malleable for manipulation.
Charles , Trump made Putin behave by just bending over!
Agreed, it was a disaster of epic poo-portions. Trump embarrassed and humiliated not only himself but the entire country by declining to support his own government’s assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.
Not only did Trump fawn over Vlad like a wide-eyed puppy dog looking for a belly rub, but he also sided with Putin and Russia over his own damn country.
If Trump were meeting with Putin again, he would probably give him the green light to invade Ukraine while he makes up excuses and looks the other way. Thank goodness we fired Trump and hired Joe.
Did You Know?
Junior Mints are an old timey candy with an old timey story behind the name. First sold in 1949, Junior Mints are named after a popular 1940s Broadway play, Junior Miss.
Did You Know?
All of the chainmail seen in the Lord of the Rings trilogy was hand crafted by two people, Christopher Smith and Carl Payne. The duo spent two years crafting the suits and, in the process, linked around five million rings composed of a collective ten kilometers of wire.
Hey Girls, I like this one: What Exactly Is a Hacker?
Hacker is a word that has been repurposed and its original meaning almost completely erased. It used to mean a gifted, driven programmer. The stereotypical hacker was practically obsessed with programming, often to the exclusion of any kind of regular social life. Instead, they’d pursue low-level knowledge of the inner workings of computers, networks, and—above all else—the software that controlled it all. Apart from the lack of social interaction, hacking wasn’t considered a bad thing, per se.
With the spread of IT, cybercrime became a possibility and then a reality. The only people with the skills to have perpetrated the crimes were hackers, and so the term hacker became tainted. It became what it means to most people today. Ask someone to explain what a hacker is and they’ll describe someone with extensive knowledge of computers, operating systems, and programming and the criminal intent to access computer systems they shouldn’t have access to.
Verizon emailed customers about a new program called “Custom Experience,” which is the company’s excuse to collect all kinds of data on you to help it provide more relevant information. That’s all well and good, but the program is opt-out, which means you’re enrolled by default.
PrP this “Did you know” is for you.
Did You Know?
Eastern gray squirrels can recall the locations of the several thousand food caches they make each year, but thankfully, they forget a few before they get back to them. Squirrels burying nuts is one of the main sources of tree propagation in the eastern part of North America.
I did know. Did you know that hummingbirds are similar? They have episodic memory too, allowing them to remember where every flower in their territory is and how long it takes to refill with nectar after they have fed. And, they learn which people are the ones responsible for filling hummingbird feeders, and which ones don’t.
I’m going to start filling the filler I bought for my kids.
They are so fun to watch! If you decide to start feeding hummingbirds, I can advise to invest in a good set of bristle brushes because you will need to clean the feeders quite regularly (sometimes every two days if you have heavy flight traffic). The nectar can get moldy fast. Also, it helps keep down pox.
Putin has been assured by his spy network in the US that he will face no US military opposition if he takes the Ukraine in stages. Trump and the GOP are set to oppose any military operation Biden might propose. Germany wants to confront the Russian army militarily. France and England are afraid that the US will abandon them should they send troops to assist Germany. This could signal an end to NATO as a deterrent to Russian aggression in the Baltics.
Putin has been assured by his spy network in the US that he will face no US military opposition if he takes the Ukraine in stages. Trump and the GOP are set to oppose any military operation Biden might propose. Germany wants to confront the Russian army militarily. France and England are afraid that the US will abandon them should they send troops to assist Germany. This could signal an end to NATO as a deterrent to Russian aggression in the Baltics.
The South has risen again, indeed it has. These Republicans, having completed the sixty-year Southern strategy to flip the solid South from Democratic to Republican, are now turning the whole suffering country into one gigantic, coast to coast Southern sundown town, circa 1953.
A fine upstanding Christian white man could Jew-bait back in the day without having to apologize. There were no “woke” tyrants to cancel casual racism and smirking intolerance.
Mind you, human beings who tried to register to vote or acted too “woke” were frequently canceled, sometimes with a truncheon, sometimes with a gun or bomb, sometimes at the end of a rope.
But good ol’ boys just funnin’ around didn’t have to worry about a thing. A white man could speak his ugly little mind back then.
Anyhow, these Republicans always plead ignorance of the past. They never seem to know the history of the awful things they say, and yet they continue to be hell-bent on banning the teaching of the history of awful things.
