Flippin' Flickers

The flickers are drilling holes in my house.  Exhibit A.

The large orange blobs are, I believe, expanding foam from where the previous owner was filling flicker holes.  I keep finding more and more of these holes around the house.  I'm monitoring at least four now, and that's not counting the ones in the front porch, that aren't really integral to the house.

What's a flicker, you ask?  These guys:

Bane of my existence.  (Image from Wikipedia, where you can read more about these menaces.)  These guys sound like jackhammers.  And like any good jackhammer operator, they take great pleasure in their skill at waking me up on Saturday mornings when I'm trying to sleep in.  And I thought I moved up here to get away from the city noise!

Well, today, I learned that it's not only the flickers.  No, now I've also got these teeny tiny chickadee-looking peckers.  Instead of jackhammers, they prefer a more subtlely artistic chiseling.  They look approximately like this:

And just when I'm prepared to run out and purchase a BB gun, I spot the following on the interwebz:

Woodpeckers are migratory birds and are protected by the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty.  A federal permit is required before any lethal or harmful control methods can be employed against the Woodpecker


Awwwww... DANGIT.  The same website says they'll be gone by July 1.  Will that be before or after my pretty new house looks like swiss cheese?


A happier thought: Steph came to visit last week (yay!), and brought tulips.

Spring may bring woodpeckers, but it also brings tulips.  Ah, the yin and the yang.

WILDLIFE SIGHTINGS:

Friday 9 April: We hosted the turkey farm on our driveway.  Two toms and eight hens.

And this guy, keeping watch up on the hill makes 11:

Monday 12 April: Elk!  Eight in total, including 3 males with very nice racks, indeed.  (It's okay for a chick to comment on a dude's rack, but not the other way around.  So say I.)  I didn't get pics due to low evening light and being on the phone with mom at the time.  I hope they come back soon.  Word is, they like to come down here for the bugling (mating) season in the fall, and even one of the hiking trails nearby gets closed while the elk come shake their groove thangs.  I mean... they ain't nothin' but mammals.  I mean... *sigh*.

On that note...

Hope Springs Eternal

I know now that this house was meant to be mine.  Why?  There were daffodils here waiting for me!!!

My favorite!  They are such a happy flower - it's hard to be sad when you have daffodils.  And they bring such hope.  I found these guys last week poking out from the snow after the last storm.  If that's not hope and determination, I don't know what is.  I've been meaning to snap a picture of them all week (and in better light), but there's 2-4 more inches of snow in the forecast, and I wanted to get them while they were still in their first bold bloom, unwithered by the cruel Colorado spring weather.

It did turn cold when the sun went down - that snow's a-comin'.  My wonderful hubby had a fire burning when I got home:

Ahhh cozy perfection.  And saving on the propane bill.

Before I go, how about some more deer?

This one was from last Thursday when they were chowing down by the propane tank when i got home from work.  They were also about on Saturday afternoon, before Travis got home from his trip.