They are White-nationalist fascists. They couldn’t care less who they offend because their hoped-for lily-White nation will be one where all of the groups they don’t like will either become serfs or will be ejected from the country. Folks, Republicans keep telling us who they are. We should believe them!
Putin’s timing for his attempted “annex” of Ukraine has been based on a gamble that he will face rhetoric and sanctions from the West only. Ukraine stands alone, with whispering winds at her back and not much else. This mirrors the appeasement effort offered to Hitler from Chamberlain in WWII. If there is no immediate discomfort placed on Russia, Putin could very well start his quest for a revised USSR. His resource is energy, that which he planned to outsource to western Europe. Western Europe needs that energy, facilitating a passive response to Putin’s designs along his western border. Western Europe is playing a dangerous game with an armed foe worthy of the military respect it deserves. If appeasement is played for a second time, we see a repeat of history.
Putin just threatened NATO that if it gets involved he has nuclear capability that he will use, which is a typical strategic reminder by a war monger. The Ukrainian representative to the UN also just challenged the UN to help his country because doesn’t it have an agreement to stop any country seeking to redraw the map of a sovereign country by invading it. The Russian UN representative was seated across from him and seemed speechless. So, what will the UN do?
Putin issued that threat to get NATO to pressure the Ukraine military not to fire into Russia.
Putin has 1 million active troops and 1.5 million reserves. Ukraine will need military assistance from outside to successfully resist this agression.
George W. Pearson
Putin has decided to invade and conquer a sovereign state. This has not happened in Europe since WWII. I believe he has blundered. Regardless of his success in Ukraine, and I expect it to be a Russian quagmire eclipsing Afghanistan, his strategy has failed. Instead of splitting the United States from Europe, he has brought them closer together than any time in decades. Rather than weaken NATO, he has invigorated it, and it will grow as Finland and Sweden join. Instead of pushing hostiles out of Eastern Europe, he will see a massive shift of NATO forces to the Baltics, Poland, and Romania closer to the Russian border. The Russian economy will suffer, perhaps collapse. The Russian population, and oligarchs, have no interest in a bloody, conventional war. I suspect many in the military are of like mind. As casualties mount, so will a general disaffection. Expect Putin to be gone within a year.
TheHill.com
Taiwan reports nine Chinese aircraft in defense zone
BY SARAKSHI RAI – 02/24/22 10:58 AM EST 824
Taiwan’s defense ministry on Thursday said that nine Chinese aircraft had entered its air defense identification zone, just hours after Russia had launched an invasion into Ukraine.
The Ukraine & Russia crisis In simple terms for those that have no idea what is going on.
-Ukraine used to be in an abusive relationship with Russia, feeding him, letting him use her car & giving him whatever he asked for until she built up the confidence to call it quits back in 1991
-Since then Ukraine has been working on herself, becoming a strong independent woman with help from friends like France, America, Poland etc. offering her support, loaning her money, & helping her find her way.
-Ukraine has been enjoying being single for 30 years & looking forward to continuing to grow & create new friendships.
-Now Russia being the toxic Ex that it is wants her back, and doesn’t want her meeting new people or creating any new relationships.
-A couple of weeks ago Russia started sitting in the front of Ukraine’s house & when her friends ask him what was he doing there, he said “Oh nothing, just getting a little bit of exercise in, that’s all.”
-After her friends told her that Russia was potentially getting ready to do something bad to her, he said “They’re lying, they just want you to be scared of me & that’s not what it is”
-Yesterday Russia broke into Ukraine’s house, beating her up & “taking advantage” of her while on Livestream & double dog daring any of her friends to do something about it & if they do want the smoke, Russia got that thang on him.
This was written by someone else. I can’t take credit.
Loved it. Men they never change their behavior.
PrP, what’s pox.?
I am always amazed how rich criminals are always humanized regardless of their crimes regardless of the fact that they had all the opportunities in the world to be good people. Yet, the poor are the scum of the world and deserve to die for the smallest of crimes even though they were dealt with some of the hardest obstacles in life.
I grew up in Texas. I learned to tie a noose when I was a child.
Although I graduated college, I spent my life in construction, and I have heard plenty of racism in the States where I have worked: Texas, Virginia, Maryland and California. I never heard anyone speaking kindly of Dr. King or of Black people in general. White America is racist – nearly everyone. I have tried for over 70 years to eradicate it in own mind, with sadly limited success. It is a terrible disease that has deformed and distorted our country. Yet, I still love using the word, nigger.